What is Forgiveness

We hear of forgiveness and we are told to forgive those who have offended us, but what is forgiveness? Unfortunately it is presented as a mystical healing that happens when you decide you're ready for it to happen; just forgive them.

I’ve personally heard all kinds of arguments as to why someone isn’t capable of forgiving someone, or why they struggle with the issue of unforgiveness.

To make matters worse people, especially preachers, love to quote Matthew 6:14-15.

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

So, those who have been stuck with the issue of unforgiveness find themselves in a rather unfortunate situation. They don’t want to forgive the person or persons, but neither do they want to go hell because God won’t forgive them, because they don’t want to forgive the person. They still don’t know how to forgive, or what forgiveness really is, but they're going to forgive because they want God’s forgiveness.

They’ve now made the decision to forgive said person, they will probably call them, or send them a letter to let them know that they have decided to forgive them...  “whew, glad that’s over”, they say to themselves.

The sad truth is, there is no real forgiveness in the above example.

Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Romans 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

When we discuss the issue of forgiveness we must look to Christ. When we look to Christ we must have the understanding of our sinfulness. If you don’t see your sinfulness you won’t see the beauty of God’s grace, mercy, and the beauty of his forgiveness. Furthermore, what was required to gain that forgiveness.

We can all truly forgive someone when we look at ourselves and see just how sinful we really are, and that while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). You were an enemy of God and Christ died for you, and by His Spirit you were raised from the dead, and all yours sins have been forgiven because of Christ (Colossians 2:13).

Once you realise the reality of your sinful state, and the grievousness of your sin against God, and that he forgave it, then you are that much closer to being able to forgive someone.

However, we still haven’t addressed what forgiveness is, and what it is not.

Forgiveness is not a mystical act, where we decide to just evaporate the offense from our minds. We can't simply wave a wand and make it all go away.

God the Father has forgiven us in Christ. Christ died for our sins, the preacher tells us we are forgiven because Christ died for our sins. But what does that statement really mean? What happened on the “cross” that enables us to be forgiven? Why was this necessary for forgiveness? Why couldn’t God simply forgive us? After all that’s what people tell us to do, right?

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The word propitiation is a very important word, perhaps the most important word to understand forgiveness. So what is propitiation? To propitiate is to make peace with God. Jesus made peace with God the father by absorbing the full weight of his wrath. You and I are completely incapable of making peace with God because until we are in Christ, we are in Adam (Romans 5:12-21).

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the  Lord  to crush him; he has put him to grief;  when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;  the will of the  Lord  shall prosper in his hand.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God made Jesus sin, and he poured out his wrath on him. Jesus didn’t just die on the cross, he absorbed the very wrath of God. He propitiated God. He took every bit of wrath for the sins of all believers, past, present and future.

We are forgiven and reconciled to God because Jesus, who is the head of the Church (all believers), took unto himself the sins of all believers. Jesus because he is covenantally the head of the Church (his bride) took the responsibility to reconcile his bride to the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18).

For us to understand the depths and difficulty of forgiveness, and to walk in true forgiveness we must understand what we have been forgiven. Paul commonly reminded believers of their sinfulness, and that they were forgiven. He would remind the churches to walk in love and forgive one another, because they have been forgiven in Christ; seeing their own sin, and forgiving others of the sins.

We are forgiven because Jesus Absorbed our sin.  Forgiveness is absorbing the offense.

When we forgive someone we are absorbing what said person has done to us. We are saying that we aren’t going to inflict the wrath on them that they deserve (I realize at this point I just opened up a can of worms, and it will have to be addressed in another article). In short this doesn’t mean that you petition the court to free the person who committed a crime against you, or your family. That would not fall under the banner of forgiveness.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Forgiveness is not easy, which is what the Bible reveals. We should never minimize what it takes to forgive someone.  When we forgive someone, we are able to do so because we realize (as Christians) that God has forgiven us of far more egregious sins against him. When we are struggling with forgiving someone, we must remind ourselves of what we have done, and what Christ did to forgive us.

In short we forgive because God has forgiven us, therefore enabling us to forgive us. The reality is, forgiveness is brutal.

2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation