"You Must Forgive"

Looking to Long Island, Jay Evensen editorialized in the Desert Morning News that "forgiveness has power to change the future"….

He wrote about Victoria Ruvolo, a 44-year-old collection agency manager, and 19-year-old Ryan Cushing. Mr. Cushing and his friends stole a credit card and then took off on a shopping spree…for no reason.

They stole a 20-pound frozen turkey and proceeded to throw it from their speeding vehicle headlong into the windshield of the automobile driven by Victoria Ruvolo. The result: the victim underwent surgery for six hours as metal plates and other pieces of hardware were fitted together in an effort to rebuild her face….

The prosecutor in Ruvolo's case stated that for crimes such as this one, victims often "feel no punishment is harsh enough." In fact, "Death doesn't even satisfy them," the attorney stated.

How did Victoria react to what had happened to her? She was primarily concerned with "salvaging the life of her 19-year-old assailant." She did not seek revenge in any way. She sought information about the youth and how he was raised, insisting that he be offered a plea deal. He could plead guilty to second-degree assault, be put in the county jail for six months and placed on one year's probation. He could have been sent to prison for 25 years, returning to society middle-aged with no job skills or prospects.

According to editor Evensen, "this is only half the story. The rest of it, what happened the day this all played out in court, is the truly remarkable part."

The young man walked "carefully and tentatively" to where his victim was seated in the courtroom. With tears and in a whisper he apologized, "I'm so sorry for what I did to you." He and Victoria embraced, both weeping. She stroked his head, patted him on the back, and comforted him. "It's OK," she said. "I just want you to make your life the best it can be." It was reported that "hardened prosecutors, and even reporters, were choking back tears."

The editor concluded: "Slowly, humans seem to be learning to understand the power of forgiveness. As a healing agent, it appears to be stronger than any surgery, counseling or anger-management course."

The power of forgiveness. The power, the author implies, is a power that could change the world. It could change the future. But the reson why forgiveness is a hard pill to swallow, is because it all comes with a cost and for many of us the cost is a whole lot.

A pastor wrote...Choosing to forgive somebody means that you are agreeing to absorb the cost of the injustice of what they've done. Imagine you stole my car and you wrecked it, and you don't have insurance and or the money to pay for it. What are my choices? I could make you pay. I could haul you before a judge and request a court-mandated payment plan. If you were foolish enough to steal my $1.5 million Ferrari (No, I do not actually own a Ferrari), you might never pay it off, and you'd always be in my debt. But I have another choice. I could forgive you …. What am I choosing to do if I say, “I forgive you”? I'm choosing to absorb the cost of your wrong. I'll have to pay the price of having the car fixed. ... You have no debt to pay—not because there was nothing to pay, but because I paid it all.

But as Christians today… we don’t have a choice about it. We are commanded to pay the cost, to pay the bill, to forgive. Lets take a look...

Colossians 3:12–13 NLT

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Clothe Ourselves

Forgiveness

The Lord Forgave You

The first thing we will look at today is what it is that we are to clothe ourselves with. Second we will look a bit deeper on forgiveness. And finally, we forgive because the Lord forgave us.

Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to live life in the despair of unforgiveness, it is the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of scripture that will cause us to see that we have freely received, so now we freely give.

I. Clothe Ourselves

- 5 things that characterize Christ.

A. The first up is compassion or tender mercies … its interesting that the king james version says “bowels of mercy” it literally is our stomach or entrails which is where so much of our emotion is felt. What she did to him literally made me sick to my stomach.

Dr. Peter O’Brien says that “this term forcefully expressed personality at the deepest level, especially in the matter of living.”

B. We as Christians especially in this day and age we have got to keep up the ministries of mercy. “It is not too much,” says William Barclay, “to say that everything that has been done for the aged, the sick, the weak in body and in mind, the animal, the child, the woman has been done under the inspiration of Christianity.”

C. The next is kindness. The quality of being warmhearted, considerate, humane, gentle, and sympathetic. And this one does not come easy. One of the things I have seen growing up. When it came to my friends who just get their license … it is sooo common for there to be road rage in them. Getting mad at others behind the wheel is natural. It is almost unnatural for us to just be nice.

D. The third is humility. Assessing oneself appropriately. Something really interesting here… this greek word for humility, was a word the Greeks never uxed for themselves.

