But!

“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”   Colossians 3:13

“But you don’t understand what that person did to me, Pastor.” That response is a typical response when I     counsel people on forgiveness. However, there should never be a “but” when it comes to forgiveness.   As followers of Christ, we have been forgiven of sinning against a holy God, and that forgiveness is not limited. Throughout our lives, we will continue to sin against our Lord, yet He will not hold that against us regarding our salvation. There is no “but” to God’s forgiveness, which also applies to all believers.

Jesus made that clear when Peter asked, “Lord, how  often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ( Matthew 18:21). Jesus’ reply was,    “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22).” The implication is clear, there is no but in our forgiveness. It is not easy to forgive. However, we are most like Christ when we forgive  because it goes entirely against our sin nature to    forgive someone who has hurt us.

I want to share with you a story of forgiveness that can only come from the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells in every believer. The following is from The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom and her family resisted the     Nazis by hiding Jews in their home. They were ultimately discovered and sent to a concentration camp. Corrie barely survived until the end of the war; her family members died in captivity. Seared by this terrible trial by fire, Corrie’s faith in God also survived, and she spent much of her time in the post-war years traveling in Germany and  elsewhere in Europe, sharing her faith in Christ.

On one occasion in 1947, while speaking in a church in Munich, she noticed a balding man in a gray  overcoat near the rear of the basement room. She had been speaking on the subject of   God’s forgiveness, but her heart froze within her when she recognized the man. She could picture  him as she had seen him so many times before, in his blue Nazi uniform with the visored cap—the    cruelest of the guards at the Ravensbruck Camp where Corrie had suffered the most horrible indignities, and where her own sister had died. Yet here he was, at the end of her talk, coming up the aisle toward her with his hand thrust out. “Thank   you for your fine message,” he said. “How wonderful it is to know that all our sins are at the bottom of    the sea!”

Yes, Corrie had said that. She had spoken so easily of God’s forgiveness, but here was a man whom she despised and condemned with every fiber of her        being. She couldn’t take his hand! She couldn’t extend forgiveness to this Nazi oppressor! She realized that this man didn’t remember her—how  could he remember one prisoner among thousands?

“You mentioned Ravensbruck,” the man continued, his hand still extended. “I was a guard there. I’m ashamed   to admit it, but it’s true. But since then, I’ve come to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It has been hard for me to forgive myself for all the cruel things I did but I know that God has forgiven me. And please, if you would, I would like to hear from your lips too that God has forgiven me.” And Corrie recorded her response in her book:

I stood there—I whose sins had again and again been forgiven—and could not forgive. 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. It was as simple and as horrible as that. And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. 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, and 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.

May each of us learn to forgive the way God intended His children to forgive.

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark