Forgiveness

We don’t like sin.  We have come up with a whole list of words that we can use instead of sin like wrongdoing, transgression, issue, problem, fault, slip, offense, failing, character flaw, almost anything but the word sin.  Our society likes to say that we don’t really sin, we just make mistakes.  Little slips, not really sins.  A cartoon depicts an old priest looking down in dismay at his congregation, packed into the last few rows of pews and leaving the entire front of the church empty.  His obvious unnecessary announcement that there are plenty of seats down front has no impact whatsoever.  So, in the next frame, he’s out in front of the church, putting up an announcement on the sign board, “all sinners must sit in the rear.”  In the final frame, he is peering down at the whole congregation gathered so close under the pulpit that they’re practically climbing it; and he pleads futilely that there are plenty of seats in the rear.

                The Bible is clear in teaching that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).  And that really does mean all in the every person ever living sense of the word (except Jesus).  Many people would rather do just about anything (including something as radical as sitting in the front row of the church) than admit that they are sinners.  We try hard to say and believe that we have not sinned.  And as long as we stay in the shadows, hiding from ourselves at least as much as from anyone else, we at least half-way suppose that we can keep the illusion going.  But we have a vague sense of unease as we tell ourselves that our behavior is really perfectly alright, or at least unavoidable, and that any slips are hardly worth mentioning.  As one contemporary theologian stated “by trying to define our sin out of existence, we deprive ourselves of our only remedy.”

                 We have a hard time fully understanding that God had completely forgiven our sins.  Joyce Meyer recalls her challenges in understanding forgiveness and said “many years ago when I was first developing my relationship with the Lord, each night I would beg His forgiveness for my past sins.  One evening as I knelt beside my bed, I heard the Lord say to me, “Joyce, I forgave you the first time you asked, but you have not received My gift because you have not forgiven yourself.”  God wants to begin the process by giving us the gift of forgiveness first.  When we confess our sins to God, God forgives us of our sins, puts them away from Him as far as the East is from the West, and remembers them no more. 

But for us to benefit from that forgiveness, we must receive it by faith.  People become bound by their sin.  They try to hide it from themselves and from others.  They don’t want people to know what they are really like.  We fear that if people really knew all our sins they may not accept us, and we fear that God may not accept us either.  If God really knew me God might not love me and cast me out.  That is not true.  God loves every one of us, and God forgives every one of us.  As we are reminded in Romans, there is nothing that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God.  We are blessed to confess our sins to a loving God who will forgive us no matter what we may have done when we come before him humbly asking for forgiveness.

Recognizing that we have been forgiven, we are called to forgive those around us.  We are called to humbly come before one another, recognizing our own brokenness and how God has forgiven us, asking forgiveness for ways we may have wronged someone else, but also offering forgiveness to those who have wronged us.  May we learn to truly accept the forgiveness that God has freely given to us, and be able to forgive as we have been forgiven. 

God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHopeEC.org