CWW Week 11 - Forgiveness - Day 2

Forgiveness

Scripture:

Luke 6:37 (NKJV) reads:

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Here’s a concept to wake up with this morning.

If you, like me, have seen the evil in this world ramped up in the past few years and witnessed the turmoil unleashed on so many by so few, then you may well struggle with todays scripture. I think most of us at Church Without Walls are critical thinkers. Well todays topic is going to test you out as we delve further into forgiveness.

We have spent the last eleven weeks on a practical journey into faith. We have spent hours contemplating the real nature of God and understanding His character. We know Him now, to be a loving and forgiving Father who has promised to forgive us even our darkest sins as long as we confess them to Him and ask for His forgiveness. Remember the Lords Prayer and the line that jumps at us for today? “Forgive us our trespassers as we forgive those who trespass against us.” it goes on to say “and deliver us from evil.”

It’s like forgiveness and the deliverance from evil go hand in hand. Do we need God to forgive us our sins? Is the us just the critical thinkers who do the right thing or all of us no matter what side of the great divide we find ourselves. You can’t have your cake and eat it too is what I am saying here.

So does this mean that people who wilfully commit offences that hurt others should be set free from the consequences of their actions? If a loved one close to you is murdered, does this mean you don’t expect the police to press charges and have the offender jailed? If the answer is yes, then how do you feel when the murderer kills again the next day because there was no consequences for his crime. Anarchy would reign and we are starting to see the cancer of anarchy spread as we all continue to accept what cannot be acceptable in a civilised loving society.

Forgiveness is not exclusive. Jesus died for all sinners not just the critical thinkers.  Forgiveness is not a free pass out of consequences. In truth forgiveness and accountability are strange bed fellows and go hand in hand. If we confess our sins to God then He forgives us but we also have to accept responsibility for our actions with those we have hurt or harmed.

Consequences refine character. Nothing underscores right choices more than consequences for bad ones. No pain no gain.

When we do not hold wrong doers to account we are a stumbling block to the Holy Spirits’ potential to redeem and refine them into those who may decide to take on the very character of Jesus just as we are doing by reading this. Truth is, that when we don’t hold people to account we enable them and others to walk freely in the dark taking many others with them.

If your child steals a chocolate from a store and you find out about that, what would you do? If you ignore it and just say “you mustn’t do that,” are you doing the child any favours? No. You are setting the course for the child to become self entitled and take what ever it wants in his/her adult life. What then happens to their offspring?

When I was skipping school as a young teen, I would hide out in the bush near our house. I hated school and I would rather spend the day in the bush bored out of my mind than attend high school.

All our neighbours lived on bush blocks as we did and they had a cluster of mail boxes at the top of the road near the hideout I had made for myself. I was so board that when the mail was delivered I would go and steal the mail from the letter boxes and read it or look for treasure.

This went on for weeks and soon the neighbours contacted the police. It wasn’t long before I was caught out and had to face the consequences. My Dad attended the police station with me and I was given a lecture. I really felt for my Dad. I had let him down and he was angry, but he pleaded for leniency on my behalf.

The police decided not to press charges but they asked my father to take me to visit all the neighbours and apologise to them. I was humiliated and ashamed. My Dad was also humiliated and ashamed. I write this to you now feeling that same shame and humiliation. But I am writing about it. My character has developed enough to admit my own human failings and be honest. In doing so I am giving others in my life permission to follow my example.

Another of my favourite verses in John 5:16. It says “Therefore confess your sins to God and others you trust and pray for one another so that ALL may be healed.”

As it becomes clearer day by day that atrocities against humanity may have been committed in the past few years, we find ourselves at the cross roads of our journey of faith. In this battle of good v evil it is truth and accountability that defines the line between the dark and the light. We are called to stand in the light of truth and forge a character like Jesus. He will hold all unrepentant evil doers to account one day. But as we await His final judgement we are to set an example to bring as many to the foot of the cross as will come.

They did the crime; they do the time and then we leave the rest to God.

Do you want to do God’s work or God’s job?

As David stood before Goliath he said the following to those assembled. In 1 Samuel 17:47 (NKJV),”Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.”

God is telling us that the battle is His. That’ good enough for me; how about you?

Questions

1. Do you feel like you are exempt from being held to account?
2. Does your lack of forgiveness set the tone for your life, and how is that working for you?
3. Can you find it in your heart to start a journey of forgiveness today by asking Jesus to walk with you on that road?

Prayer

Dear Lord, Papa God.

As I struggle to forgive myself, I also find it impossible to forgive others. Papa I would have you get rid of this perpetual ache in my soul. I seek your will in my life and I am willing to have you chip away at my character defects. I am willing to have you soften my heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. I can only do this in the strength of your Son Jesus in who’s name we pray. Amen.

Graham Hood