Last week we learned that unilateral forgiveness can and should be offered when situations arise that do not involve sin. For instance, if someone ‘hurts my feelings’ or does something that leaves me feeling slighted – these may reflect bad judgment or carelessness, but there is no sin, and I can just let those things pass. I can forgive independent of the actions of the other person – and I should.
However, if sin has occurred, this changes things completely. In cases where sin is involved we are instructed to forgive just like God forgives: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). It’s hard to imagine how a statement could be any clearer. We are to forgive “just as” God does. Therefore, it is important to observe how He extends forgiveness.
First, He is willing to forgive, and we should be, too. Unfortunately we sometimes act like we want to keep an issue alive. We carry ill will and have a ‘chip on our shoulder’. These things ought not to be. God “desires all men to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:3,4) and is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He is clearly willing to forgive, and we must be, too.
In fact, we could say that God is ‘aggressive’ about forgiving us. He “commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God didn’t have to do that, but He did. Our Lord taught us that we should have that same urgent desire to forgive those who wrong us. “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother” (Matthew 18:15). Don’t wait. Take the initiative. Be like God. Be ‘aggressive’ in making forgiveness available to the one who has sinned against you.
(continued next week)
– by Greg Gwin