I look at the way our society operates and I see most of all people who don’t know how to forgive.
One of the more popular saying today in our culture is to forgive, but never forget. Is this the way we are supposed to forgive people? Is this even real forgiveness?
When I think about this saying (and ones like it) compared to the teaching of scripture I feel that we are have misunderstood what forgiveness actually is and how it is supposed to look.
Within the saying forgive, but never forget we see that there is an account being kept of the total amount of mercy that one has shown another. If we “never forget” the wrongs that we have incurred by a person then that means we are keeping a tally sheet of the mercy we have shown them.
Why would we insist on knowing how much or how often we have been merciful to one another?
Is it so we can hold it against them when we are in need of mercy? Is it so that we can feel confident within ourselves when look back at our lives? Or is it because we have been forgiven of much and likewise we must also forgive much?
Christ tells us how we must forgive.
Luke 17:3-4 “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
Jesus does not tell us that there is limit to the forgiveness we offer our brothers and sisters. The amount of mercy we are to show is without limits. We must forsake our selfish pride which wants to hold others accountable for there wrongs and offer them the same forgiveness which Christ gives to us.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Here Paul teaches us how we have been forgiven. He tells us that we are justified through the blood of Christ. This term is something that is very important to our view of forgiveness. Justification is actually a legal term, and it means that the party is seen as completely righteous (without fault) When we are forgiven through the blood of Christ we are not seen as not guilty, but as completely innocent of any crime.
This must be how we as Christians show forgiveness to one another. We can’t hold any past transgressions against anyone. When we forgive we have to see them as totally innocent regardless of the frequency of there sin against us.
Luke 6:36 6 “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
