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The Power of Forgiveness - Part 4
The Process of Forgiveness Forgiveness
is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the
heel of the one who crushed it.
- Mark Twain Psa
32:1 Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is
forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!
2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD
has cleared of iniquity, whose lives are
lived in complete honesty! 3 When I refused to
confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I
groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand
of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated
like water in the summer heat. 5 Finally, I confessed
all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them.
I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion
to the LORD." And you forgave me! All my guilt
is gone. 6 Therefore, let all the godly confess
their rebellion to you while there is time, that
they may not drown in the flood waters of judgment.
7 For you are my hiding place; you protect me from
trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.
8 The LORD says, "I will guide you along the best
pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch
over you. 9 Do not be like a senseless horse or
mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under
control." 10 Many sorrows come to the wicked, but
unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD. Everyone
needs forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not an occasional act,
it is a permanent attitude. Martin Luther King, Jr.
It's clear
enough isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of
us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else?
Rom 3:23 TM
Everyone can be forgiven
God will forgive me; that is his business.
Psa 86:5 For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in
lovingkindness to all who call upon Thee.
Psa 103:3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. 4 He
saves my life from the grave and loads me with love and mercy. 5 He satisfies
me with good things and makes me young again, like the eagle.
Side
Note on the blasphemy of the Spirit: By attributing
exorcisms affected by the power of the Holy Spirit
(Matt. 12:28) to Satanic power, the Pharisees were
blaspheming (speaking impiously) against the Spirit.
Such a sin would become unforgivable when the conscience
had been so calloused by calling good evil that all
sense of the moral glory of Jesus' mighty works (which
were in a real sense his credentials: Matt. 11:2-6;
John 10:38; 14:11) was destroyed. This hardening of
heart against Jesus would preclude any remorse at any
stage for having thus blasphemed. But nonexistence
of remorse makes repentance impossible, and nonexistence
of repentance makes forgiveness impossible.
Callousing one's conscience by dishonest reasonings so as to
justify denial of God's power in Christ and rejection of his claims upon one
is, then, the formula of the unpardonable sin. Another version of it, this
time in professed Christians who fall away from Christ, is described in Hebrews
6:4-8.Christians who fear that they may have committed the unpardonable sin
show by their very anxiety that they have not done so. Persons who have committed
it are unremorseful and unconcerned; indeed, they are ordinarily unaware of
what they have done and to what fate they have sentenced themselves. Jesus
saw that the Pharisees were getting close to committing this sin, and he spoke
as he did in hope of holding them back from fully lapsing into it.
The
Contra Costa Times Reported
January
1998: Bill Clinton began his day at the National
Prayer Breakfast, a bipartisan, multidenominational
event that draws nearly 4,000 people. "I thank you
for the prayers, the letters, the Scriptural instruction
that I have gotten from so many of you and many others
around this country, in recent weeks and indeed in
the last five years," he said. "And I ask that they
continue." The Rev. Billy Graham,
frail with Parkinson's disease, said after a warm
standing ovation that everyone is a sinner in need
of "repentance and forgiveness."
Three Points of Forgiveness
There are
three terms describing three aspects of sin in these
first two verses:
Blessed
are those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is
put out of sight! 2 Yes, what joy for those whose
record the LORD has cleared of iniquity, whose
lives are lived in complete honesty!
(1)--rebellion; transgression
(2) sin--missing
God's way;
(3) iniquity--distortion,
crookedness.
These three
aspects of sin are met by three corresponding divine
redemptive responses:
(1) forgiven--lifting
a burden away;
(2) put
out of sight --covering offense from sight (Gen.
3:7 21); and
(3) record
the Lord has cleared--released legally from a
debt (cf. Rom. 4:6).
Throughout the Gospels there are cases of healing miracles. There are more
of these miracles than any other type.In at least one incident the healing
was accompanied by an announcement of the forgiveness of the sins of the one
healed (Matt. 9:2; Mark 2:5). This shows that Jesus considered spiritual
problems to be of great consequence.
Healing
and Forgiveness Equated
As we practice
the work of forgiveness we discover more and more
that forgiveness and healing are one.
Agnes Sanford
Indulgences were an attempt to buy forgiveness, the quick fix.
In 1517 at Wittenberg, Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses, challenging
papal indulgences (the sale of the forgiveness of sins) and other ecclesiastical
abuses.
