“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors….”
I am returning to one of my favorite themes for this post – forgiveness. Forgiveness is a precious word. Until a person has received forgiveness, he or she, will not know how precious it is. The fact that we have been forgiven by God is more than we can understand. The fact that we should forgive each other is sometimes more than we want to understand. The Bible tells us of both God’s forgiveness and our need to forgive each other. Being forgiven by God and forgiving each other are of ultimate importance. God’s forgiveness is important because it is our means of being made right with God. The first words of Jesus from the cross were, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” This reveals the very heart and nature of God. Although we don’t understand why, God longs to forgive us. He longs to rid us of guilt and shame, and it is ours for the asking. He longed for it so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross in order for us to be forgiven. This cannot be emphasized enough and we need to be reminded of it often – which is what I am doing. God knew that we could not be made right with Him in any other way. This is not something that I can explain, because it is beyond human understanding. But that is the way that it is. Unbelievers, particularly hardened atheists, scoff at this concept, but that is their problem. It is not that we deserve God’s forgiveness. We are forgiven because God is the God of grace, love, and mercy. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22-23: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. 23. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.” God’s forgiveness is important because it enables us to deal with sin in our lives. 1 John 1:9 tells us that when we confess our sins, Jesus is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” We do not have to be defeated by sin, because God will forgive us through Christ. There are some people who do not seek forgiveness because they think that their sins are so grievous that they cannot be forgiven. There is no sin, outside of unrepented of unbelief, that cannot be forgiven. If we could not be forgiven for our sins, we would always be controlled by sin. We would literally drown in guilt and shame. But through the blood of Jesus we can be forgiven for our sins and cleansed from them. Sin need not win the day, because God is a forgiving God. Our forgiving each other is important because without it we cannot be forgiven. I don't know what the eternal implication for this is -probably loss of reward - but I do know that we can't live victorious Christian lives if we do not forgive others. In His model prayer, Jesus said that we are to ask for our debts (sins) to be forgiven as we forgive our debtors – those who have sinned against us. In Matthew 5:14-15 Jesus added: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:32: “And be ye kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. No one could ever sin against us as much as we sinned against Christ before He forgave us. Thank God today that He has forgiven your sins. Remember that Christ forgave you because He loves you. We should also ask Jesus to help us forgive all of those that we need to forgive. We will never know the joy of Christ until we do. It is not always easy to do, but it is always important to do it. If you want victory today seek God’s forgiveness for your sins, and forgive all of those that you need to forgive. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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