Forgiveness: Doing it Right

30. July 2009 by Annette Colon-Alvarenga.

I was doing a short study on the issue of forgiveness and came upon a Time Magazine from January 4, 1984.  The cover of the magazine depicts the encounter between Pope John Paul II and the man who attempted to assassinate him. The cover of the magazine with the photograph of the Pope shaking the hand and embracing the man who tried to kill him asks the question, “Why Forgive?”

The Pope shared in the article, “I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned, and who has my complete trust.” And later, addressing women inmates in the same prison, John Paul II went on to state, “I was able to meet my assailant and repeat to him the pardon I gave him immediately. . . . The Lord gave us the grace to meet as men and brothers, because all the events of our lives must confirm that God is our father and all of us are His children in Jesus Christ, and thus are all brothers.” (My emphasis added.)

Pope John Paul II’s actions equate what it is to live as a true child of God, taking the Word to heart. A careful reading of the New Testament reveals an emphasis on forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, and holy living manifested and made possible by the love of God through the Cross of Jesus Christ.

⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. ⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:5-6)

⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9)

With his actions, John Paul II gave a verbal and visual testimony that for him Jesus Christ truly is Lord. This is the same testimony believers are charged to give each and every day.

The cover of Time asked, “Why Forgive?” These days you can walk into any Christian or secular bookstore and in the “self-help” section you will find many books that speak to the personal benefits of forgiveness. And, yes, there are personal benefits. But we need to be very careful with this type of therapeutic pardon because the motive for forgiving is focused on the personal benefits received by the person granting forgiveness. Quite frankly, I don’t recall any commands in God’s Word regarding forgiving which speak to personal benefits. The reason may be that this type of forgiveness is in fact very shallow.

Jesus calls us to love our enemies because at one point in time we were enemies of God and in the same way that the immense love of God transformed us into His children, that same love He has deposited in each of us has the power to transform enemies into friends. The purpose of forgiveness is to reflect the grace we have received from God. Only when we take it upon ourselves to pay the debt that others owe us do we truly begin to forgive as God forgives. Lucas 12:48 tells us, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.”  What is the extent of grace you have received? How much grace have you shown?

In the New Testament, Jesus confronts us with the amazing grace that we have received and exhorts us to extend the same grace to others if we truly value God and His righteousness. (Luke 11:4 and Matthew 6:14-16) Sometimes this can be difficult while we wait to see if the person who has caused the offense repents, but that is not grace. See, we don’t go to God in repentance in order to receive His forgiveness; rather we repent because He has already forgiven us. This is grace. (Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”)

What should be the result of our forgiveness? Well, you won’t find the answer to this question in those self-help books. But God’s Word did ring clear to me while I did my study. See, I always saw forgiveness in terms of forgiving and that’s the end of that story and that relationship. But that’s not what the Word teaches. Jesus’ work on the Cross did not end with us receiving God’s forgiveness. That was only the beginning. Through that forgiveness, we were restored to a right relationship with God. When we truly forgive, our hearts should be seeking reconciliation in that relationship and the restoration of the person who offended us. Reconciliation and restoration are at the very heart of who we are called to be as children of God. That is exactly the example that Pope John Paul II gave when he forgave his would-be assassin, “I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.”

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