“Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors” – Matthew 6:12
I was watching the Travelers PGA golf tournament this weekend. On the last hole five protestors, ran out on the eighteenth green and dumped packets of powder on the green to disrupt the tournament. The police immediately jumped in, tackled these five and hauled them away. It was a bizarre set of circumstances I had never seen before. The police immediately took charge, no one was hurt, and they were able to move on and finish the tournament.
Forgiveness means that I will not seek my own justice. In this sense we might say we are no longer going to pursue retribution, reparations, or righteousness. For a believer the cost of forgiveness is grounded in Christ, specifically His death and resurrection. I can forgive others because His death and resurrection is the basis for the Father forgiving me. I live with the conviction that my heavenly Father, in His time, according to His faultless righteousness, will bring about perfect justice for wrongdoing of others.
My security is that I have been provided the righteousness of Christ because He satisfied the wrath of the Father for my sin. When I forgive I am saying that I believe the Father will deal with this wrongdoing in one of two ways: He will (ultimately) forgive the offender because they are in Christ, or He will execute perfect justice at the final judgment.
A person who is not a follower of Christ has no guarantee that justice will ultimately be done on their behalf if they forgive someone. “Forgiveness” feels like the right thing to do and may release them from the entanglement of being betrayed, wounded, or exploited. However, they have no “higher authority” guaranteeing ultimate justice, which makes the reality of true, life-changing forgiveness a challenge. Only God Himself is the higher authority who can provide the promise, and no one will escape the consequences of their choices.
If a follower of Christ is fully convinced that God has their back, they can forgive. Allowing someone to “get away with an injustice” is temporary at best because the believer has the full confidence that God will ultimately bring about perfect justice. In other words, they are convinced God will handle it.
If a Christian is not quite convinced God will deal with this offense, they will continue to fret, stew, and grind over the offense because they feel this other person will not face the consequences of their actions; they feel this person is getting away with hurting me and sometimes others.
None of this means if a person has a habit of taking advantage of others, we should not step in and stop them. Intervening bad behavior is necessary. Just like the police rushed in and tackled the protestors, forgiveness does not mean we keep on allowing a person to keep on hurting others; there are consequences to actions. But forgiveness provides the comfort that God will deal with them in His perfect timing, so I can release them to the Father and get on with the joy of walking with Him.
In His grace,
Pastor Brad Little