“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matt. 6:14)
FORGIVENESS BOGGLES MY MIND. I really don’t understand it. Human beings have an innate sense of justice. If someone wrongs us, we want to settle the score. Any wrong must be made right or else it feels that there is some sort of cosmic imbalance in the universe. You can see this “justice gene” even in young children. If one toddler hits another, you can expect there will be return fire. One Bible phrase we don’t have to memorize is “an eye for an eye.” We all know this one by heart.
That is why forgiveness is so strange. Jesus made atonement for the sins of every person. All the wrong we’ve done is not done back to us. God does not balance the scales of justice the way humans would. He wipes away the infraction. He dissolves it in the potent blood of His Son. God offers a different way to make the world right again, not vengeance but transforming love.
Forgiveness is very close to God’s heart. It’s core to who He is. And the closer we get to the nature of God, the more we are engaged in mystery. Jesus did not tell us to understand forgiveness; He just asked us to forgive others. In fact, forgiving others is intricately tied to our ability to receive forgiveness.
Tap into God’s mysterious grace by forgiving someone who has wronged you.
Jarod Osborne is the lead pastor of Warsaw Wesleyan Church. He is also the author of Jaded Faith (WPH).
© 2017 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
