Forgiveness, the Truth of God

“You can’t handle the truth!”  It is the legendary line of script that Col. Nathan Jessep (played by Jack Nicholson) barked in response to the goading of Naval lawyer, Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) in the 1992 motion picture, “A Few Good Men.”  As it happened, truth won the day in that story.  Eventually.

“A Few Good Men” shows the power of truth, to bring about justice when truth is finally revealed, and how it keeps people in situations of subjugation when it is hidden.

Truth is like wisdom.

“Wisdom is shown to be right by what it does,” said Jesus in Matthew 11:19.  In this verse, wisdom is profiled operating as truth.  It eventually arrives and once it does, it reveals.

There is nothing more compelling over the 
face of the earth or in heaven as truth.

Truth is the very basis and dividing line of righteousness and wickedness, good and evil.  Revealed, it has the power to condemn or acquit.  Hidden, people are protected who have no right being protected.  Covered up, harms are done to the most vulnerable, and those harms continue and are compounded by the scarcity of justice.  And yet, when truth is brought to light, there is great potential for freedom, for healing, for justice.

The truth is costly.
God spares no expense defending what is right.

~

Truth is a light like a lamp at night.

Truth facilitates the fullness of true sight.

Truth brings forth opportunities to decide.

Decisions based in truth are powerful,
just as decisions will be weighed 
according to the measure of truth.

~

Forgiveness is foundationally conversant in truth.

Once truth is determined and faced, 
relationally, forgiveness is possible.

~

A SHARED TRUTH THAT CAN BE CELEBRATED

Once a relational situation is understood for what it is worth—once the truth is determined and accepted—forgiveness is the next logical outcome for parties close to God.  That is, when two or all parties accept the truth, or it is a shared truth that can indeed be celebrated.  When this happens, there is true celebration, even in the heavenlies (i.e., Luke 15:7), for truth has won the day, and all may share in the love that truth opens the door to.

Truth facilitates love.
Where truth is welcome, love prevails instantly.

Shared truth that can be celebrated gives all parties power to love because all parties have received love.  The relational safety enjoyed is a bountiful blessing to all.  Forgiveness, we can be sure, has been inherently part of these interactions.  “The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.”  (Acts 20:35)

Relationally speaking, truth offers relationships fresh opportunities at reconciliation, but for that to occur there is a need for mature parties on all sides to be humble enough to own their portion of contribution to conflict and to be gracious—to seek to be forgiven and to forgive.

Truly the power of truth in relationships 
is for the mature one 
to reach forth in humility, 
offering their wrong to 
the other person to be forgiven, 
so then justice is done, 
healing commences, and love holds sway.
PEACE.

~

TRUTH TESTS US ALL

Truth presents many uncomfortable realities for all of us.

None of us live this life without needing to face truth.  No matter how much we might be tempted to deny the truth, the truth will inevitably need to be faced.  And yet there are so many temptations to deny it.

The truth can be very painful—very much in the vein of us not being able to handle the truth.  We are tempted to come up with all kinds of justifications and even excuses to defend ourselves, and of course it can be difficult to discern the difference between someone speaking truth to us and them treating us harshly and unjustly.

Truth tests our discernment, 
it tests our humility, 
and mostly it tests our heart.

Even how we receive injustice toward us 
is a truth about who we are,
and where our heart is at.

The truth is we ALL face injustice.

~

Whether a truth threatens our confidence
or the truth is something we cannot change
the truth can seem larger than we would ever like.

But, still, it is the truth that will set us free.
Only truth.

Only in facing the truth is there 
the power of transcendence.

The truth that sets us free
is the truth that we face.

Truly nothing stands against us when we can face the truth.  But standing in all the truth is often too much for us.  Praise God that perfection is not expected of us.  But at least we may enjoy opportunities to journey in the truth day by day.

Each new day and indeed each moment ushers forth new choices for courage.  If we have enough courage to party with the truth, and enough composure for kindness and graciousness, we can speak and do deeds of truth in love.

Forgiveness is at the intersection of both—truth and love.  Only after the truth has arrived are love and forgiveness possible.  Forgiveness is the grandest exemplification of love.

The epitome of the concept of forgiveness is love, 
in its very nature, the Cross of Christ.

~

TRUTH INVITES HUMILITY

Truth, of course, is an ever-present invitation.  How will we receive the truth as it arrives on our doorstep?  Will the truth find us willing hosts as it enters?  Or will it feel unwelcome?  Humility is the key.

The first truth we must deal with if we are to party with both truth and forgiveness is humility.  We must overcome, or at least acknowledge, our sinful pride.

A grand paradox 
in terms of personal character:

It takes humility to acknowledge pride.

We cannot transact with the truth without dealing with that externalisation of locus that sees us want to cast the blame AWAY from ourselves.  But every time we cast the blame toward others, we lose all power and agency to receive the impetus to change necessary that truth might actually change us.

Humility is the bedrock of growth.
There is no empowerment for life 
without humility.

“A look within,
honesty for sin.”

Humility is the biggest ongoing test of our lives.  That, or truth.  Perhaps we can imagine truth and humility being close cousins or even brothers or sisters.  When we are humble, truth is no threat at all.

Truth demands humility.
To face truth we need humility.
But equally...
Humility prepares a heart for truth.
Humility is agency for truth.

Truth finds an ally in a humble person.

~

GOD, TRUTH, JUSTICE, FORGIVENESS

It does need to be said that God is bringing forth justice in this post-#MeToo and post-#ChurchToo era.  God is more interested in truth and justice than any of us can imagine.  We too easily forget that God sees everything, including our own sin.

Where people have been abused, harmed, and traumatised, God is bringing justice to those situations, and the antecedent to such justice is our recognising that we ought to be out of the way of such judgements by not adding OUR sin to it as much as we can exercise self-control.  We get out of the way when we give the assailant and predator over to the Lord in forgiveness, essentially trusting that God’s justice is truer than anything we could execute.

When we forgive, we honour the part of truth 
that affects us in terms of our response.

To react to the abuse is an abuse.
Reactive abuse is still abuse.

It is up to us to take the teachings of Jesus seriously.
Followers of Jesus know an-eye-for-an-eye 
is inconsistent with the ways of Jesus.

There is perhaps no better example 
of trusting God 
than of waiting patiently for His justice.

God understands and empathises with 
our anger at the injustices done to us.

~

TRUTH URGES US TOWARD THE LOVE OF FORGIVENESS

God is a God of truth, and He urges us to live a life worthy of the love of forgiveness because this life transacts with the truth.  Think of the significance of the word, “worthy,” as in “living a life worthy of your calling,” per Ephesians 4:1.

Truth calls each of us forth into The Day—the Day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24).  It shines like that light in the night, making visible what was concealed by darkness.  Light that reveals what is plainly seen gives us the opportunity to transact with the truth and reconcile matters.

All of life depends on the love that is in forgiveness, for anything else in this hard life leads to bitterness when the heart is hurt.  Life is in reconciliation, and forgiveness deals not only in truth but it leads us onward in truth in that truth continues to herald the way to freedom.

Truth reveals many stark realities, yet there are so many people living so many versions of life that do not resemble life at all.  So many people despise the truth, reflecting a point-blank refusal to transact in and with the truth.

Truly one of the best ways to ensure 
we transact with the truth is to forgive.

To forgive is to face the inconvenient and 
uncomfortable truth and to believe for even better.

To forgive is to invest faith 
in truth prevailing, ultimately.

The God of truth heals us even as we forgive.