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The Heart of Forgiveness

Dear BPCWA worshipper, We thank God again for another year wherein we can remember the death and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ over Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday, we remembered the agony that God, our Creator, suffered for the payment of man’s sins. As Christ hung on the cross in the middle of the crowd of crude and mocking soldiers, “said Jesus, Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). God then continues by recording for us that these soldiers “parted his raiment, and cast lots”, with no regard to the gracious words uttered. The reason we can celebrate the resurrection of Christ is that we have received His forgiveness for our sins. What does God’s forgiveness mean to you? Let us take some time to meditate a little on the topic of forgiveness.

The injustice suffered. Christ had been sent by the Father as the promised Seed (Gen 3:15) that would offer salvation to mankind after the fall. For 33 years, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, walked on earth among man. Perfectly holy and sinless, Christ did no evil, performing miracles to affirm that He was indeed the promised Messiah. The Jewish leaders of those days were jealous of His following and were offended by Christ’s omniscient rebuke of their hypocritical hearts. But “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jhn 3:19), and He was betrayed into the hands of the Jewish leaders who took Him to the Roman government and demanded His crucifixion based on false accusations against Him. Being God, a simple word from Christ could bring “more than twelve legions of angels” (Mt 26:53) to wipe out those who sought to humiliate Him and put Him to a demeaning death. But He did not send for them. This was despite being unjustly accused, sentenced to the form of the death penalty given to the worst criminals, mocked and humiliated by the soldiers, onlookers, and even those crucified by His side. And even when our beloved Saviour was whipped, stripped and shamed, tortured beyond words, with a plaited crown of thorns pressed into His head, He remained as a meek lamb to the slaughter for our sakes. While some movies have tried to portray Christ’s suffering, none will ever do justice to the agony He suffered. The Roman soldiers that crucified Him were base men, brutal, and violent. To closest parallel today is the war that we are witnessing now. News photographs and videos showing the atrocities committed come with a warning of the graphic and disturbing scenes. Even as we read of what was done to civilians, it makes our blood boil with disgust and abhorrence against the perpetrators of cruel violence. We can empathise with that injustice. We loathe the heinous crimes which were committed by the soldiers. These scenes that we see were committed against fellow human beings, by those who felt that they were in a position of “authority” which enabled them to inflict pain and suffering upon those “below” them. But the injustice that we commemorate on Good Friday was done by the creature to the Creator God, Jesus Christ. Men, whose very life, breath, and existence at that very moment were in the Hand of Jesus Christ whom they were torturing. They falsely accused the Almighty God and treated the Supreme and Infinite God with the lowest of indignity. It was a conscious rejection and rebellion of the highest order that certainly deserved no forgiveness, right?

The forgiveness offered. How would we have felt in such a situation? Many of us have responded with anger, vengeance, and hatred for more trivial injustice that we have experienced at the hands of a fellow human being. And if the one who caused us harm was someone our “junior” or of a “lower” position or importance, that anger would have increased manifold. We would not forgive. This is when we must turn our eyes upon our Saviour.  Although Christ “was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth” (Isa 53:7). This does not mean that we cannot seek justice nor resist those who try to harm us. But what I want to direct our attention to is Christ’s forgiving heart. With injustice, taunting, and harm coming in torrents upon Him, even while He was suffering the very agonies of an excruciatingly painful death, the omnipotent God uttered words to offer mercy and forgiveness to His enemies. The thought of this should not just amaze us – it should drive us to Him to receive this forgiveness if we have not done so. Dear reader, though you were not there that Good Friday, yet you were represented there by those who crucified Him and rejected Him as Saviour. God has every right to judge in His wrath for that which we have committed against Him. But Christ today offers you that gift of salvation, though you were against Him. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord”? (Heb 2:3). Repent of your sins, cry to Jesus Christ, and ask Him to save you today.

The recipients of forgiveness. We can celebrate this Easter because of the forgiveness we have received. Though we did God great harm, He offered us His forgiveness. We have tasted of His immense and unspeakable mercy upon us. Unbelievers around us may think, “we’re not so bad, we’re not sinners”. But if you’re truly saved, you will realise and acknowledge the wickedness and sinfulness that resided in your soul.  Yet, Christ forgave you of your sins – sins which were an offence against Him. And daily, you continue to sin against Him and have to come to Him in your private prayers, repeatedly confessing your sins and seeking His forgiveness.

The response of the forgiven. So, dear brethren, I ask you today as you celebrate Easter, what is in your heart? Can we truly say that we want a heart like Christ’s if we refuse to forgive our brother for lesser trespasses than we have trespassed against Christ? Do you have a forgiving heart? Do you harbour bitterness, anger, grudges, especially at a brother in Christ, for real or perceived personal offences or injustices? If so, how it must grieve God if He sees that in His children in church, after the undeserved forgiveness He has shown to you in your personal life and in salvation. I am not saying that there are no consequences for sin and crimes committed against another. But it is the spirit of unforgiveness if we harbour ill-will and vengeance against another. Does He see animosity, hatred, or anger in your heart at another who had crossed your way? You have received forgiveness, graciously given. Now God expects the same of His children. “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col 3:13). God knows and sees the unforgiveness we keep in our hearts, and He leaves us many reminders to forgive others in the Bible. You cannot pray with the spirit of unforgiveness in your heart. “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any” (Mr 11:25). We cannot even come before God to ask for forgiveness of our sins, if we will not forgive another. “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt 6:15). Forgiveness is about putting off that old man with that unrighteous anger, hatred, vengeance, grudge, and bitterness. It is possible as a Christian, through the power of the Holy Spirit, because you have experienced Christ’s love. There is no sin that you are bound and enslaved to, except those that you wish to continue to keep in your bosom and nurse. In the newness and the power of the resurrected life that your resurrected Christ has purchased for you to glorify Him with, rid yourself of this self-destructive spirit of unforgiveness – today.

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph 4:32).

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor