At sunset yesterday the
Jewish holiday Yom Kippur began; for Jews it is the holiest day of the year. In
a nut shell this Holy time, from Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to Yom
Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Jews are to meditate on the subjects of atonement,
the covering over of sin, the reconciliation between God and man,[1] and repentance, change in
the hearts of men from sin and toward God.[2]
They are to seek forgiveness from those they have wronged, both people and God.
Confessing, repenting and seeking forgiveness is no easy task. But the other side of that two-edged sword is that of granting forgiveness. That can be one of the most difficult commandments to obey. The abusive
parent or spouse, the unfaithful spouse, the negligent friend, the thoughtless
joke at our expense, the betrayal of a pastor, the rude clerk at the checkout,
the hostile neighbor, the reckless driver almost causing an accident, even the
criminal who violates us is some heinous way: and we are commanded to forgive
them all?!
Jesus commanded repeatedly
that we are to forgive others and are to seek forgiveness from others. His
example is one of the ultimate forgiveness: forgiving when falsely condemned. I don’t pretend to have this down pat and I
think the Apostle Paul knew how difficult forgiveness can be when he instructed
the Ephesians to forgive as Christ forgave.
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as
God in Christ also has forgiven you.”[3] So if we want to be right with God, we must
forgive. But there are times when hurt and bitterness and blame are a bog from
which we can’t seem to emerge. Even when victory is won and we place that hurt
at the throne of grace and extend that forgiveness, we sometimes find that a
few hours or days later, we are flat on our faces, once again in that quagmire
of bitterness.
When the wrong doer comes,
repentant (willing to change) and humbly confessing their actions, it’s a WHOLE
lot easier to forgive. However when the
wrong doer doesn’t even recognize their actions as wrong much less seek our
forgiveness, that is when the battle to forgive is the most difficult. But
there is hope!
Surprisingly, the very word forgiving,
which we are commanded to obey, is where we find this hope.
When you dig a little into
the Greek grammar of the word forgiving, two empowering principles emerge:
1. 1. WE ALWAYS GET
ANOTHER CHANCE, EVEN WHEN WE FAIL!!! In this passage, forgiving is in the
present tense. In other words you could add the words “Keep on” to
forgiving. That means it’s a continuous
action. It not only covers the next action done against us, like getting
cut off in traffic but it also covers the deep seeded hurt that keep bitterness
bubbling to the surface warping our hearts.
Keep on forgiving! (Phil. 3:13) When I find myself once again, angry in my heart
towards someone who’s wronged me, I must confess that bitterness and anger and
forgive A G A I N!
(I John 1:9) Sometimes forgiveness is instantaneously while other times
it is a process, a daily choice to forgive. And we may find we have to make
that choice over and over again.
2. 2. WE’RE NOT IN THIS BATTLE ALONE!!!! The second source of
hope found is in the “voice” of this verb. It is a Divine passive verb. What that means is the subject (the Christian)
is being affected by our own actions (choices) as well as the subject is being
acted upon by an outside force (the power of the Holy Spirit). So yes, we must in obedience CHOOSE to forgive
while simultaneously the Holy Spirit gives us the power to do just that. We’re not doing this in our own strength. God can and will give us a supernatural
ability to forgive when we choose to forgive and seek His help in doing so. (Heb. 4:16)
So take heart, precious child of God. The things God commands us to do are
impossible in our own strength. But with
humility and dependence we can be victorious!
[1]
Merrill Frederick Unger, R. K. Harrison, Howard Frederic Vos, et al., The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1988).
[2] E.
McChesney and Merrill F. Unger, “Repentance,” ed. R.K. Harrison, The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1988).
[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update
(LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Eph 4:32.
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