Jesus told his disciples of the need for forgiveness: “For if you forgive others their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15, ESV) This is no light or easy thing - in fact it
is not possible in our human strength. But
Jesus also said that “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke
18:27, ESV) To say “I forgive” and to mean
it requires that we seek God earnestly and that we allow God to do that work
through us.
Corrie ten Boom is a woman who understands the need to be forgiven as
well as the need to forgive. As a child, she and her family sheltered Jews from
the Nazis and was later forced into a concentration camp at Ravensbruck with
her sister Betsie (who was killed in that concentration camp). Corrie spoke often in gatherings about
forgiveness, and then one day, after sharing about forgiveness, a man
approached Corrie to thank her for her words on forgiveness and Corrie shared
about the experience in “I’m Still Learning to Forgive”:
“I
remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. I was face-to-face
with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“ ‘You mentioned Ravensbruck in
your talk,’ he was saying, ‘I was a guard there. But since that time, I have become a
Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there,
but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein,’ the hand came
out—’will you forgive me?’
“And I stood there — I whose sins
had again and again to be forgiven — and could not forgive. Betsie had died in
that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he
stood there — hand held out — but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the
most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it — I knew that.
The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive
those who have injured us. ‘If you do not forgive men their trespasses,’ Jesus
says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.’
“I knew it not only as a
commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had
had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive
their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild
their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their
bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
“And still I stood there with the
coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that
too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of
the temperature of the heart. ‘… Help!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand.
I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’
“And so woodenly, mechanically, I
thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible
thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang
into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole
being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“ ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I
cried. ‘With all my heart!’
“For a long
moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.
I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then”
We must, as
followers of Jesus, obey His commands, and he has commanded us to forgive. But He also promises to “supply every need of
yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, ESV). Who do you need to forgive? Pray to God – ask Him first for the will to
forgive and then ask Him for the feeling of forgiveness.
Jesus, when he was
dying on the cross, said (and meant with His whole being): “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.” (Luke 23:24, ESV). Thy
mystery of the gospel, according to Paul in Colossians, is “Christ in
you”. Allow His forgiveness to flow through
you and extend to those who have caused injury – for those who do so know no
more what they are doing than those who crucified Jesus.
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