THE POWER TO FORGIVE

 “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,” (Luke 17:3, ESV)

“… forgive, and you will be forgiven;” (Luke 6:37, ESV)

Forgiveness is one of those things that concern every human being. Not only do we all stand in need of it from God, but in our relationship with one another, we also are either giving forgiveness or receiving it.

In a nutshell, the thrust of what I am about to share with you is this: “You have the power to forgive”. As a citizen of the Kingdom of God, you have been commanded to forgive. And in order that you are able to do this, the King has given you the grace to comprehensively obey His command.

I want our attention to briefly zoom in on “the Power to Forgive” as distinct from, albeit not unconnected to, “the Power of forgiveness”. While the later stresses the benefits to be enjoyed, the former emphasises our spiritual duty to obey.

“Forgive, and you will be forgiven” is a mandate from God. But He has not left the performance of it to our feelings and temperament, but has given us grace to do it by faith. This portion of Scripture also teaches something else that is implied in the command to forgive, namely, your decision to forgive is also a decision to receive forgiveness. (See also Matthew 6:12; 18:28-35).

Interpersonal relationship come under heavy strain and we surfer emotionally when other offend us. And if we fail to exercise the power to forgive, then things deteriorate and sometimes leading us down some very dangerous and dark paths of revenge, retaliation, and destructive bitterness. However, when exercise our God-given ability to forgive by heeding the word of God, we take control of the process of restoring proper friendly relations.

Forgiveness is an overt and conscious behaviour originating from the offended party and directed toward the offender with the definite intention of removing hostility and restoring amicability. It does not mean that one suddenly develops amnesia and forgets what happened but it means that the effect such memory has on our attitude changes for the better, the focus of our mental and emotional energy is redirected.

True Christianity is impossible without forgiveness. We receive it from God who grants it to us in order to make us members of, and restore us to, His family; and we are in turn called to forgive one another so that we may remove hostility from the midst of  family members. Exercising the power to forgive is an act kindness, a gift of love. The Bible reminds us that it was God’s kindness that led us to repentance (Romans 2:4). We offend God by our sin, yet through forgiveness He took the first step to reconcile us back to Himself and to restore peace in our relationship with Him.

You have the power to forgive. Believe God, obey His word and be who He says you are. Romans 13:8 exhorts that we “owe no one anything except to love one another”. And I must remind us that forgiveness is an expression of that love and a fulfilment of it. The spirit of love has the power to forgive.

Failing to exercise the power to forgive would be to equivalent to receiving the grace of God in vain. It amounts to holding back the power of restoration and reconciliation which God intends to channel through us so that damaged relationships can be repaired and peace restored. The only one who wins and rejoices when we withhold forgiveness is the devil, the believer's adversary.

When we fail to exercise the power to forgive, we unwittingly concede power to “the offence” to continue to hurt us and direct our lives, and we dishonour God by ignoring His grace as we give in to a vengeful heart.

In his book “Mere Christianity” C. S. Lewis observed that, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have to forgive…” (p.115). Behind the need to forgive there is often disappointment, anger, or feelings of hurt which are sometimes quite deep-seated. These emotions, and possibly a desire to see the other person feel as bad as we are, do sometime make forgiveness an extremely difficult concept to accept and express. And we find ourselves resisting God in such matters. Yet the power to heal the hurt we experience and bring restoration does not come from withholding forgiveness, but actually in giving it. Exercising the power to forgive is not only an act of kindness and love, it is also an act of faith - absolute trust in God.

We experience that healing when we release our hurt to God (casting all our cares upon Him), and receive His comfort and strength, as we resolve in our heart before Him who forgives us, to also forgive those who offend us as an act of obedience.

What this leads up to is that if and when we encounter those who have caused offence, as hard as that is to the “flesh”, albeit not to the spirit, we do not respond to them with bitterness. Furthermore, if and when they repent and ask our forgiveness, with a ready heart we willingly give it because the love of God which fills our heart constrains us from acting any other way. We imitate Christ and our heavenly Father! We freely give forgiveness because we have received the grace to forgive!

May the Lord open your eyes to understand the awesome responsibility that is upon you as a partaker of His grace which you have received in Christ Jesus, so that you can daily do all the difficult things you are called to do, not by your power or might but by the enablement of the Spirit of God. 

“Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” May God bless your faithful walk with Him!