Easter is pretty fresh on all of our minds. On Easter I think of the price that Christ paid for the forgiveness of us all. It’s one thing to think about the forgiveness we receive, but what about the forgiveness that we give? It’s not easy, forgiveness that is. The reason? Because it involves hurt. It involves giving when you don’t want to. It demands that we look outside of our own lives and into the lives of others who have hurt us.
People tick us off every day. It’s bound to happen. Your spouse will say something that rubs you the wrong way, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Your sibling is going to take something of yours and “forget” to give it back. Your friends are going to leave you out of some plans, whether they meant to or not. The question then revolves around the choice we have in forgiveness.
Do they deserve it?
When someone judges me unfairly. When someone deliberately makes a decision that they know will cause me pain but they do it anyway. When someone makes a cutting remark to even the score. When someone decides that I don’t matter. Do they deserve forgiveness?
The answer is, “No”
But neither do I.
Romans 5:7 says “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I didn’t deserve forgiveness. I deserved an eternity of separation from God, plain and simple. But because of mercy I’m able to receive forgiveness. If I’m so undeserving of forgiveness but yet received it anyway, it really makes sense to follow suit. People who hurt me, who hurt you, they don’t deserve forgiveness in the least. In fact they deserve to know justice, but then again so did I. In the end, it makes sense that I offer the same forgiveness. It doesn’t mean what they did is ok, but it does mean that I won’t let what they did affect me negatively. If anyone had the right to hold a grudge, Christ did, but he relinquished that.
If I’ve been forgiven, it makes sense that I forgive. It is one of the hardest things to do, but it conquers bitterness.