Monday, March 30, 2009

forgiven

finishing my last semester of college is hard.  many times i have no motivation to finish the final tasks set before me.  in one of my two classes this semester, i had to write a paper considering the biblical theology of a topic.  i chose forgiveness.  

and what have i learned you ask?

forgiveness is not some feeling that we feel in order to make us "right" with another.  it is a promising work of God that he initiates within the believer and enables us to forgive others due to the complete forgiveness we have received in Christ.  forgiveness is not remembering the wrong that someone else has done against you.  this is different than forgetting.  it is not bringing up the offense.  God cannot forget, he is omniscient.  therefore, he is gracious in absolving our sins.  he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God.  God pushes our offenses as far as the east is from the west and promises to forgive us.  what grace!  

i could go on and on about what i have been thinking on this topic, but i will end with this question that i am still pondering today...

if forgiveness is a God-initiated act, is it possible for one who has not been redeemed by Christ to actually forgive someone in the biblical sense of the term?