When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians2:13-14
Here's a basic, fundamental principle underlying the law of forgiveness: Our capacity to forgive deepens as we understand that we are forgiven.
Selwyn Hughes writes at length about how a deep sense of being forgiven has been central to his relationship with God. When he was a young boy he would stand up whenever the pastor asked if anyone had anything to share and he would say "I'm forgiven" and then sit down.
A couple of hundred years ago an English gentlemen played a prank on five of his friends. He sent them anonymous letters saying: "All is found out - all is revealed." All five left the country. Guilt weighs heavily on all of us.
Christ went to the cross to forgive us.
Not for our good points, good looks or multitude of talents.
He went to the cross for our sin: that dark, horrible store of deception, self-centredness, hatred, arrogance and shame that lives in each of us.
He dealt with it decisively. It will never come back to haunt us.
In his book on the Seven Laws Selwyn Hughes, now in his eighties, wrote: "Tears are flowing down my face now as I write. To be forgiven by God and to be reconciled to Him through His Son Jesus Christ is the most glorious thing that can happen to anyone."
Our capacity to forgive deepens as we understand that we are forgiven.
If we find it hard to forgive, we may not understand how much we are forgiven!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
