Beginning Forgiveness JourneySample

Forgiveness: Love’s toughest work and love’s biggest risk

Forgiveness is tough, especially when we're hurt by someone close to us or someone we look up to or a person that we admire or respect. When we are close to someone, we will open ourselves up, making us more vulnerable and open to being hurt.

When God created man and placed them in the Garden of Eden, He gave them free will. That's God's gift of love to man, even though He knew that this gift of free will gave man the opportunity to hurt God's heart. For without free will, there would be no sincere love. You cannot have a robot to sincerely love you, right?

And as it happened, man betrayed God, and their evil deeds multiplied.

But how did God respond? In Romans 5:6-8, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

When God created humans, He knew we'd mess up. It's like He had forgiveness on standby before the creation. So, when Adam and Eve took that forbidden fruit and messed things up for all of us, God promised the coming of Christ in the future to redeem human sin. He had a plan in place, for us to be freely forgiven.

Imagine Jesus hanging on that cross, enduring the pain of being nailed, whipped, and pierced. But despite all those pains and humiliations, Jesus demonstrated forgiveness.

“And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:33-34).

The Greek text implies a repetitive action, meaning Jesus continuously pronounced His forgiveness. When He was whipped, He whispered, "Father, forgive them." When they nailed Him, with every nail piercing Him, He prayed again, "Father, forgive them..." And so on.

It's like He was saying, "No matter what, I've got love and forgiveness for you."

This story isn't just about forgiveness; it's about a love so deep it can conquer anything. Jesus had given a real illustration, to imply a greater work, that His death on the cross was to provide forgiveness for all mankind sins from Adam to the future. It's like God is always on the lookout for us, no matter how far we've strayed.

When we sin against God, God continues to seek us. We are like lost sheep and the Shepherd continues to seek us. We are like a prodigal son, but the Father continues to wait for us. We are like the stiff-necked and always rebellious Israelites, but God never stops reaching out His hand.

Forgiveness is love’s toughest work and love’s biggest risk. God exemplifies it to us, for us. And He knows, it's impossible for us to do it with our own strength, therefore He demonstrates it to us and grants the explosive power of the Holy Spirit that floods our hearts with God's love so that our forgiveness can flow out.