Monday, April 17, 2023

Forgiveness, the Victory of God


I’m sure there are many who think forgiveness is a doormat experience, especially where there is no sign of contrition or repentance—no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, thanks for grace extended, or appreciation—in those who are being forgiven.

Forgiveness in such situations seems like such a silly and misguided thing to do.  That is how it seems to us all from a worldly viewpoint.  It is what the human eye devoid of the Spirit’s inspiration sees.

But the world of God is an upside-down Kingdom.

What seems to be victory is actually often defeat, 
and what is defeat is often steeped in victory.

And the world, and humanity, cannot discern it.

But God revealed a ‘different gospel’ to an eye-for-an-eye at the Cross of Golgotha.  And that revelation is a wisdom that we can observe and lay hold of personally in our own lives.

The essence of the Gospel is not only the life it bequeaths us in eternity, but the life it affords us in the here-and-now through a healing we receive through forgiveness.

But this is NOT the way of the world.
This is also NOT our default human priority.

The Gospel Way of forgiveness is neither natural 
nor wise from a worldly viewpoint.

~

These are irrefutable truths that play out in (most) people’s lives who abide by their own construct for justice—a self-conceived perception of what is right and wrong:

§     Unforgiveness leads to an ever-increasing hardening of the heart that further traumatises the self, which only further propagates exposure to ongoing triggering.

§     Forgiveness is framed as transactional and that does not bear well with a lack of reconciliation, which is by far and away the most common relational incidence requiring forgiveness.

§     So few entrenched conflicts resolve, the relationships usually get toxic and shatter.

§     When the choice is made to forgive, and especially in cases when it can’t be transactional, the person choosing to forgive continues to slip out of forgiveness into unforgiveness.  This is because the trauma within has not yet been healed.

§     So often one side of entrenched conflict resists accountability and the narcissist-empath dynamic ensues, or in most toxic arrangements both resist accountability.

There must be a better way on earth as it is in heaven!

Where does our hope come from in redeeming these terrible instances of unforgiveness that imperil our hearts?  From Jesus no less.

THE RESURRECTED BODY OF JESUS REMAINED “BROKEN”

The body of the resurrected Jesus Christ is a symbol for our eternal hope in redeeming these long-held hurts that have led to unforgiveness.

The body of Jesus post-resurrection bore the scars of the crucifixion He suffered.  Those wounds—the wounds by which we have been healed—are visible to the eye and palpable to the touch of the disciples.

Why would God not ‘fix’ Jesus and 
make His resurrection body perfect?

Well, the disciple Thomas, for just one, 
needed to see and feel those wounds to believe.

But there is also another cogent reason: 
God was showing humanity that scarring IS perfection.

Jesus’ resurrected body, whilst perfect, is marred and scarred.  Resurrected in body and ready for the Ascension, Jesus’ wounds reveal a reality and a lesson for us all.  It says something about our wounds, even as they continue to show.

Our woundedness, from an eternal perspective, that is our sinful imperfect nature, is already healed.  We can approach the mercy seat of God with confidence knowing there is nothing to do other than agree that God in Jesus has done it all.  There is no getting around how incomprehensible the goodness of God’s grace is.  It is utterly inexorable.

~

Christian faith is unique in this one way.

~

Christian faith is the only faith-construct that equates brokenness with restoration, connecting God with humanity, a “broken” God attaining an enduring, eternal victory through apparent consummate defeat.

God shows humanity in His own example, how life comes after death, how hope replaces despair, simply through being weak to be strong.

THE LIFE OF JESUS, THROUGH HIS DEATH

Knowing that defeat redeems victory in a warped yet fundamentally true way, Christian faith sets itself apart as the only way to truly live a free life.  Such a life is utterly paradoxical and totally against the ways of the world.  But in living it, life oozes from us through death—death to ourselves.  That’s faith!  It is the way of Jesus.

Life in God is a life sown IN Him.
Such a life, though it gives up everything it cannot keep, 
is a life abundant—with joy, hope, and peace.
Practically, it is classifying everything
not of God as unworthy of pursuit.

THIS is the victory of God in our lives
plainly through our worship of God alone.

Only when we give up winning in this life —yes, that is competing; and losing fear-of-missing-out—will we gain a glimpse of the next.  Eternity is otherwise impossible to access.  We cannot hedge our bets.

This life through death is never more poignantly lived than through the death to self of extending mercy toward someone who does not deserve it.

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, 
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
— 2 Corinthians 4:10

What can the above mean other than what it literally means?

What can it mean to “carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body”?  The death of Jesus left marks on His body, marks which Jesus knew needed to be SEEN and TOUCHED by His disciples.  The simple and powerful message in this is that there is power in living as wounded healers.

