Forgiveness

I listened to Women's Hour (10-11am on BBC Radio 4) yesterday. It was about God, and womens' relationships with God and so on and so forth. I think (although I haven't checked so don't take my word for it) that you can listen to previous programmes online from their website. So if you would like to listen to it, feel free.

There was some interesting discussion on forgiveness, which I, for the most part, didn't agree with, but it was interesting all the same.

This is my response.

What does it mean to forgive?

To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon.
To renounce anger or resentment against. To absolve from payment of (a debt, for example).

Such is the dictionary definition. But what does it mean to excuse?

To serve as justification for
To free, as from an obligation or duty

So, to forgive means to serve as justification for a fault or an offense. It also means to free, as from an obligation or duty regarding a fault or an offense. Therefore it means that when forgiven, that person is justified in one's heart and mind. Not only that, but they are freed from any obligation or duty related to that fault or offense. Forgiveness is thus not an easy word to define. It is more that just a word given for description. To forgive is a verb. As I was taught in primary school, a 'doing' word. The word necessitates an action. One cannot truthfully say "I forgive you" without actually having forgiven, or forgiving that person in their hearts (and what that means has been outlined above).

What are the limits of forgiveness? The questions of how many times? How repeatedly? For what kind of faults or offenses? These questions will be addressed. Jesus said to forgive your brother seventy times seven times (meaning to go on forgiving them, and forgiving them, and forgiving them, and not stopping there). However much we forgive another person, Jesus has always forgiven us more times, more repeatedly, and more graciously. He is our Lord. When Jesus is Lord, He requires our obedience in being like Him. In the knowledge that He forgives over and over and over again, we must follow in His footsteps. We also know, all from personal experience, that Jesus forgives us even when we repeat a sin. Over and over and over again. Thus it is not only a question of "I have forgiven this sin, and this other one, and yet another one", but also "I forgive this sin now, and again, and again, and this other one now, and again, and again, and yet another one - now, again, again". Are there sins that we cannot forgive? The only one mentioned in the Bible is in Matthew 12v31-32, Mark 3v29 and Luke 12v10. That is God's business. As regards faults against us, wrongs against us, it is not an optional extra to forgive someone. It is a command. The Word does not say forgive up until grievous bodily harm but no further. We are called to forgive, commanded to forgive. He forgave us even though our sin nailed Him to the Cross. Sometimes, I believe, we are powerless to forgive. But because Jesus is Lord, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, by His power, and His strength, we can forgive: we can be free.

So I meet another contention. What do I mean free? What is the connection between forgiveness and freedom? (Confession - I looked at a Greek dictionary thing and the words appeared to stem from the same thing but lack of logic meant I couldn't get my head around exactly how it worked, and how to get the root word. Under the words for Liberation, however, came a word also meaning Forgiveness.) Before forgiveness, there is a sense that one has been wronged. Depending on the wrong, one may feel different levels of bitterness. This is not, in my opinion (which clashes with that of the lady on the programme) a positive feeling in particular circumstances. In fact, it is never a positive feeling. Bitterness can feed other emotions in negative ways (i.e. anger, sadness, hurt). Bitterness destroys. Jesus doesn't want us to keep a hold of bitterness. It really is that simple (not use of language: simple, not necessarily easy). In forgiveness, bitterness is let go of, and Jesus deals with it. Forgiveness will not only free the wrongdoer from obligation or duty (which, by the way, if they have sought forgiveness of God and of you, whether you forgive them or not, God has done, so they are free anyway) but will also free you of bitterness, because you let go of it.

1 Peter 3v9 says 'Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult.' Vengeance does not belong to us. But it does not stop there. It goes on to say to repay these things with blessings. To do that genuinely, one must have forgiven.

Forgiveness is at the core of what God has done for us. How one can say that they cannot forgive, it would be wrong to forgive in this sense, I do not know. It may not be the easy choice short term, but it frees us from the destruction wrought by bitterness.

A long blog entry I know, but I could not sit idly by and write about something else when many heard that Radio programme. I disagree with what was said. The only thing I agreed with was that the contributor seemed to understand, on the surface at least, what forgiveness meant per se. What forgiveness means from a Biblical viewpoint, I do not think was understood. That is what I have attempted to convey here.