Forgiveness is frequently seen as weak, increasingly so in our societies. Although people love to BE forgiven, extending it to others is a big ask - an ask they do not want to answer.
That's because forgiveness is costly. In forgiving someone, you are releasing them from a debt they owe you. They have wronged you and now they "owe you". There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone has to pay. It's the same with forgiveness: someone is paying the price of that debt.
If you've ever truly forgiven someone their debt, whether it's financial or relational, you know there's a cost involved. It takes courage and strength to forgive.
For many of us, we can recite the long list of debts that others owe us, because they have wronged us and hurt us in so many ways. They have "sinned" against us, in that they have done something that is against the law of love, respect and doing what's plain right.
Of course, when we are honest with ourselves we must admit that we owe many debts to others. We have hurt and wronged them many times in different ways. We have "sinned" against them.
And if we are even more honest with ourselves, we can acknowledge that we have sinned against God - the One who created life and created us and created our family, friends and neighbours, even our enemies. Because we are not perfect. We do wrong. We have had times when we do wrong or hurtful things and times when we do what is NOT right according to God. It's part of our very nature.
That's why Jesus said in His model prayer that we need to ask God Our Father in Heaven to
"Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).
It's an ongoing process. Something we need to do day after day.
But forgiveness comes with a price. Paying any debt, even forgiving one, means the one forgiving is taking the burden of debt onto themselves.
How then does God pay that debt? Well, this was the very mission for which Jesus was sent. It's in His very name: Jesus. It means "He will save" as "He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus paid the debt by offering Himself as a sacrifice to pay our debt against sin. And as He was the Immanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:23), and very God Himself come down to earth (John 6:51) in a mystery that we cannot fully explain but can know to be true, what that means is that God Himself paid our debt (Romans 3:23-26).
He didn't ask someone to do it on His behalf. He paid it. In fact, as Our Creator, He's the only one who could ever pay that debt for us and for all of humanity.
And because He did and does that for us, we can do it for others.
We can forgive their debts, as He has forgiven us our debts.
And He did that by loving us first, even while we were His debtors (Romans 5:8).
Yes, the price of forgiveness may be high. But it doesn't compare to the price that God paid in the life and death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
(Above adapted from the Sermon, "Forgive Us Our Debts", https://youtu.be/J6kIVPoXCew. Watch the full Sermon here.)
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