Everyone Needs Forgiveness
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin,
according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7
Forgive me.
I wish I never had to say those words again. I’d rather always get it right. But I don’t.
Everyone needs forgiveness.
Romans 11:32 expresses a most outstanding thing about God. “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” I am so glad God loves mercy. It isn’t that He wants us to sin for He is holy and hates sin. But His heart of love desires greatly to show mercy to us when we sin.
Sometimes human forgiveness comes out as, “Oh, all right...I guess I’ll forgive you.” It is never this way with God. He doesn’t find it difficult to forgive sin. It flows from His very nature. He loves mercy.
Everyone needs forgiveness.
We need to remember this whenever we are wronged. We need to learn to love mercy...to actually find pleasure in showing mercy to those who have sinned against us. As God finds pleasure in showing mercy so can we as His life becomes more and more our life. Imagine, finding pleasure in extending mercy.
This plays out in reality. You see, when we follow our natural instincts and hold a grudge it’s because our flesh finds pleasure in doing so. It’s a way to punish our offenders. The problem is we end up with a bitter spirit. We end up the loser.
Someone has said, “Bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping our offender dies.”
Conversely, when we experience God’s grace and are enabled to show mercy and forgive our offender our spirit man is refreshed. It actually feels good to forgive. It feels good to emulate God. It feels good to get the monkey of bitterness off our back.
Everyone needs to forgive.
To forgive and to be forgiven is the human experience. All of us find ourselves on both sides of this equation at times in our lives. And if we are to experience real joy in life we must live out the truth of Ephesians 4:32. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Stop drinking the poison. Forgive and live.
Pastor Dan