Forgiveness, the City of God

Living and loving is the heart of God exemplified in humanity.  Nothing pleases God more than His people living and loving as the Holy Spirit empowers them to—and all the same, nothing pleases us more than when we are heartfully devoted to living and loving.

This is precisely a graciousness from Jesus Himself that is a hope that surprises the entire world when it encounters it.

This is seen through the eyes and felt through the heart of an individual who is utterly unprepared to experience this grace firsthand through being forgiven when they feel they don’t deserve it.

Oftentimes it is all it took to sway a heart toward Christ, for they have experienced Him.

It is the undeserved mercy 
of grace in forgiveness for us all.

Forgiveness absolutely shocks the world. 

The world is always unprepared for mercy. 

Yet the mercy in forgiveness 
is life for those who need it.
And for those who take advantage, 
those who do not care,
their record is written.
They happily stand condemned!

Those who forgive are the acquitted.
They ARE the City of God.

~

God has nothing to do with hate, hateful attitudes, or separating good from good.  Among other things that need not be said, but will be said anyway, God is preparing a people like a place, and that people will be His... His Holy City.

What is this Holy City like?

THE HOLY CITY, THE BRIDE

“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
—Revelation 21:2

What does the bride look like who is prepared for Jesus, the husband.  “Dressed” means ready.  Ready in this context means she is holy as He is holy.  Adorned “beautifully” and, in other words, appropriately, to BE with God, in God’s inimitable presence.

As we re-read Revelation 21:2 a few times and meditate on it, thinking in matrimonial imagery, surely, we are encouraged to consider what it would be for the entity of “the bride” being a match for God—she is the “Holy City,” the “New Jerusalem.”

The whole aspect of “husband” and “wife,” as we appropriate these terms in marriage between human beings, can be a distraction to what is going on in Revelation.  The point biblically is that “the bride” is a match, or an appropriate partner, for husband Jesus.

Of such unity of the City of God, I am immediately taken back to Jesus’ final night before He is tried, scourged, condemned, then crucified.  John chapters 13 through 17 capture truly what is Jesus’ most intense teaching about the Father Heart of God.

Both a command and a deep wish, Jesus repeatedly told His disciples to “love one another...” as He Himself had loved them, who was about to give Himself up for them.

This love that we are to share 
with one another is the unity in God.

The City of God (or the bride)
is to love itself (others) as God loves it.

When we behave with such love, 
we ARE the City of God.

~

THOSE WHO ARE THE CITY OF GOD

Those who are the City of God are of the character of God, Himself.  They do not meddle in petty affairs.  They look high, not to the moral high ground, but to praise the One who was, who is, and who is to come—the eternal One.  They are devoted to truth.

They stoop low also.  Not to repeat the dregs of society, but to spend time and to give love into the brokenness of humanity and situations that scream aloud for the hope in God alone.  They go to where God goes, and they keep going where God will always go.

The City of God are God’s people.
They are the ever-present witness of God.
They are gloriously safe, 
welcoming, esteemed, regal, 
holy, friendly.

The City of God executes 
the mercy of their Maker,
because, due to their character, 
they see far beyond a selfish justice.

~

What we approach now is the interwovenness of forgiveness with wisdom.  Life itself joins itself to these intertwined principles.  Once we understand the power in these concepts, we are free—perhaps for the first time in our entire lives.

Those who ARE the City of God have truly come to comprehend the magnanimity of their humanity as they are built in the image of God.  Those enshrined in the City of God are intrinsically generous of spirit, whole, and nurturing of character.

FORGIVENESS IS A CENTRAL TENET IN WISDOM

Of those who inhabit the City—of those who ARE the City, no less—what is it that characterises them?  Is it their kindness, their compassion, their wit in trying circumstances?  It is their gentleness, their diligent care, their resolve to do what is right?  Is it their capacity to love others, their desire to be accountable, their humility to forgive themselves when they get it wrong?

They are all these.  They embody the wisdom of forgiveness.  Nobody can forgive others until they can first forgive themselves.  They know there is life in redemption, and their whole life oozes with the character of the second chance.  There is an openness of heart, of mind, of being in the forgiving person—theirs is life and abundantly so.

There is a wisdom in forgiveness
that the world in its ‘wisdom’ cannot see.

The world sees in forgiveness a folly 
that cannot be called “wisdom,” 
never comprehending that wisdom itself
is a God-construct – for ALL wisdom is of God.

~

HEARTS AT THE READY

Jesus told us to come to Him, to follow Him, to be ready for Him, we who are the City.

Our hearts are to be at the ready.  Our hearts stand to attention when we are willing to live in servitude to goodness and grace.  Dwelling in these locales of character, appreciating the good and being gracious, abiding by these, God does something wondrous in us:

As we mirror the goodness and grace in God, 
God allows us to emulate such goodness and grace.

Hearts at the ready,
feet skipping to the dance,
no matter what travails us,
we live ready to forgive.

As we give to God,
God gives right back to us,
always remembering what we give
was ALREADY given to us.

Hearts at the ready is truly a representation of God’s own heart, eternally ready to forgive us.  And perhaps this is why we know that forgiveness IS the wisdom of the ages.

“We love because he first loved us,” it says in 1 John 4:19.  Anything and everything good and praiseworthy came from Him and then to us.  None of our goodness and grace is our doing.  It is all because God came and did it first.

We do our good through the power, 
the motivation, the inspiration of God.

~

We know what it is like to be forgiven.

It feels good. 
It can be a dream come true. 
It is a prayer answered. 
It is also a miracle.

~

So we ought to want to forgive others, 
and not least ourselves, 
knowing again that if we cannot forgive ourselves, 
we cannot receive God’s forgiveness somehow, 
which is FREE for all,
we cannot and will not want to forgive others. 

Forgiveness, therefore, can be seen in reverse.
Forgiveness is central to the City of God.

Not that we are people pleasers!  On the contrary, we want to gift others what we ourselves have already received—that which is utterly good and life-giving.  We know they would appreciate it: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you,” is the golden rule in Matthew 7:12.  There is no coincidence in Jesus saying this one maxim sums up the Law and the Prophets—a huge chunk of the established Scriptures of His day.

It is a glorious thing to 
embody the glory of God:
the City of God.

We do it when we give to others what we 
would reasonably expect they would give to us
if only they could.

~

Being the City of God:
this is our role and goal.