Sunday, September 8, 2013

Forgiveness

Forgiveness... What is it? How to? When? A number of folks have asked for an explanation of this concept over the past few monthly meetings. Wow, what a deep question. Understanding forgiveness will add peace, strength and patience to a believer's walk on this earth.

Before a person can ask for forgiveness, he has to do something wrong. Before one can forgive someone, one must have had something wrong done to them. In the Bible, chapter 2 of Genesis, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, a place of paradise, in order to tend it and keep it. God gave Adam one rule. They were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we all know, Adam and Eve broke that rule and did eat of the fruit. When God looked for them in the garden, they hid from Him. God called for them and asked why they were hiding from Him, had they done something wrong? "Have you eaten of the tree, that I commanded you not to eat?" Adam's response is so human, "The woman you gave me, gave the fruit to me and I ate... so it's her fault." Eve's response is just as human as Adam's, "The serpent, who was really the devil, fooled me and I ate." Why does mankind always seem to try and put the blame elsewhere? Mankind wronged God by breaking His only rule. I do not know of anywhere in the Bible where Adam and Eve ever asked God to forgive them. So, sin nature entered the world and entered mankind. Man's nature is to be rebellious and break rules.

 Some may wonder that not eating fruit from a certain tree doesn't sound like a big deal, why such a harsh penalty? I don't know that anyone can answer that question. It was God's garden. We don't get to make or question the rules. Just as when I visit you in your home, there may be rules I don't understand, but the loving thing for me to do is to obey them. If I don't, I have created a division between us and it is my responsibility to make things right. The bottom line is that man wronged God and it was his responsibility to put it right..... But he couldn't. We just are not able to do the right thing all the time in every situation.

Having been wronged, did God "hold a grudge"? No! Before He even told Adam and Eve the consequences of their having wronged Him ( being thrown out of Paradise and having to work hard for their food from then on) He told His plan to redeem them as He said to the devil, "... and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." God's prophecy is that there will always be trouble, problems between those people who are by nature rebellious (people with the nature of mankind, or basically all of us) and the "seed of the woman". The devil's seed will bruise his heel, but the seed of the woman shall bruise the devil's head. Wait a minute! I thought that the male gender carried the seed and that the woman carried the egg! That's correct! And that shows us why, a few thousand years later, when a young woman named Mary, who had never "been with a man" became pregnant with the only begotten son of God, it was such a big deal! This was God fulfilling His promise to mankind that He would bring mankind back to Himself. God created seed inside this young woman and Jesus the Christ was born, because she obeyed God completely. Jesus loved mankind, even those rebellious ones who always troubled him and caused him problems. He continued to obey God, even to letting people murder him by crucifying him on a cross. Jesus did God's will completely, always forgiving those who wronged him... even those who nailed him to the cross. That is why Jesus spoke the truth when he said, "... I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me."

God forgave us because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for mankind. God gave man a path back to Himself. Surely we have all been truly forgiven by someone for something at some point in our life. Remember how light our heart felt when we received it? Remember how we swore to ourselves that we would change and not wrong them again? Remember how healthy our relationship with that person was at that moment?  Jesus Christ took this sin that Adam and Eve had committed, which allowed sin nature and rebelliousness to become such a big part of our nature, and paid the price that allowed God to open His arms to us and welcome us back into His presence. Jesus Christ paid the price required. Men had tried for thousands of years to earn God's forgiveness and couldn't. Instead of throwing mankind away, God sent His son Jesus Christ to pay the price so that we could be forgiven. God forgave us.

Now that we know this, how can we not forgive others who want to be forgiven? Now that we know that man's basic nature is to make mistakes, break rules and step on toes, we know to expect strangers, friends and family to wrong and disappoint us. Sometimes they do it by accident and sometimes on purpose. If I am honest, I can look back and see the times I've disappointed and done wrong to others. Actually there are too many to count. And since God was gracious enough  to forgive me, how can I not offer forgiveness to others who have wronged me? If someone does not want to forgive me for something I've done wrong to them, even if I've asked for their forgiveness, why can't I even forgive them for their lack of forgiveness? To forgive or not is simply a mental decision each one of us makes. If I remember all the wrongs I've done to God, yet He forgave me, it seems much easier to me to be gracious enough to forgive others. After I've forgiven them, I might be somewhat on guard until I feel I could trust them, but I train my thoughts
 until I'm sure that my thinking and actions are truly loving, not faked. I'm only responsible to God to try to live my life according to His wishes; I'm not responsible for how they live their life. I can now go on with my life with a clean and clear heart.

I urge each of us to try forgiving others. It's the way God designed to help relationships stay loving. I know we've only scratched the surface of this deep and vastly important topic. If you want discuss this more, please come to our Bible study after the meal following Baskets of Life. May God bless you and yours this day and forevermore.

Jeff & Christine