Forgiveness

Rejecting the Guilt Machine

Christian Spirituality > Forgiveness

What is Forgiveness?

forgiveness [ Old English forgiefan ; akin to give, gift ] to renounce anger, resentment, vengeance, and punishment against someone. The word-field includes pardon, excuse, condone, exonerate, to let go of, to absolve, to remit, propitiation, expiation.

God's forgiveness is the key act in making us right with God. Each of us has actions and attitudes which get in the way of God's purposes and how God has taught us to be. God forgives these , through what is done by Jesus the Christ. Now that we're forgiven, our task is to forgive others. Forgiveness by itself does not make the relationship healthy again. But it does clear away your own resentments, your inner stake in the conflict. Forgiveness of others is done with clear eyes, working to reduce the opportunity to do the wrong again. By forgiving, you sow the seeds for that person's repentance. But your forgiveness itself must not be conditional; Jesus calls you to forgive anyway even if they blow you off. You do your part, because Christ did His; they must deal with theirs.
On what was wrong with the sacrificial system, which was still in use in Jesus' day.

Forgiveness is not just a thought or a fleeting emotion. It is an action; it doesn't happen unless you do or change something. And it is also a decision; you choose to do it. You are led to, sometimes driven to, that action through the power of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness can be personal - you forgive yourself and accept God's forgiveness. And it can be between groups. But for most of us most of the time, the form of forgiveness is interpersonal, one-on-one. Even then, there is a ripple effect which benefits those beyond just the two.

You can also seek in the dictionary. But you'll only find the word 'forgiveness'; you'll have to turn to God for the actual thing itself.

The Creed and the Prayer

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray using what is known to us as 'the Lord's Prayer', forgiveness was very much a part of it:
  "Forgive us our sins,
      as we forgive those who sin against us" (BCP, p.364, right column).

The Apostles' Creed is was intended by the early church as a summary of core Christian teachings. In the Third Article, it says:
"I believe in the Holy Spirit,
  the holy catholic [universal] Church
        the communion of saints,
  the forgiveness of sins,
  the resurrection of the body,
        and the life everlasting."

The Creed is firstly referring to Christ's forgiveness of everyone's sins. But it means more than just that. Christ's forgiveness of our sins has a duty that comes with it: we are to forgive the sins of others. It's a core matter of the Christian faith and Christian theology for us to forgive the sins of others as God did for us. Neither Jesus (in His prayer) nor the Creed are saying "I believe in punishing others until the life is stomped out of them." They don't say, "I believe in holding on to the sins done against me and mine, forever", or "I believe in my right to really stick it to 'em!". The Creed says, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins". The Lord's Prayer says, "Forgive us.... as we forgive..." What Jesus did for me, I do for others. Is this for the sake of decency, or public peace? Good reasons, but not good enough for a Christian. Or, perhaps, in order to use the wisdom of sages? That would be good, except that most non-Christian religious or secular-philosophical systems don't give forgiveness the central role Jesus gave it. No. Christians forgive because we're forgiven by Christ, and Christ told us to do the same to others. It is part of the Christian's definition of themselves. Our forgiving is rooted in our forgiven-ness.

Forgiveness Heals

The sense of being "well" when forgiven comes in the context of the kingdom. In the immediate case, it means wellness in the context of core matters and acts of faith, such as confession and forgiveness, bearing one's cross, and self-giving to others. In forgiveness, the Holy Spirit liberates the imagination, to envision a reconciled relationship, a reconciled life.

The Mind Isn't Switched-Off

Forgiveness does not require amnesia. No amount of forgiveness can make a wrong right or kind or just or God-pleasing. There are still practical consequences that can come from the wrong, responsibilities that must be met, and restrictions that may have to be enforced even after the person is forgiven. Forgiveness does not require a lobotomy; you suffered due to the wrong, and that suffering helped make you who you now are. You will sometimes still feel the hurt. Forgiveness is not the act of a zombie; it takes the use of a brain to figure out how to bring about justice or reconciliation from the situation. Using your mind helps prevent your becoming someone's dupe, or worse, (in 12-step language) an enabler, one whose actions make it so the person(s) can avoid facing up to what they're doing. God was no dupe in forgiving you; you don't have to be a dupe in forgiving others. The Spirit calls on you to do it. The way forward often has many steps, and you may still have to figure out what those are even after you forgive. Forgiveness sucks the Viper's poison out of the past, making the past a part of the living instead of the rotting.

Revenge

Yes, you want the big payback, don't you? But you can't get it all back. Yes, maybe the money or the property. If you work it right, you might even get more esteem from others than you had before. But you can't get back what the killers killed, nor the time spent on it. No amount of vengeance restores a lost relationship. You can collect money for the pain and suffering, but it won't stop you from suffering the pain. So why not leave such things as punishments to God, or to legal authorities, and leave the idea of the big payback behind? Moving ahead with your life will be a lot easier without all that heavy baggage weighing you down.

Jesus Replaces the Temple

In Jesus' day, the thing to do when you were in need of being forgiven by God was to offer a ritually-clean sacrifice at the Temple, through the official priests in Jerusalem. If you didn't have a ritually-clean animal, you could buy on for a hefty price, and pay for it in Temple currency which, if you had other coinage, could be exchanged for such coins, for a steep fee. People were already getting quite restless about this; they saw the lavish life the Temple crowd lived, and saw how some of them (notably Caiaphas, as archaeologists have discovered) loved the Greco-Roman culture of their conquerors. Even more, as Jews spread out all over the region, they were further from Jerusalem, and thus further from being forgiven by sacrifices, but their need for forgiveness was not the slightest bit less important. And there were some who sensed that the Temple could eventually be destroyed if Rome was displeased enough with Jewish rebellions; Jesus believed that too, and saw it as a justified judgement on what the Temple represented.

When Jesus went to the Temple to overturn the money changers' tables, it was not a just a challenge to the Temple cultus, it was a rejection of the whole system. It was a rejection that he had begun to proclaim in Galilee when he not only healed people, but also pronounced them to be forgiven. But who gave him that authority? Jesus was, even then, claiming that the Temple system was no longer the place to become forgiven by God. This was now his job, and it could be done anywhere He was. Once he died and returned, he then gave this authority and duty to his gathered followers, through the apostles. So now, wherever people believe in Jesus, there is forgiveness. Even in Jerusalem, even where the Temple once stood.

Forgiving Quotes

"Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: It is a permanent attitude."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."
-- Lewis B. Smedes

"The goal of forgiveness and the goal of justice is reconciliation, not retribution."
-- Brian Zahnd, *UNconditional?* (Charisma House, 2010) p.122; emphasis is in the original.

Like this page?