At Abide Ministries, we constantly talk about the critical role of forgiveness in experiencing the abundant life of God. But what is forgiveness? Most of us probably think of forgiveness as pardon. It is letting someone off the hook for something they have done. Others may think forgiveness is the mending of a broken relationship. We find forgiveness when we experience reconciliation with the person who has wronged us. Neither of these definitions gets at the fullness of forgiveness, and so we are going to spend the next three blog posts diving into what it truly means to forgive.
If you are interested in diving even deeper, we also have an entire course devoted to this topic: Life in Forgiveness. You can check it out for yourself on our Courses page!
What is forgiveness?
We live in a fallen world. This seems to be how nearly every one of our posts is started, and for good reason. Not only is this true and entirely self-evident, it is also the cause of all of our problems. If we did not live in a fallen world, experiencing the pain of disasters, wars, broken relationships, and our own selfish choices, we would not need to be discussing how to find freedom in a life with God—we would already be with Him!
In this fallen world, we encounter broken relationships on a daily basis. Why? We are all sinful people who have a natural tendency to hurt and oppose one another. When people come against us and cause us harm, our natural reaction is to get angry and refuse forgiveness. They did truly hurt us, after all, and don’t deserve to be forgiven. This is true. None of us deserve forgiveness for the awful things we have done. Yet God calls us to live in forgiveness with everyone at all times.
Luke 17:3-4
3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.
Jesus is clear both here and in the myriad of other times He discusses forgiveness throughout the gospels. We must forgive our brothers and sisters at every juncture. If you’re honest with yourself, you are probably thinking that this is an impossible request. And you’re right—it is. We cannot forgive those who hurt us and antagonize us on our own—let alone seven times a day! However, we can receive forgiveness as a fruit of abiding. We cannot forgive on our own, but if we allow Christ to work in us, we can come to forgiveness in His power.
Why is it so important for us to forgive?
Romans 8:1-2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The first thing we must recognize is that we, too, are in need of forgiveness. We have also done things to harm our friends, family, and even strangers, and we stand before God as guilty as they are. But God chooses not to condemn us. He forgives us and releases us from our deserved punishment. This is not something we earned, but something we receive as a result of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. He took on our punishment so that we might walk free. Entering into this state of freedom requires that we abide with Him (as we will discuss in a future post), but He offers this forgiveness freely.
If Christ does not condemn us, we certainly do not have the right to condemn others. Furthermore, forgiveness actually brings us into freedom. As we will discuss, forgiveness is much more for us than it is for the person who wronged us. As we can choose whether to enter into the forgiveness of God, others can choose whether or not they will walk in forgiveness with us. This, however, has no bearing on the beautiful effects forgiveness has for us personally and individually. Unforgiveness is a trap which keeps us in a constant spiral of bitterness and condemnation toward those around us. It also keeps us apart from God and, as a result, the abundant life He desires to give us. Forgiveness is the place where, through Christ’s work within us, we can release the bitterness and anger we hold and enter into the freedom of Christ.
This means that forgiveness is actually only between you and God. It is the process of allowing Him to free your heart from the heavy burden of unforgiveness. Forgiveness is His nature, and in order to enter into a beautiful life with Him, we must likewise walk in forgiveness.
We will be discussing forgiveness in further depth over the next two posts, so check back in to learn more! Also, if you have any questions, please to hesitate to contact us. We are here to help you in whatever way we can as you embark on your journey of finding freedom in Christ!