Wounded healers are souls healed enough of their wounds that they “carry” their victory.  They carry their victory into spaces where others can see and touch those wounds, and attest to the healing power of God to transform woundedness to wholeness.

No wounded healer is perfectly healed.  On the contrary, those wounds—like Jesus’—are there for all to see and touch.  A wounded healer is sufficiently vulnerable.  They are safe in their expression of their woundedness, and those imperfections are a witness to the work of Christ in their mortal body.  Wounded healers are humble and given to owning their wrongs.

The death of Jesus left marks on His body, 
marks which Jesus knew needed to be 
SEEN and TOUCHED by His disciples.

Others experience power when Christians 
bear weakness of their own wounds, 
not pretending any perfection, 
in sincere vulnerability. 
This takes a sustained commitment of humility.

The trouble with much of the world is it is in love with image, performance, and possessions.  And these are our human defaults.  We struggle to disentangle ourselves from these worldly desires—to be seen as capable, competent, confident, and in control.

But these worldly desires only lead to misery.

We forever chase what is often beyond 
our control, and there is no peace there.

The Christian life is victory because we hold what we ALREADY possess.  Indeed, in refusing to chase anything but the knowledge of God—to be hidden deep in our hearts—peace, joy, and hope come close immediately.

FORGIVENESS, THE EPITOME OF VICTORY

Forgiveness is THE central way we give up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose.  It is also THE central way that we achieve victory for others and ourselves.

The main thing the enemy of God wants is DIVISION.  But when we overcome the temptation to hold unforgiveness in our hearts, we defeat the enemy through the power of God.  Our God is a God of redemption, restoration, reconciliation.

There is a bigger picture than the hurts and betrayals and disappointments that we bear.

Worse than ‘paying someone back’ for their bad or evil deeds done is what our bitterness does to us.  It constricts our thinking and our vision.  More and more we become self-righteous.  The bitterer we get the blinder we become.  It is a real slippery slope.  We must remember:

God knows what has been done, 
and we must trust God 
that His justice will be done.
If not now, it will come in the life to come.

In the meantime, we carry a heart of forgiveness, accepting what we cannot understand by surrendering it ALL back to Him.  In that surrender, a miracle happens.  Surrender weakens us sufficiently that in THAT kind of weakness we redeem God’s strength.  In conceding we don’t have control, resisting the temptation to resentment, we agree to being beautifully broken for God’s glory.  We agree to going the journey of lament.

The power of God is so strong that we only need to genuinely practise this surrender ONCE and we are convinced that surrender is both right and powerful.

The world cannot know it: 
IN SURRENDER IS VICTORY 

This is the authentic and victorious Christian life: 
TO BE WEAK IS TO BE STRONG 

~

The chief form of strength in weakness is forgiveness.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Forgiveness, the Example of God


The glory of life is set before each one of us: to comprehend our existence, our purpose, our reason for being here, our being in its entirety.  Comprehension is the beginning, the middle, and the end.

Our existence, our purpose, our reason, our being:

It is all inspired from forgiveness and 
it impels us to live a life of forgiveness.

To live NOT as if we were God, 
but to LIVE as God lives, 
powered by God within us.

Forgiveness is the example of God 
in Jesus Christ, Person and God.

To live this life...

~

Forgiveness in God is so many things, 
not least, mercy, justice, holiness, 
empathy, unity, and wisdom.

I am convinced that that which is the core of the Gospel message is also the core to our healing—a healing we all need, a healing we need periodically, a healing we need each and every day.  To guard against tiredness and hardness of heart we are so prone to be enveloped by.

Forgiveness is mercy, the mercy of God, a mercy we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE MERCY OF GOD

The mercy of God is activated the moment 
we face what otherwise separates us from God.

The mercy of God is there, awaiting, dormant,
for the person contrite of heart 
recognising their need of God.

~

God’s mercy toward a needy humankind is irrefutable when it is experienced by a forgiven believer.  What I am saying is there is something tangibly real about the transaction we human beings make with God that makes the mercy of God palpable in human experience.

Humanity needs mercy, just as each of us needs it.  As we receive it, we learn how important it is to give.  Not only do others need it, but we also need to give it to others to re-experience God’s mercy to us.

As we extend God’s mercy to others,
God’s mercy is felt afresh in us.
There is a direct correlation.

Mercy is a thing that brings and begets life.  We must experience it to feel human and to feel alive.  We must also partake of it by extending it to others if we are to feel human and to feel alive.

Mercy at least in these terms 
is the potent expression of love 
that has practical meaning.

We may not comprehend love 
until we have experienced mercy.

But as soon as mercy is experienced
the life of love unfolds in our lives.

~

Forgiveness is justice, the justice of God, a justice we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE JUSTICE OF GOD

The justice of God is an entirely good thing.  It is both benevolence and righteousness.  Completely good, true, right, appropriate, consistent, and predictable.  The justice of God leaves no good thing judged and condemned.

