LET'S TALK ABOUT FORGIVENESS- Part 1
Forgiveness is required of a believer because forgiveness is the most godlike act a Christian can do. No act is more divine than forgiveness. Never are we more like God than when we forgive. I will forever hold in my heart what Jesus said on the cross of Calvary-"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." -Luke 23:34
What do we mean by forgiveness? Forgiveness is a verbally declared, personally given promise, a statement of undeserved, unearned love that affirms that though I have been offended, there is no anger, no hatred, no desire for vengeance, no bitterness, no retaliation. Why? Because there is no guilt, no blame held. That’s forgiveness. This is a characteristic that belongs to God. He is a God of forgiveness and because we are His children we should embrace this characteristic also.
In the thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus, God discloses Himself to Moses. Verse 5, He descends in the cloud and the Lord passed by, in verse 6, in front of Moses and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth'. Now there are some attributes of God, compassion, grace, slowness to anger, loving kindness, truth, who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.
When God introduces Himself to Moses and makes this appearance to Moses, He defines Himself as a God who forgives by every definition of violation...iniquity, transgression and sin. In Psalm 32, the Psalm begins, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” This is a blessing from God that He forgives, that He does not hold against us our sins. In Psalm 85 the Psalmist begins, “O Lord, You showed favor to Your land, You restored the captivity of Jacob, You forgave the iniquity of Your people. You covered all their sin. You withdrew all Your fury. You turned away from Your burning anger.” And again in the Psalms, and there are other places, I’m only giving you illustrations. Psalm 130 is a similar testimony to God’s forgiveness. “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord. Lord, hear me; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You.”
Perhaps one of the most beautiful statements regarding the forgiveness of God is in the first chapter of Isaiah, that wonderful statement in verse 18, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” This is God’s forgiveness. And the sins were serious. If you read the rest of the chapter, he paints a vivid portrait of just how sick and just how sinful Israel was, and yet how ready His forgiveness is.
In 43 of Isaiah, and verse 25, “I, even I,” God giving testimony to His own nature, “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake and I will not remember your sins.” Wow! Wiping them out, obliterating them from the record and even from His own memory.
Listen to Isaiah 55:6, “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.”
His testimony is part of the instruction of God that came to the prophets as they pronounced judgment at the same time they announced that where there was repentance, there was forgiveness. Jeremiah 33:8, “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me. I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them. They will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.”
I will teach next week on Part 2 of FORGIVNESS
