“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner.” Max Lucado.
When we forgive, we release hold of the resentment, bitterness and desire for vengeance that may have consumed us, and discover, to our surprise, that we are the one who is set free. We all want to be forgiven, but far too many of us refuse to forgive others. When we hold those hostile feelings bottled up inside us, we can be like the person who drinks poison and then waits for the other fellow to die. When we refuse to forgive others, we are like the one taking the poison, we are the one locked up, and only when we forgive will we be set free. William Arthur Ward said, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.” Yet many of us find it hard to forgive.
Did you know that the mercy of God is limited? How can that be? Doesn’t it say in the Psalms, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”? This verse clearly indicates God can and does grant unlimited forgiveness by completely taking away our transgressions. But there is a catch. God’s mercy can be limited for us personally. Jesus tells us, “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.” We will only receive as much mercy as we show, and based on this principle, there are many who will find to their dismay that not forgiving their fellows has limited the mercy available for them.
In the parable of the unmerciful servant, when the servant who was forgiven the debt of 10,000 talents refused to show mercy to a fellow servant who owed 100 pence, the forgiveness was revoked and the debt reinstated. Jesus explains the lesson of the parable: “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.”
How many times have we heard it said, “I will forgive but I can never forget.” This statement alone is proof that the one saying it has not really forgiven. We do not want the LORD to remember the sins we have committed, and thankfully He has promised not to, only if we choose to become children of God and show forgiveness to our brethren. Hezekiah said, “In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” Hebrews tells us about a future time when, “They shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” “ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after these days,’ says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws on their heart, and write them on their minds,’ and then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more.’ ”
Truly sins forgiven must be sins forgotten. David prayed, after he had an affair with Bathsheba, “Have mercy on me. O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”… “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”
David understood how unforgiving human nature can be and realized that God is far more merciful than men. When David had to choose which judgment would be inflicted on him, we read, “And David said unto God, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for His mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.” People find it hard to forgive. We find it hard to forgive.
Jesus did more than command us to forgive. He explained the principle, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” He also showed us by example when he hung on that cruel cross and prayed to his Father saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Stephen also learned from Jesus’ example, and as he was dying from the stones hitting his body, “he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
There is no lesson we need to learn that is more important than that we must forgive those who have sinned against us. None of us have ever been crucified or stoned to death, so no one has ever wronged us more than those who wronged Jesus and Stephen. Yet most of us find it very difficult to forgive someone who has wronged us. Both Stephen and Jesus were living examples of obeying the principle we ask in the Lord’s Prayer where Jesus taught us to say, “Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” We need to concentrate our thoughts when we pray those words. We need to focus not only on our need for forgiveness of sins, but on our need to be forgiving to others, in order to receive the forgiveness we need.
Forgiving others brings a double blessing upon us. The door of resentment is unlocked and we are freed from the bitterness and anger that we feel when we are wronged, and our forgiving spirit unlocks the door to the bountiful mercies of our heavenly Father, who is able to forgive all our sins and remember them no more. As the apostle John assures us, we just need to ask. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One