Forgiven

Friday, January 23, 2015

 

       It took living in a third world country for me to learn what true forgiveness looks like.  Not because I’d never had anything or anyone to forgive, but because what I’d had to forgive in the past was not difficult.  Not because I am a saint, by any means, but because the affronts were quickly forgotten.  They were not worth dwelling on or ruining a relationship over, and they were not so extreme or awful as to cause lasting hurt to me.

         I love Haiti.  I love the people of Haiti.  I would not live here if that fact was not true.  But I soon learned that calling Haiti the “Land of Contrast” isn’t just describing its outward appearance and situation.  Haiti’s contrasts extend to the attitudes of its people and even to the emotions it elicits in those who are trying to help it. 

         In Haiti I soon learned what it was like to be betrayed by those whom you thought you could really trust.  I learned that someone could hate you just because.  No reason.  At least no logically explainable reason.  I learned how rumors and gossip can cause damage to reputations to a near-irreparable point.  I learned how those in power could use fear to control those under them and claim they were just doing their job.  I learned how fear can hold someone in a grip so tight they simply cannot get loose without help.

          When each of these things and more hit me personally it was one thing, but when they affected those I loved, cared for, and strove to help I nearly buckled under the weight of the unforgiving spirit I began to harbor.  I could not stand seeing my loved ones being treated in such a way.  It was the first time I had ever had to fight against bitterness and hate.  It scared me.  I didn’t know I had such things in myself.  But I also believed that my feelings were justified.  These offenses were against God’s anointed!  Surely such acts were unforgivable from a human standpoint!

            Slowly and painfully I learned my lesson.  God showed me that He was the only One in whom such feelings were justified.  By hating and judging fellow sinners I was taking His job upon myself and uprooting His authority in my life and in the offenders’ lives.  God, faultless, sinless, perfect, is the only truly just Judge.  The sins, the offenses, were not against people.  They were committed against God Himself.

             And yet…God forgives.  God forgave.  Already knowing everything that would be said against Him, every hateful act that would be done against Him and His annointed, every evil deed that would be done in His name to ruin His reputation, He forgave.

             Learning how to forgive gave me a new perspective on God’s forgiveness.  I only had to forgive the offenses that were done against me and my loved ones.  God had the sins of the entire world, and His grace was sufficient.  His mercy was abundant. 

              What is forgiveness, anyway?  Does it mean we forget an offense and never remember it again?  Does it mean we excuse it as if it didn’t even happen?  Those misconceptions were what made it so difficult for me to forgive in the beginning, because I couldn’t forget it and I couldn’t excuse it.  It was not humanly possible.  It wasn’t until I read this description that I was able to put it into words in my mind:

 

“When we forgive a debt or an offense or an injury, we don’t require

a payment for settlement.  That would be the opposite of forgiveness.

If repayment is made to us for what we lost, there is no need

for forgiveness.  We have our due.

Forgiveness assumes grace.  If I am injured by you, grace lets it go.

I don’t sue you.  I forgive you.  Grace gives what someone doesn’t deserve.

That’s why forgiveness has the word give in it.  Forgiveness is not “getting” even. 

It is giving away the right to get even.

Forgiveness costs us nothing.  All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root,

of being forgiven.  That’s why we call it grace.  But it cost Jesus His life.

That is why we call it just.  Oh, how precious is the news that God does not

hold our sins against us!  And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it

right for God to do this.”

(50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die – John Piper)

 

         Forgiveness.  I am forgiven.  Forgiven and free.  Free to forgive.  All glory to Him.