Focus: Forgiveness

Text: Jh.11:44.

"Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."

Before Christ died via the cross, he taught us to pray: "And forgive us our debts, AS we forgive our debtors" - Mt.6:12.

Years after Christ's resurrection and ascension, Paul writes under the Spirit's inspiration, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, EVEN AS God for Christ's sake hath FORGIVEN you" - Eph.4:32.

In the first, forgiving others is the ground on which to pray for God's forgiveness. In the last, we are to offer forgiveness on the ground that God, for Christ's sake, has already forgiven us.

Both Scriptures teach us that we all need forgiveness. There's something to forgive in us as well as in others. No one is deserving of forgiveness. It is for the sake of Christ alone that God forgives us. And it is also for the sake of Christ that we should forgive each other. Forgiveness flows from the throne of grace to and through a heart that is touched, tempered and saturated by grace.

Apostle John urges us to look back: "If we say that we have not SINNED, we make him a liar" - 1Jh.1:10.

He also tells us to look around us now: "If we say that we have NO SIN, we deceive ourselves" - 1Jh.1:8.

Finally he makes us look forward: "If any man SIN, we have an advocate with the Father" - 1Jh.2:1. The point is that sin was in us yesterday; sin is in us today; and sin is likely to be in us tomorrow. So we must make room for forgiveness in our lives. We need to understand that every human being has the potential, propensity or proclivity to fail.

It is bondage of a spiritual kind to live in unforgiveness. Jesus is saying to you now: loose him, and let him go.

If you want to be free, free others. Free your heart and mind. Forgiveness is the provision of grace. Get it; give it. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter