As
we close this week of thinking about the cost of unforgiveness, let’s recall
where we’ve been so far:
·
Monday
– forgive because it’s commanded (or you also remain unforgiven)
·
Tuesday
– forgive by clearing away the dead stuff which kills the new life Christ wants
to birth in you
·
Wednesday
– forgive by choosing to see the offender in your life as a broken part of
Christ’s family
·
Thursday
– forgive by strapping on the parachute of humility in self-examination
Today
I’ve
tried to save “the best” for last in this series. But the best, in this case, is also
the hardest (for me). We are to
forgive by following the example of Jesus.
One of the seven sayings from the cross has a bloody, beaten Jesus
saying, Father, forgive them….[1] Fast-forward a bit and we see Stephen, a
leader in the early church, being stoned by a frenzied, religious mob for his
faith in Christ. His last words were
emulating Jesus’ forgiveness from the cross…Father, don’t add this sin to
their account.
By
now we have all figured-out that forgiveness is hard work; it’s God-work. But the cost of unforgiveness is a much greater
cost. This is exactly why Jesus went to
the cross for us; the cost of a cross-less world would have been the judgment
of sin on our account. All of us would
have remained unforgiven!
And
so…a note to end on for this weekend:
Forgive
by remembering Christ’s way is to forgive – and know that genuine forgiveness
will always be costly. Always!
King
David understood this. When he was going
to build an altar to worship God, one of his constituents offered him a piece
of land – at no charge. David’s reply?
I will not
present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.
2 Samuel
24:24b (NLT)
There
is something worth it all about following this Godly example of forgiving someone
else’s cost. I’ve never been put in jail
unjustly (or even justly). I’ve not been
put in the hospital because someone beat me up. I’ve not been so badly treated that you would write
a book or TV mini-series about my life. But
I have had occasion to forgive others – more than a few occasions.
It
is hard work, God-work, to let it go, not bring it up, and say goodbye to revenge.
But that’s what God does for us every day
as He forgives us!
The
cross says so!
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