Forgiveness and grace

1. ForgivenessandGrace – 3rdFebruary 2016
“But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you” (Psalm130:4).
Forgive is a big word. It’s huge, even gigantic. Just seven letters but it’s something that takes
years to learn how to forgive. And it takes grace from God. We see a lot of ugliness in life that
stems from humans unwillingness to forgive. Many people can tell us stories of family feuds.
Often money is at the center. We hear of problems starting between family members who fight
over the estate money after parents die. When we can’t or won’t forgive each other,
relationships are destroyed more and more as time passes. Husbands and wives, who won’t
forgive, find the marriage drifting apart. They might live under the same roof but there is no
love or even communication. God tells his people to forgive one another. He loves us too much
to let us go down the destructive road of unforgiveness…that surely leads to unhappiness.
That’s why he calls us to forgive one another. We can learn : “Bear with each other and forgive
one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave
you”(Colossians 3:13).
When God calls to forgive, for many including some Christians, it seems impossible. They think
that it is for wimps who can’t stand up for themselves. But we must know that unforgiveness
absolutely goes against Gods clear command. Dr. Tom Wright says: Have you ever seriously
tried to forgive someone who has wronged you? Have you ever seriously tried to be
compassionate and be patient with someone who wronged you? Have you ever tried to let
Christ’s peace, Christ’s word, Christ’s name be the reality around which you order your life? If
you have, you’ll know it’s not easy. It takes serious prayer seeking Gods strength and real moral
effort. It requires us to go against a fundamental human trait: revenge at any cost…
It is not easy to forgive someone who has wronged you. For simple wrongs, it might mean
accepting someone’s apology and then moving on. But even that is not easy for many. Our
tendency is vengefulness and that is easier than saying sorry or even accepting it. We start to
second guess people’s motives. We wonder if they are really sincere. Our minds quickly resort
to think, “If she was really sorry when I forgave her last week, she would not have acted
similarly today. She would have tried harder to keep her words in check.” The list goes on. We
are quick in second-guessing the sincerity of others, which gives us a sense of moral superiority.
It becomes all the harder when people hurt us deeply. We have sayings like “Once bitten, twice
shy”—meaning we won’t give people a second chance very quickly if they hurt us once. But
Jesus teaches us differently… We can learn in Matthew 18:21-22, “Then Peter came to Jesus
and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up
to seven times?”22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”
For Christians the Lord’s Prayer is known to us practically from birth.We pray to him and say:
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” In Matthew, sins are called debts, because
they expose us to condemnation at the tribunal of God, and that make us debtors; it alienate us

2. from God. We need to forgive to be forgiven! We must know that to obtain His blessings, we
need his forgiveness and that begins with our forgiveness to others. With deep seated anger
within us, how can we ask His forgiveness for the sins we have committed…. Therefore we can
learn when Paul says in Colossians 3:8, “But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things
as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips”. When forgiveness
becomes a priority, none of these can take precedence in our hearts. When Jesus taught us to
pray: Father “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors’ we are saying: Forgive us just as
we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, to forgive others.
Due to our inherent difficulty, forgiveness requires Grace. Because, it goes beyond human
effort, and therefore we need God’s assistance. Our human tendency is such that we cannot
forgive without God’s strength. Therefore we need to pray for that strength…just as Christ, by
grace forgave us, so we with his grace can forgive others…We have to acknowledge our
difficulty to forgive and seek Gods forgiveness for our weakness in fulfilling His command.“Then
I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my
transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin”(Psalm32:5).
Therefore we can pray to God for his strength: Gracious God in heaven, all we can say is “thank
you!” We thank you for your amazing grace, your amazing love, and your persistent work in
drawing us to yourself, despite our rebellious hearts. We pray that you will keep us humble and
totally in love with you because of your love shown first of all to us. Forgive our stubbornness
and pride and help us to forgive as we have been forgiven by you! We ask this in Jesus’ precious
and powerful name. Amen.