some thoughts on forgiveness
Forgiveness is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. Itâs a word that I've heard talked and preached about quite frequently, but itâs actually an act that I feel quite foreign to . . . Today I listened to a sermon entitled Getting to the Place of Forgiveness (2) by Milton Vincent (a pastor at Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church in Riverside) and I found it helpful to process through. Here are some thoughts.
Our (subconscious) prideful tendency
What comes very very naturally to all of us in the moments when we've been (unjustly) wronged by other people is to focus on and obsess over their sins while at the same time minimizing or excusing our own. Even if we do acknowledge our own sins, we tend to see them as smaller and less significant than the sins of other people against us. But there is a problem with this.
Why this tendency is more hurtful than helpful
When we make a big deal about our sin, we make a big deal about what Jesus died for. However, when we overlook our sin, we minimize what Jesus died for on the cross and additionally we even choke our own ability to give grace to other people.Â
Say there is this scale measuring the severeness of sins that ranges from 1 to 10. As I view another personâs sin on this scale, a level 8, but I talk about my own with softer, more understanding terms, and see my own sin as perhaps a level 2 or 3, then I will only experience Godâs grace to the level of a 2 or 3. We can only give to others what we have already received, and if Iâm walking around with only level 2 or 3 grace inside of me, then I will never have enough grace to give to this person with a level 8 sin.
Piercing yet Gracious Truths
Tim Keller points to our pride as he writes, âIt is impossible to grant forgiveness to those you feel superior to.â & how right he is. But it is the cross that lowers us, beautifully, from the position of self-exaltation and self-centeredness to a place of humility and wonder where the ugliness of our sins but also the beauty of our Saviorâs love and grace towards us are revealed. And it is at that lowly point, where we can then freely forgive those who have hurt us.
When I come to a place where I can see myself as the chief sinner of all, then I can have the opportunity to be the chief recipient of Godâs grace! âI am the level 10 sinner but Iâve received level 10 grace. Anyone who sins against me will never sin against me in a greater way than I have sinned against God.â
It is at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ that I realize I am far more of a sinner than I knew before, but I am also far more loved, far more forgiven, and far more blessed than I could ever dare imagine. How amazing is this truth? Yet how often we stray from it, longing for voids in our hearts to be filled by everything other than the treasure we have in Jesus Christ.
As Milton Vincent points out, âTo be known and not loved is a greatest fear. To be loved but not known means little to us. But to be fully known and yet also fully loved by the one who knows us completely â That is the greatest gift of all.â And we do indeed have that in Jesus Christ.
