Understanding The Bible |
The Freedom of Forgiveness
Edited notes from: Augsburger, David, “The Freedom of Forgiveness (Seventy
Times Seven),” The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1970
I.
Forgiveness is COSTLY (outrageously costly)
The question to be asked: "Why Should I Forgive?"
Matthew
Verses for "The Kingdom," but reveal the essential nature
of God where forgiveness is concerned. "An unforgiving heart is
unforgivable," says Jesus. The man or woman who refuses to forgive cuts
themselves off from the forgiveness and mercy of God.
A. Repayment is impossible
So few sins can be paid for - and seldom does the victim possess the power or the advantage to demand payment. Repayment is too often IMPOSSIBLE.
B. Revenge is impotent
Pay back in kind - get even - but, to get even, is to make yourself even with your enemy. You drag yourself down to their level, or below. Revenge boomerangs. "The man or woman who seeks revenge is like a man who shoots himself in order to hurt their enemy with the gun's recoil." "Revenge is the most worthless weapon in the world. It ruins the avenger while more firmly confirming the enemy in his wrong. It initiates an endless flight down the bottomless stairway of reprisals and ruthless retaliation."
C. Hate is impractical
You can nurse a grudge until it becomes full grown hate: horns, hooves, tail and all. But what do you gain? In hatred everybody looses!
It will cost you your:
Friends, customers, patients, clients, husband, wife, children, your disposition, increased blood pressure, nervous breakdown, coronary, ...
Hate is only Slow Suicide.
D. Peaceful co-existence can't be afforded
Don't hate and Don't love?
Live and Let live?
You can't afford the luxury of an unforgiving heart.
Only if you have no need for forgiveness yourself do you dare hesitate to forgive another.
We all need constant forgiveness, don't we? The forgiveness of our fellow man and the forgiveness of God. These two go hand in hand. The man who refuses forgiveness to his brother cuts himself off from the forgiveness of others. What is your relationship to God -- Forgive and be forgiven? The same is true of Love. "The man who loves God must also love his neighbor." The love of God and the love of man are interlocking and indivisible. Forgiveness may seem impossible -- if you have become alien to God's love and forgiveness. God's forgiveness gives a man the freedom to love and live creatively, because he is a new creation.Basis of Forgiveness by the Christian: What Jesus Christ has accomplished upon the Cross and through Resurrection. Incorporated in this accomplishment is the staggering difference between the debt I owed God and the Price Jesus paid in my behalf. The contrast to our debt to God compared with others we may owe: Immeasurable! Nothing men can do to us can in any way compare with what we have done to God.
IF GOD HAS FORGIVEN US ... CAN WE DO LESS ?
II.
Forgiveness is RARE (extremely rare)
The question to be asked: "How Much Should I Forgive?"
There is no forgiveness in the cheap little game of looking the other way.
It is not pretending evil is not evil, hurt is not hurt. Nor is it just
forgetting. You forget when you truly forgive, but not the other way
around -- that's like trying to pass the final exam as an entrance requirement
to a course. You can try, but its like an insomniac trying to quiet the
racing mind, they only make it race the more. The one who struggles to
forget, sears their mind with the memories of hurt. "Oh, its nothing," how
basically dishonest.
Forgiveness involves TOTAL, COMPLETE, forgiveness. It must be part of one's character.
Things that
Forgiveness is NOT:
1. Looking The Other
Way
2. Trying to Forget
3. Saying, "Oh, It Was Nothing."
Real forgiveness is the willingness to
suffer and accept undeserved suffering; suffering that rightly belongs to the
one who wronged you. Forgiveness for the Christian must be
absolute, Again based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. The evil
presented in the original act against you, and the resulting hurt are real.
The act of forgiveness must first begin with the realization that the offence
was real and that the Forgiving Power of Christ is Absolute.
III.
Forgiveness is HARD (sometimes very hard)
The question to be asked: "Am I Willing To Forgive?"
Forgiveness denies the self that denies its rights. It repudiates open
revenge. It refuses those little schemes to "get back." Instead it
chooses to hurt and suffer, the hardest choice in the universe, to accept
undeserved suffering. Suffering that could have been avoided, suffering
that rightfully belongs to the one who's wronged you.
Are you
willing to:
1. Suffer
Undeservedly?
2. Accept Undeserved Suffering (suffering that rightly
belongs to the one who wronged you)?
IV. Forgiveness is
COSTLY (Absolutely Costly)
Are you ready to PAY THE PRICE.
The one who chooses to FORGIVE, pays a tremendous price -- The Price Of The Evil
That Is Forgiven!
(If I break a priceless heirloom which you treasure, and
you forgive me, you bear the loss and I go free!) (If I ruin you
reputation and you forgive me, you fully accept the consequences of my actions
and I go free!)
1.
You bear YOUR OWN ANGER at the sin of another.
2. You bear YOUR OWN WRATH at the sin of another.
3. You VOLUNTARILY ACCEPT THE RESPONSIBILITY for the HURT
SOMEONE ELSE HAS INFLICTED upon you.
V. Forgiveness is
SUBSTITUTIONAL (an example of the Work of Jesus Christ upon the Cross, for you)
The question to be asked: "Who Really Bears The Cost Of Forgiveness ?"
"All forgiveness, human and divine, is in
its very nature substitutional.."
1.
No one has ever forgiven another except he/she bears the penalty of the other's
sin against him/her.
2. Jesus Christ Perfectly expresses Substitutional
Forgiveness. Jesus Christ substituted Himself for us, bearing His own
wrath, His own indignation at our sin. That's what forgiveness costs.
The cross shows us how hard it is to forgive. God paid the immeasurable cost of
your forgiveness. How can you hesitate to pay the infinitely smaller cost
of forgiving your brother or sister, or your enemy.
3. What must I forgive:
The trivial
The petty
The small
The
thoughtless
The cruel
The immense
The evil
The price of forgiving is high. There are no cheap
reductions, no bargain pardons.
The cost:
Colossians 3:13
"Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."
Ephesians
4:32
"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
You must forgive as Christ forgave you. You must bear the cost of forgiving, just as God did for you. "God paid the immeasurable cost of your forgiveness ... how can you hesitate to pay the infinitely smaller cost of forgiving your brother, or your enemy?
What must I
forgive?
The small, the trivial, the thoughtless mistakes ...
Everything, there are no exemptions.