Freedom through Forgiveness Part 3

I wish Jesus would have been more careful with some of His words.  The irony is, I think He knew exactly what He was doing.  Sometimes His language makes us wrestle with our picture of God. Listen to this.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:14-15

Makes God seem kind of small and snippy doesn’t it?  “If you don’t I’m not going to either!”

If we do not expand our understanding, our perspective will bring God down to our level, making Him seem small minded and argumentative.  Not only will this be deceiving, it is very bad for our experience.

Here are two things we must understand to maintain an accurate picture of God in the face of this, and several other verses.

First, forgiveness is an act of God which we enter into when we choose to forgive.  You will see as these posts continue, forgiveness was accomplished by God, through Jesus on the cross.  We access the power of His act, when we use our will to forgive.

Second, Forgiveness came at a great price. We lose sight of this reality when we choose to not forgive.  The parable in Matthew 18 where the servant chooses not to forgive a little after being forgiven a great deal illustrates this.  Jesus even states that God will turn us over for torment when we don’t forgive.

God designed reality in such a way that when we choose not to allow His nature to work in us, it will be difficult, even painful for us.   This is not punishment, this is assistance.

Tomorrow we will begin to describe the healing choice of forgiveness.