God did not send the Son into this world 
to judge and condemn it (John 3:17).

Humanity has made the justice of God into a horrid thing, a heinous thing, an horrendous thing.  But the justice of God only reveals to us what is plain to see.  We need God!  This justice of God helps us to separate the truth from the lies.  This justice of God saves us, and it helps us live the way of salvation that others might also see, feel, experience, and live that way also—even as the fuller evidence is available on all our hearts as to the cavernous gap between us and God.

Forgiveness is holiness, the holiness of God, a holiness we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE HOLINESS OF GOD

Humanity has a common and collective desire.  It is prosperity.  But the reality of our lives is far less certain.  With threats to our financial, physical, and emotional safety—among several other needs—life is riskier than most of us would like it to be.

There is a chasm between 
our innate desire for peace and 
the harsher reality common to life.

There is one thing that would assure us of our individual and collective prosperity, and that would be if only we were all “like God” to the extent of God’s holiness.

The two most basic theological facts about God and humanity are fundamentally contrastive:

Humanity (each person) is made IN God’s image, 
YET God is completely “other-than” humanity.

The first fact says we are made of the same stuff, and this is in tension with the second fact, that we are nothing like God in one particular way: we are not holy.  But amazingly, Scripture still calls us, as a steady and consistent refrain, to “be holy, as God is holy.”

The central premise of the gospels is not only 
to “believe” in Jesus, but to “follow” Him.

God desires to transform in character 
all those who are made in God’s image.

Sanctification is the name we give 
to the process of becoming holy.

Discipleship is the name 
we give to this craft.

Jesus commands His disciples 
to MAKE disciples.

~

Forgiveness is empathy, the empathy of God, an empathy we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE EMPATHY OF GOD

Great personal blessing is experienced in authentically empathising for another person.

When we feel for another person as they feel, it not only lightens our own load, but we are also granted a heart that is after God’s own heart—seeing as God sees, feeling as God feels.  This can only be received as a gift, but to receive the gift we must want it, we must make a place for it, we must make room, and we must nurture such a gift, also.

We are all capable of getting it wrong and being harsh about someone else’s experience—especially when their experience runs cross grain against ours.

The last person we empathise with is the person who has hurt us, but perhaps we have also hurt them, so forgiving each other can seem a bridge too far for both.

Think about it for a moment.  When we can empathise for another person, which is to step inside THEIR reality and feel as if we ourselves were them, we find it far easier to understand and therefore forgive, and peace, hope, and joy are the signs of our redemption.

Forgiveness is unity, the unity of God, a unity we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE UNITY OF GOD

Father, Son, Holy Spirit is a unity—the unity of the Trinity.  Triune God is tri-unity.  There is no closer or better unity.  The Godhead three-in-one is the quintessence of unity upon which there is NO division.

This is the unity with which we humans crave, that oneness of self that forever seems to evade us.

Unity is of God and God is unity.  Indeed, unity is goodness, especially when people create and maintain unity through sacrificing themselves for each other.

25 percent of one disciple’s account of Jesus’ life 
is devoted to the message of unity and forgiveness.

One one-thousandth of Jesus’ ministry—the final night,
the summation of everything that Jesus stands for.

~

Put in the simplest of ways, 
when Christians forgive one another, 
they herald a power the world does not know, 
and the world notices the transcendence of this love.

The world is drawn to this Jesus love.

When Christians love one another,
the world sees Jesus 
because forgiveness is of God.

Unless we go to God, the God of unity, we cannot find what we need to forgive.  This is because we need to replace something deep within us with something deep within God.

Forgiveness is beauty, the beauty of God, a beauty we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE CITY OF GOD

“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.

~

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.

Forgiveness is wisdom, the wisdom of God, a wisdom we are to enact by example.

FORGIVENESS, THE WISDOM OF GOD

Forgiveness is the key way we guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:7), and the key truth to return to is the mercy of God.  Indeed, Paul highlights from the first eleven chapters of Romans, having set out a forensically perfect case for the gospel, that everything that God has already done is more than sufficient to motivate us to live a life of forgiveness, which is love, sincerity, gentleness, gratitude, and grace, etc, and everything else about virtuous intent and demeanour from Romans 12-16.

In terms of a living modus operandi, forgiveness is the unbeatable wisdom of God.

~

Forgiveness for a Christian is as simple as loving God back.  There is no better way of loving God than loving others through the forgiveness that God commands us to do.

~

As Jesus was and is the Exemplar of God in forgiving a humankind that so often does not understand what it needs, we too are given to this world to be examples of that living faith that brings life.

As Jesus is the Example of God,
we too are blessed when we too become 
examples of the love of God in mercy 
that can only come from God.