Ex-Mars Hill Pastor on Repentance & Forgiveness of the Leader: Leadership Culture (Pt. 1)
WHAT ABOUT FORGIVENESS?
Scripture has no lack of verses on forgiveness. In fact it is so important that Jesus chose for it to be one of the very last documented things he himself did on this earth as he hung dying on the cross (Luke 23:34). Not to mention, the gospels record numerous occasions of him commanding his disciples in regards to forgiveness. When they asked him to teach them to pray, he included asking for forgiveness from the Lord and giving it to others (Matt. 6:12). And this is only the gospels. The writings of the Apostles are full of exhortations regarding forgiveness.
PREACH THE GOSPEL TO YOURSELF
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First and foremost, when I'm wrestling through forgiving someone, I ask the Lord to remind me of the truth of one of my favorite verses: Romans 5:8. "[B]ut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Paul is telling us that we did nothing to deserve Christ's love, grace, forgiveness, and righteousness. Nothing. You and I were still sinners and God saved us by his grace through the blood of his only Son, Jesus. That is always our starting point. I must always first look at the grace that I have received from Jesus and extend that same grace to Christians and non-Christians who sin against me. The nature of truly received grace is that it can't be withheld. So when someone sins against me, I choose to forgive them, even if they do not "realize" their sin, or even repent of their known sin. I choose to forgive them because Jesus forgave me before I knew or repented of my sin.
You may know my testimony. While in a hunting blind in Africa, I got down on my knees and asked Jesus to save me, forgive me, and cleanse me of my sin. Within a very short period of time, being filled with the Holy Spirit, I began to realize the sin that I had committed against Jesus, my wife, my kids, and others. And this sin was not even in my mind when I asked Jesus to forgive me, but it was sin in my life nonetheless. To me, Romans 5:8 was very real in those early days of my walk with Jesus (as it still is today, of course). Jesus forgave me and cleansed me of all my sin — past, present, and future — even while I was still sinning.
FREELY RECEIVED, FREELY GIVEN
With this renewed and right perspective of the freely-given grace of God, we can now discuss forgiveness of others. I am always challenged by Jesus' well-known words to one of Peter's most candid questions. "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:21-22).
This is a wonderful example of the grace of God. Jesus commands multiplication of Peter's already generous suggestion of "seven times" to make a point that we should forgive, and forgive, and then forgive again. I would also like to point out that Jesus does not specify to Peter that he should wait and judge another brother on the fruit of his repentance before offering forgiveness. There is no qualifier to the number of times Jesus tells Peter to forgive someone and, again, he commands forgiveness without the caveat of first witnessing the fruit of an offender's repentance. This point is critical to remember in the midst of offense, hurt, and pain. We want to see change and repentance before we remove our hands from their neck (Matt. 18:28). Remember the cross and ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to loosen your grip. The powerful truth of the doctrine of forgiveness is there's more freedom in letting go, than holding on.
KEEP PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO YOURSELF
Our God is a good God and a just God. If we are in Christ, he does not hold the sins that we have committed against us, because Jesus paid for these sins on the cross. God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). His perfection was credited to my account. The punishment has been paid in full. It is finished. This would be double jeopardy if a Christian's sins were punished twice. This truth gives us full freedom to repent freely to God and others, knowing that it does nothing to affect my standing with him. In the same way, it gives us freedom to forgive knowing that Jesus died for their sins too. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1)!
"If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all" Romans 12:18.
The article was originally posted here.
