Friday, September 28, 2007

Forgiveness

True or False
The Bible says to forgive others, whether they want you to or not.

This is a subject that I have had to grapple with for several years now. I came to faith in Christ at the age of 28, so I am fully aware of what unmerited forgiveness looks like. The grace of God that has been given to me is nothing short of miraculous. That being said, I would assert that the Bible does not teach us to forgive everyone who has ever caused us harm. I do believe that we must have a spirit of forgiveness or, a "ready and willing" to forgive heart attitude. I would simply ask people to consider the cross. Forgiveness has been provided, paid for, even suffered for, yet if someone dies without ever repenting and asking for this forgiveness which is already provided, is that person granted forgiveness? The answer is of course no. I do not think it is very Christian to be harboring ill feelings of anger or unwillingness to forgive. But it is also not Christ like to simply go about handing out forgiveness to people who do not want your forgiveness. As Christians we are called to live consistent with what the Scriptures say.