Forgiveness (Part I)

Words Of Spirit And Life:

FORGIVENESS

Pastor Arthur Wilkerson

     As I began to talk about this word “Forgiveness”, I believe that we all understand that it is a great part of the Christian’s walk in Salvation.  To forgive or not to forgive is of willingness on the believer’s part.  Please understand if you don’t already, that, forgiveness is a part of the Judicial processes of Heaven along with Repentance.  These are part of the Divine Constitution (Strong’s Commentary) in the Law of Christ. (Sermon on the Mount) (Matt. Chapters 5-7).  As Leaders, I believe that these processes should be taught in our Churches and should have been taught, and not just skimmed over and covered by grace.  Understanding these will bring about the necessary fear (reverence) that God deserves for His Love, Grace and the sacrifice that Jesus gave on the Cross for man.

    Looking first at the definition of this word forgiveness; Webster defines it as “to give up resentment of or claim to requital for; to grant relief from payment; to cease to feel resentment against; PARDON.

     Divine Forgiveness: According to Unger’s dictionary is one of the most complicated and costly undertakings, demanding complete satisfaction to meet the demands of  God’s outraged holiness.  If this be true, then  I can see why the principles of forgiveness are not stressed in the Christian’s life.  In order to meet the demand to be holy as He is holy, the Christians has to first judge him/herself, and this creates conflict of will, authority and obedience.  We’ll get more into that later.  God was outraged at Adams rebellion and yet He had mercy on him and Eve, God killed a lamb and covered them and took away their life of ease so that man had to toil for his existence in God’s creation.  There was not a man to satisfy God’s anger even up to the flood, wherein only Eight souls were saved and this hurt God, so He set a rainbow in the heaven to remind Him and Grace was set in motion.  (Note:Enoch was taken, for he walked with God. (Gen. 5:22-24).  So then, eight souls, were saved, eight being the number of resurrection and regeneration.  Christ rose on the eighth day of necessity.  The first day of the week, one after the past seven equals eight.  His resurrection brought about a New Covenant as Noah’s did after a dead world.

     One might say; what on God’s creation does this have to do with forgiveness?  Well, I’m glad you asked; God was appeased once and for all by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, thus judicially He could now pardon man, who being born  in Adams image “..a son in his own likeness, after his image;” (Gen. 5: 3) and was estranged from God and with a sin nature.  In this we see how much it cost God in bringing  about a way for man to be reconciled to Him; God forgave and now requires that we do the same with a godly sorrow.  In order to forgive someone it has to cost you something.

 Forgiving One’s Self:  There are those of us who love the Lord Jesus with all of our hearts and we are faithful to the Gospel in the sense of paying our tithe and giving an offering as unto the  Lord; we are faithful in the work of the ministry but never seem to find that place of rest in the Lord.  We find ourselves easily upset, comparing ourselves among ourselves and though we have a working head knowledge of scripture we can never quite get an applicable understanding.  Here’s a couple of reasons you might consider.  One: you don’t have the infilling of the Holy Spirit and Two: there could be doors open in your spiritual life, doors left open through unforgiveness or it could very well be both.

      Not forgiving one’s self is a major breach.  Not being able to forgive ourselves for the wrong doings of our unregenerated past, and even the  after receiving Jesus, committing the same sin over and over again can cause a person to be in a state of Spiritual Depression.  It’s  like a bad computer program running in the background (Thanks Pastor Rosalyn), popping up and disrupting the flow of God in our lives.  It dictates how we see ourselves and causing you not to receive of the Lord what is yours by inheritance.  But , when in the presence of others, we have that Christian smile on and saying …”that you’re blessed and highly favored of the Lord”, when you’re really in rebellion through disobedience.  Without confronting and judging ourselves we become complacent in that sin of guilt and it becomes a way of life unrepented of.

     Pastor, Why do you call it rebellion?  Well, again, I’m glad you asked.  See this with a spiritual eye; Jesus said these words after teaching the disciples to pray, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”. (Matt. 6: 14-15).   Now these passages are for forgiving another person (Coming in the next segment), but these should also be taken personally as a command from God to forgive one’s self as well as others.   Not to forgive yourself is being directly disobedient to God’s Word.   How then is it really possible for you to forgive some else? If you can never conquer the quilt and shame of past wrongs by taking them to the Cross and being washed in the Blood of Jesus, the weight of the burden of sin will be too heavy to forgive someone else.  Here are a few spiritual avenues that will help you get started on the way to real liberty in the Lord Jesus.

• See yourself as an “other”, realizing the awful price that Jesus paid for your justification and redemption.  Love yourself as a new creature in Christ Jesus then you can love your neighbor as yourself. (II Cor. 5: 17; Matt. 22: 39)
• See your past as an imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.  A thing that must be cast down and brought into captivity, even daily. (II Cor. 10: 5)
• Start to realize that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and that you’re only a sojourner here on earth for now. (I Peter 1: 17)
• And lastly, know, that as a citizen of Heaven and because you’re in Christ “there is no condemnation” against you. (Romans 8: 1)

I pray that these Words of Spirit and Life will help you walk a more solid and forgiving Christian walk.  (All Scripture are taken from the Old King James Bible)