Forgiveness
Forgiveness works
- Mark 11:26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
According to this direct statement from Jesus if you do not forgive neither will you be forgiven. That means if you are having trouble with forgiving others then you probably do not really believe in Jesus and any secured salvation you believe you have is probably a strong delusion.
For giving is not just an idea or a thought. It is a state of mind so fundamental it alters the mind and the body.
The word forgive is defined to "stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake." You may think you forgive if you think forgiving is easy but if you are still remembering the lies and deception with pain and anguish then your forgiveness itself is a deception. Its hooks remain in your heart and you are not yet free.
Every opportunity to forgive is a possibility of receiving a blessing and gift from God to be cherished with joy. The mechanics of releasing the bonds that bind us in pain is to desire release for others as much as we desire to be free ourselves.
We are saved by grace.[1] But we do not receive grace if we only love those who love us. We receive grace when we love those who do not love us, including those who may spitefully use us, those who are even our enemy.[2]
Miracles of Grace
- Luke 5:23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
Why can't we say arise and walk?
Why are hands not full of the virtue of Christ that heals body and soul?
Is it because we do not really forgive the forgiveness that is of Christ?
We may all have different gifts but they come in proportion to the grace of God and the grace of God comes with the grace we extend to others.[3] If you do not give grace to not expect to receive grace.
If we bless those who by grace are servants of God ministering to the people in faith then we may be blessed not in accordance with what we pray for for ourselves but what we pray for others.[4] If wish wish ill will for others or desire to use others or seek to burden others we ourselves will be oppressed. If we are Biting one another we too may be devoured. As we judge so shall we be judged.[5]
If we come in the Name of Christ, which is to say in character of Christ, then the power of Christ will be measured to us by grace. [6]
The purpose of a Network of congregations and ministers serving one another is to produce a flow of grace from one to another in service so that grace abounds in spirit and in truth.[7]
Can we be forgiven if we forgive not those who use us, abuse us, betray us, spit on us or nail us to a cross?
In recent broadcasts I talked about forgiveness... Not only of those who love us but of those who use us and even abuse us.
We are to love our enemies whether real or imagined.
If they are really our enemy and do not understand real forgiveness they will flee us, not we them.
- Romans 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
This verse begins with therefore because we are told in Romans 12:18 "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."
Because the master said:
- Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Wikipedia says "Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well."
It included a picture of Marcus Aurelius who showed clemency for those he vanquished but feared and persecuted Christians because they did not depend for their Welfare on the Imperial Cult of Rome and its Temples. The “the union and discipline of the Christian republic... gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire.”[8]
Christians depended upon the Pure Religion and Corban of Christ through His Church. Celsus, a Platonist, writing during the term of Marcus Aurelius, “opposed the ‘sectarian’ tendencies at work in the Christian movement because he saw in Christianity a ‘privatizing’ of religion, the transferal of religious values from the public sphere to a private association.”[9]
The difference between public and private welfare is the difference between Public religion and Private Religion, or socialism and charity. The nations of the Pax Romana had made the power of the state their benefactors while Christians were living by love for one another according to the commandments of Christ. This was the Christian conflict.
Real forgiveness works
Forgiveness is the end of conflict because it sets us free. There should be no residue or pain nor fear of enemy nor discomfort if we reach a point of true forgiveness.
If we have not then we need to face those we have not truly forgiven so that we may be free....
Forgiveness will open the door to healing, first in ourselves and then in others.
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- ↑ Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
- ↑ Luke 6:32 For if ye love them which love you, what thank <5485> have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. 33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank <5485> have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank <5485> have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
- ↑ Romans 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
- ↑ 2 Corinthians 8:4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift <5485>, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
- ↑ Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
- ↑ Ephesians 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
- ↑ 1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
- ↑ Comment on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Rousseau and Revolution, Will et Ariel Durant p.801. fn 83 Heiseler, 85.
- ↑ Christians as the Romans Saw Them, by Robert Wilken page 125.