Forgiveness
is not a magical quick fix.
Prov
18:19 It's harder to make amends with an offended
friend than to capture a fortified city.
Forgiveness
is costly
Consider the death of Jesus
1 Cor
15:3 I passed on to you what I received, of which
this was most important: that Christ died for
our sins,
Making
peace requires action: sometimes crossing the street
when the light is red swimming upstream getting bruised
maybe dying.
Jean Janzen
Forgiveness is Risky
Forgiveness
is a required course - Charles R. Swindoll
Forgiveness
is rewarding -it is worth doing It is
in pardoning that we are pardoned. Saint Francis
of Assisi
Forgiveness
is a Process - consider the Old Testament
sacrificial system. The following passage
in Leviticus is where the term "scape goat" orginates.
Notice the lengths God went to in order to show
us forgiveness is a process.
Lev 16:1 The LORD spoke to Moses after the
death of Aaron's two sons, who died when they
burned a different kind of fire than the LORD
had commanded.
2 The LORD said to Moses, "Warn your brother Aaron not to enter the
Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; the penalty
for intrusion is death. For the Ark's cover--the place of atonement--is
there, and I myself am present in the cloud over the atonement cover.
3 "When Aaron enters the sanctuary area, he must follow these instructions
fully. He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for
a whole burnt offering.
4 Then he must wash his entire body and put on his linen tunic and the
undergarments worn next to his body. He must tie the linen sash around
his waist and put the linen turban on his head. These are his sacred garments.
5 The people of Israel must then bring him two male goats for a sin
offering and a ram for a whole burnt offering.
6 "Aaron will present the bull as a sin offering, to make atonement
for himself and his family.
7 Then he must bring the two male goats and present them to the LORD
at the entrance of the Tabernacle.
8 He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be sacrificed
to the LORD and which one will be the scapegoat.
9 The goat chosen to be sacrificed to the LORD will be presented by
Aaron as a sin offering.
10 The goat chosen to be the scapegoat will be presented to the LORD
alive. When it is sent away into the wilderness, it will make atonement
for the people.
11 "Then Aaron will present the young bull as a sin offering for himself
and his family. After he has slaughtered this bull for the sin offering,
12 he will fill an incense burner with burning coals from the altar
that stands before the LORD. Then, after filling both his hands with fragrant
incense, he will carry the burner and incense behind the inner curtain.
13 There in the Lord's presence, he will put the incense on the burning
coals so that a cloud of incense will rise over the Ark's cover--the place
of atonement--that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. If he follows these
instructions, he will not die.
14 Then he must dip his finger into the blood of the bull and sprinkle
it on the front of the atonement cover and then seven times against the
front of the Ark.
15 "Then Aaron must slaughter the goat as a sin offering for the people
and bring its blood behind the inner curtain. There he will sprinkle the
blood on the atonement cover and against the front of the Ark, just as
he did with the bull's blood.
16 In this way, he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place, and
he will do the same for the entire Tabernacle, because of the defiling
sin and rebellion of the Israelites.
17 No one else is allowed inside the Tabernacle while Aaron goes in
to make atonement for the Most Holy Place. No one may enter until he comes
out again after making atonement for himself, his family, and all the Israelites.
18 "Then Aaron will go out to make atonement for the altar that stands
before the LORD by smearing some of the blood from the bull and the goat
on each of the altar's horns.
19 Then he must dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it seven
times over the altar. In this way, he will cleanse it from Israel's defilement
and return it to its former holiness.
20 "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place,
the Tabernacle, and the altar, he must bring the living goat forward.
21 He is to lay both of his hands on the goat's head and confess over
it all the sins and rebellion of the Israelites. In this way, he will lay
the people's sins on the head of the goat; then he will send it out into
the wilderness, led by a man chosen for this task.
22 After the man sets it free in the wilderness, the goat will carry
all the people's sins upon itself into a desolate land.
30 On this day, atonement will be made for you, and you will be cleansed
from all your sins in the Lord's presence.
WOW NOW THAT
IS A PROCESS... GETTING THE PICTURE?
How
do we learn to forgive?
We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice
it. C. S. Lewis
We do not
master forgiveness by taking one giant step from hate
into love.
We move forward little by little.
We begin by taking that all important first step.
