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Discover what the Bible says about forgiveness.
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Discover what the Bible says about forgiveness.
Just the term forgiveness can bring to mind unwelcome memories or unresolved pain. Forgiveness is only necessary where there is hurt. And, if you are interested in this subject then likely someone has hurt you deeply. There’s a wound that you want healed.
All of us know what it’s like to be hurt by other people. It’s only human to be grieved, bitter, resentful, to want to retaliate, and even forfeit wounded relationships.
In our world, every once in a while, we may witness stories of forgiveness that overcomes hate, but overall we’re mostly okay with harboring a grudge wherever we think it is justified.
We often breathe the air of human resentment of one degree or another.
Yet, when we have hurt other people and feel remorse, we long for reconciliation. We understand that in an ideal world love would win more often, and we wish hatred weren’t so prevalent.
The Bible answers our longing for forgiveness. First, by helping us understand that our longing for reconciled relationships is a faint echo in our hearts of a greater need.
by Bibles.net
Here’s a graphic for you!
It illustrates the Biblical teaching
that the only way we are able to forgive
is if we have first received
the forgiveness of God.
We are to forgive
because God forgave us.
But we are also
to forgive as or like
or in the same manner that
he forgave us.
The theme of God’s forgiving love is so fascinating that we may linger awhile, and a long while too, upon that bright example of forgiveness which God has set before us, but from it all I hope we shall be gathering grace by which to forgive others even to seventy times seven.
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to
show mercy.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
Five Qualities of God’s Forgiveness
by Charles Spurgeon
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
You can’t forgive somebody without
absorbing the cost.
Either that person pays for it or you do.
On the cross,
God didn’t just forgive us,
he paid the cost himself.
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
To be Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what he says.
Let us begin our
Christian career with
the full assurance
that we shall have
a great deal to forgive
in other people,
but that there will be
a great deal more
to be forgiven in ourselves.
Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Listen to Holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom, tell us how to forgive. In her own words, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred; it is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
When we forgive, it is a poor and humble business compared with God’s forgiving us, because we are only forgiving one another, that is, forgiving fellow-servants; whereas when God forgives us it is the Judge of all the earth forgiving, not his fellows, but his rebel subjects, guilty of treason against his majesty. For God to forgive is something great; for us to forgive, though some think it great, should be regarded as a very small matter.
God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Forgiven people
are known by
how they forgive.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption recounts the life story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete, veteran, and POW. Louis suffered abuse under a Japanese soldier for many years. Hear him speak about forgiveness and the letter he eventually sent to his abuser. Check out his book or watch the movie that recounts the transforming work God did in his life.