William Gladstone, the learned prime minister of England, once remarked to his scholarly peer John Morley: “It is a pathetic reflection that while humility is the sovereign grace of Christianity, the Greeks had no symbol in their language to denote it. Every word akin to it has in it some element of meanness, feebleness, or contempt.”

But the gospel took this word of contempt and made it one of its chief graces. It was used to describe Christ’s humbling himself by becoming obedient to death (Philippians 2:8). The weak thing of this world to shame that which is strong.

E. Next up is gentleness… it is a manner that is mild and even tempered. Many times gentleness is seen as weakness, but it is far from the truth. It is a characteristic that Christ commends and it was used to characterize Moses who was the most meek man on earth.

F. Finally, we see the ever elusive patience defined as the endurance of pain and unhappiness. One commentator defines it as - long-suffering in the face of insult or injury. Thomas Kempis writes, “He is not truly patient who will suffer only as much as he pleases or from whom he pleases. A truly patient man gives no heed from whom he suffers, whether from his superior or from his equal or from someone below him.”

G. So we have Heaven’s wardrobe collection from the hand of the Ultimate fashion designer. It is important to note, as sooo many commentators have before, that all of these garments were perfectly worn by Christ. Therefore, when we put on these five graces, we are seeing what it means to be like Christ. We are wearing the same clothes.

II. Forgiveness

- We are to be in community.

A. All of the characteristics we are to put on as Christians are to be displayed in the realm of community. Which teaches us that we as Christians are supposed to be in community. Oh how much easier it is to think that these garments would be so much easier to wear if we did not have to wear them among people. So much easier to think about compassion, kindness, and humility than to do it. So much easier today to just cut people out of our lives than to have to deal with them.

B. And we need to wear those garments in the community and in the world because there are gonna be people that are difficult. There will be people that are hard to deal with. There will be people that are impossible… we are commanded to bear with them.

Dr. Doug Moo writes, “The demand acknowledges that every Christian fellowship is made up of all kinds of people and that we will accordingly sometimes find ourselves in close fellowship with people who are very different than we are. For the sake of maintaining community, we will sometimes have to “put up with” people with whom we would not normally choose to associate.”

C. And not only are we supposed to bear with each other, we are supposed to forgive each other. It is an act of grace and especially when it is not deserved. But we are commanded to do this, because our heavenly Father has forgiven us.

This is beautifully illustrated with the parable of the unforgiving servant.

Matthew 18:21–35 NLT

Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

D. But this is not our initial reaction in our culture today. Our habitual response to this is the response of Lamach. I will get you back… if cain is avenged 7 times I will be 77 times. Revenge is the way. I’ll get you back for what you have done. This is not the way it is supposed to be in the church. There is supposed to be forgiveness. The reason why this is commanded by Paul and Timothy is because they know that it will happen when someone will have a grievance. Someone is gonna have a cause for complaint in the church community.

E. We have got to forgive. We are commanded to forgive. We are to forgive because our Lord forgave us. And I know that many understand this but are concerned about the predatorily nature of some people in the church. Many times we will have individuals who through their own narcissism, will apologize for what they have done and demand the victim forgive them because it is commanded in the scriptures. But it does not work like this… I will say to the victum you have to forgive the person, but that does not mean you have to trust them. Sure I will pay to fix the car that you wrecked and I will continue to be your friend and wish you well and pray God’s blessing to be upon you, but I will not let you drive my car. At least right now.

F. David forgave Saul. And Saul wanted David to come home with him. But David did not.

John 2:24 NLT

But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew all about people.

Luke 23:34 NLT

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

G. There is a difference between forgiveness and trust. Forgiveness must be given and is commanded by the Lord but trust is still something that you gotta earn. This tends to be confused especially by the aggressor.

III. The Lord Forgave You

- The Father forgave me.

A. And what does Paul and Timothy use as a powerful motivator to forgive others? The fact that the Father forgave us. We were all in sin and fallen short of the glory of God. The bible says that there is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. We all like sheep have gone astray. We all have done enough for the cost of our guilt piled up high and the Father was faced with a huge payment. It would take the death of His Son to accomplish it. And He was merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in love. He will not always strive or keep His anger, forever he will not deal us according to our sins nor repay us for all we have done.

B. And what did He do… He sent Jesus. Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

C. And family because he forgave us the promises continue. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. Salvation is here. Gods grace is here. And where sin abounds there grace abounds even more. Grace will always win. It will always cover. It will always be there. He has forgiven us. Freely we have received so now freely give, because we freely received.