I
admit to my self I have been injured.
What happened?
What was the effect? What got broke, ability to trust,
set limits, ability to take responsibility?
I
acknowledge my true feelings.
Mat 27:46
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that
is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"
God has given
us an immune system to fight dangerous infections,
He has also given us a grieving system to help us deal
with the loses and disappointments in life. We must
freely feel our emotions to allow this system to do
its work.
This is challenging
because many of us when we are asked how we feel, we
respond with what we think.
Answering the following questions my help you with this process. What
are your blanks filled with?
I am afraid
of ____________________
I feel guilty
about __________________________
I feel shame
because ______________________________
I felt embarrassed
when _______________________________
I am angry
that ________________________________
I was hurt
by ________________________________
I was disappointed
by ___________________________
I
acknowledge my feelings to someone else.
Grace always
comes to us from the outside. It comes from God and
from grace-giving relationships. If we isolate there
is only one person living in our heart, the person
who hurt us. We do not heal that way.
The Good
news is: If we admit our sins - make a clean breast
of them - he won't let us down; he'll be true to
himself. He'll forgive our sins.
The Message 1 John 1:9
Confession
means that we agree with the truth. The key is moving
out of isolation and toward trustworthy people. It
means we expose our pain to the light of another's
insight and understanding.
I
abandon my need for revenge.
Forgiveness
between humans, is not about good people forgiving
bad people or innocent people forgiving guilty people.
Forgiveness is about sinners forgiving sinners. Vengeance,
balancing the accounts, is not my job -it is God's.
Rom 12:19
NLT Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave
that to God. For it is written, "I will take vengeance;
I will repay those who deserve it," says the Lord.
Psa 103:6
NCVThe LORD does what is right and fair for all who
are wronged by others.
I
accept forgiveness from God for my part in the problem,
if I had a part.
If
God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise
it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher
tribunal than him.
C. S. Lewis
I like these passages:
Psa
103:11 NCV As high as the sky is above the earth,
so great is his love for those who respect him. 12
He has taken our sins away from us as far as the
east is from west. 13 The LORD has mercy on those
who respect him, as a father has mercy on his children.
14 He knows how we were made; he remembers that we
are dust. 15 Human life is like grass; we grow like
a flower in the field. 16 After the wind blows, the
flower is gone, and there is no sign of where it
was. 7 But the Lord's love for those who respect
him continues forever and ever, and his goodness
continues to their grandchildren
God were
not willing to forgive sin, heaven would be empty.
German Proverb
I set some boundaries.
Boundaries
allow me to get close to another person without fear
of invasion, a safety zone. Remember, the goal
of forgiveness is reconciliation. The goal of boundaries
is to develop a safe process whereby forgiveness can
lead to reconciliation.
Even God sets
boundaries. He is a holy God, sinful men and women
can not come into His presence. That is a boundary.
But God did not leave us there. He sent Jesus so we
could be forgiven and be reconciled. We are Godlike
when we set boundaries.
We are also
Godlike, people growing in maturity when we do not
stop there, making boundaries insurmountable walls
between us and others. We are Godlike when we use the
boundaries to develop safe relationships that lead
to reconciliation. God now says to the same sinners
who were beyond the boundary of His presence, "come
boldly before the throne, with confidence."
Heb 4:16NLT
So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious
God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will
find grace to help us when we need it.
I
approach the person with forgiveness.
2 Cor 2:7 Now it is time to forgive him
and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so discouraged
that he won't be able to recover. 8 Now show him
that you still love him.
If
I choose, I approach the person with the possibility
of reconciliation.
Mat 18:15
If another believer sins against you, go privately
and point out the fault. If the other person listens
and confesses it, you have won that person back.
If yes, great.
If not we still choose to forgive.
We are set free, though we will have to grieve the loss of a relationship.
If blood is flowing through your veins - it is a given someone has hurt you. You
have also hurt others.
For our own good and future health and happiness lets resolve
the following.
- Let's learn
how to bond again
- Let's be
active not passive
- Let's move
toward the risk of relationship
- Let's love
again - fight back hatred
- Let's freely
give and freely receive forgiveness
- Let's stretch
beyond our bitterness and fear.
- Lets allow
God to teach us to forgive one another
Recommended Source Material for this Series: The
Power of Love by David and Janet Congo, Moody Press
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