Who Needs Forgiveness?Sýnishorn

Read the words of David the Psalmist. Like him, and in common with a vast multitude of other Christians, I believe God has forgiven my sins. Not that I’ve done anything to deserve or merit such an extraordinary favour. 

Rather, it has been entirely due to God the Father graciously and lovingly taking the initiative to do me good through his Son, Jesus Christ. As a result of his action, I have come to know him personally. 

The reality is, it’s impossible for any human being to have a true relationship with the Living God unless he or she is first forgiven by him. That’s why forgiveness is the pivotal teaching of the Christian faith and basic to daily living for all who truly believe in Christ.

I recognise there are those who think ‘sin’ (in the way Christians talk about it) is non-existent, or at least insignificant. A business executive once told me he thought Christians were paranoid about moral failure and so-called ‘guilt’. He said he believed there was ‘good’ in everyone and that all this talk about us being guilty and needing to be ‘forgiven by God’ was utter rubbish.

There are yet others who would say that our failures are all relative and that there is no such thing as true guilt. Nevertheless, all these folk would have to admit that the world is not a happy place and that the human condition with its many fractured and distorted relationships is far from perfect. 

They recognise—as we all must—the dreadful things we do and say to each other, as individuals, as families and as nations. They see the pain and suffering which these actions ultimately bring into the life and consciousness of every man, woman and child. They think this is just how life is. 

They see no need for any explanation as to why we are like we are. Nor (if they be honest) do they have any long-term answers for the dilemmas in which we find ourselves. As to a remedy for our personal traumas, they would say that the psychiatrist or the professional counsellor is the person to see. 

I would be the last to say anything against the immense value and importance of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapy and counselling agencies, but there are insights into what a human being is and what his needs are which cannot be gained purely on the horizontal (the surface) level. They belong to the vertical dimension (God to man). 

The fact is, man’s deepest problems are those concerning his relationship with the Almighty. If, however, we only take a horizontal view of life then we can never deal with the real issues. We have to understand that all of creation has both horizontal and vertical components—there is both the human and the divine.