Jesus said, “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt 6:15). Instead of refusing to forgive, we’re supposed to forgive as God has forgiven us (Eph 4:32; Col 3:13). So … if we’re His followers, we are supposed to forgive. But … God doesn’t always forgive (e.g., John 3:36; Matt 12:31). He offers it universally (Acts 17:30; 1 Tim 2:4), but it is conditional (repentance and faith). How does that work?
As it turns out, forgiveness is trickier than we first thought. You see, as we discussed earlier, mercy and justice are … terms that don’t play well together. Justice “balances the books” and mercy withholds the just penalty due for … imbalanced books. The only way for mercy and justice to coexist is to have the “crime” paid for and then not apply to the “criminal” the penalty due. To us, mercy and justice feel opposed because we cannot satisfy justice ourselves. But in God, mercy and justice meet perfectly at the cross. Jesus paid it all, so He bore our penalty. God can apply mercy to us while still being just. But … what about us? When we forgive others their trespasses, where’s the justice? Are we simply refuting it? No. In Micah we read, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does YHWH requires of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic 6:8). We aren’t supposed to ignore justice; we’re supposed to do it. So how does that work? Here’s how. We assign the justice to God and offer interpersonal mercy on our end. When we forgive someone, we don’t pardon their sin. We don’t have that capacity. Remember? Only God can forgive sin (Mark 2:7). So we say, “It’s not my place to pass condemnation on you.” We offer, “I have been guilty of similar things and I will treat you as I want to be treated.” We say, “I will let God carry out His own judgment” (Rom 12:19). So … when we forgive, we don’t do it by circumventing justice. We lay it on the “Judge of all the Earth” (Gen 18:25; Heb 12:23) to accomplish and offer temporal mercy. We are not suspending divine justice; we are suspending our right to retaliate.
We are commanded to forgive those who trespass against us, and I’m embarrassed about how bad we are at that. But sometimes we seem to think that God is supposed to forgive like we are … on command without regard for justice. He is not. Neither are we. Justice is essential. It’s just that we aren’t actually qualified to know justice perfectly, so we lay it in His perfectly just hands and let Him handle it. We forgive because God is just, not in spite of His justice.
2 comments:
I think it important to maintain that our temporal forgiveness of others isn't universally given either. We seem to think that since we are to be forgivers that we should simply forgive every wrong don't against us. But that's not the example we're given. We are to be ready to forgive easily, but not to forgive without repentance. I know you stated that early on, but I think it important to be reminded about what forgiveness should look like.
I like your thoughts here. I admit that, with a strong desire for life to be “fair and square,” I have difficulty dismissing injustices I have endured--to “forgive and forget.” My natural tendency is very much toward a game of “tit for tat” in a pursuit of equity, rather than an easy-going “let it go.” But then I consider how graciously and quickly the Lord forgave me of my many serious sins against Him; I went from His enemy to His beloved child in an instant--and it was not even through anything I did to make things right. Therefore, I must extend that same forgiveness towards others who offend me and imitate Christ, who “did not retaliate … but instead entrusted Himself to Him Who judges rightly” (1 Pet. 2:23). God, the righteous Judge, will set things right as He sees fit, in His perfect timing and manner; there is no improving on that.
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