Forgiveness Is a RequirementSample

The Nature of Forgiveness   

What does forgiveness really look like? 

Before anything comes out of your mouth, it must first happen in your heart. Jesus didn’t have a personal conversation with each person who crucified Him, but He did declare to God the condition of His heart (see Luke 23:34). He decided in His heart to forgive.

Decisions to forgive the real Jesus way have to do with understanding what forgiveness is and what it is not. The word “forgiveness” means “to pardon; to remit, as an offense or debt; to overlook an offense, and treat the offender as not guilty” (Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language). In a court of law, the primary consideration is whether a law has been violated. If so, a penalty is due. Feelings don’t determine the outcome in court; the law does. Forgiveness too is a legal transaction, not an emotional one. A debt is owed, but forgiveness is choosing to release the debt owed to you. 

That’s what forgiveness looks like. It’s a decision, choosing to let go of an obligation someone else owes you. Although the decision comes from the heart, it is not based on feelings. It is an act of your will.

In fact, this is exactly how God forgave you. He decided to forgive you based on the merits of Jesus’s blood on the cross. He decided to write at the bottom of your list of offenses, “Paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ.” Check out this passage, which describes it perfectly: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:13-14, NASB, emphasis added).

Did you know that we had a certificate of debt on file in heaven before Jesus died? Why do you think Jesus had nails driven through His hands and feet? Symbolically, His body became the list of our sins, the record of our debt. The debt was owed to God, and in one defining moment at the cross, He canceled it out forever when He was nailed to the cross. If God did this for us, we must do the same for the people we hold locked away in unforgiveness.