The Bible teaches that Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins. How did Jesus’ death on the cross translate into God’s forgiveness? Forgiveness is one of those religious terms often used as a core tenet of Christian belief that ironically many find hard to articulate exactly what it means and why it is important other than because “God said so” and more worrisomely, that God won’t forgive us if we don’t forgive others. (Faith is another such term, and so are Grace and Mercy, but we will deal with those in future posts).
What does it mean to forgive someone? How can it possibly be “okay” for some injury or injustice to have taken place? Christians are commanded by God to forgive their debtors, as God has forgiven them. But it’s not sufficient to say the words, “I forgive you” as if it were some mystical incantation that magically bestows a state of forgiveness upon another. Merely forcing one’s self to say the words certainly does nothing to remove the deep well of venom that one might feel entirely justified for wishing upon a transgressor. When the pain of injury becomes personal, when the damage extends beyond a moment into a chronic condition, when the aftershock of injustice spreads beyond one’s self and invades the lives of our loved ones, what does it mean to forgive, and how is such forgiveness possible?
Forgiveness is a uniquely Christian imperative that does not appear in other religions in such a foundational role. It is also perhaps the most difficult practice of any spiritual behavior to master, and ultimately, it is the one task that is impossible without external help.
But first, it will help to qualify just what forgiveness means, and to understand how it is possible.
When one initially thinks about forgiveness, one is drawn to the act that caused injury or perpetrated injustice. It would be tempting to think that forgiveness has something to do with that moment in time – or some way to view that incident (by ignoring it?) or perhaps withholding judgement for that incident. The problem with this approach is that it does nothing to assuage the inner compulsion we feel for the need to exact punishment and vent our rage upon the one(s) who have caused us pain.
To understand forgiveness, we need to realize that the injury or injustice does not merely affect us at one point of time, but continues to affect us from that time forward. There is the pain of the initial injury, but also an ongoing loss as a result of that injury. Forgiveness then, is all about accepting the consequences of an injury and loss, and those consequences can even be hidden at first and take time to materialize, and in some cases, may grow deeper and wider as time goes on. Forgiveness, then, is not focused so much on the act of the transgression, but on the ongoing effects of the transgression – and it is an acknowledgement and an acceptance that those painful effects may continue forward into the future. In fact, forgiveness is a choice to accept any and all on-going effects of the injury. Forgiveness is certainly not a one time act (such as a magical incantation or proclamation), but an ongoing perspective and attitude with which to view one’s circumstances.
What could drive a sane, sentient, feeling person to accept the on-going consequences of injury and loss? One’s own guilt for some other trespass? A sense of quid-pro quo as payment in advance in order to receive forgiveness from God? Those seem to be pretty oppressive reasons and heap negative upon negative in a comparative contest of who is more deserving of punishment. Under that calculus, one might forgive others only when they felt even more grateful that they had already been forgiven of a more serious trespass. While that is certainly one valid reason to feel compelled to forgive, there is an even more universal one.
Universal forgiveness is possible when the story is larger than the incident between a transgressor and a victim. Universal forgiveness is possible when the story is one where a third entity is deeply and intricately intertwined within the fabric of the situation, and indeed experiences the injuries and injustices as much, if not more than the primary victim. Universal forgiveness is ONLY possible when the narrative of the story expands to include not just the incident of the past, and the pain of the present, but also the hope and the expectation of beauty arising out of tragedy. Universal forgiveness is possible when the victim joins in partnership with the third party in the hope and expectation that the third party is actively engaged in finding some way to craft a work of beauty out of trauma. Could it be possible that God did not stop creating after the sixth day of creation, but has now shifted the exercise of his creativity from making something out of nothing to transforming brokenness into stories of beauty? Universal forgiveness is possible when the victim is willing to become part of the raw material the third party uses to create a picture of redemption. Universal forgiveness is possible when the victim experiences compassion while they wait for the revelation of that creativity.
We can only forgive if we believe that God continues to Create and transform even within our troubled circumstances AND that He is With Us in our suffering as we wait for His creativity to be revealed. When we forgive, we do not hope for a particular outcome, we buy God time and give Him permission to exercise His creativity in a way that we may not be able to predict in order to fashion something of beauty out of our tragedy. The core of forgiveness, then, shifts our focus and attention away from the transgressor and their injurious act(s) to God’s creativity and compassion.
What makes forgiveness hard is that we are forced to give up our sense of independence, self determination and expectation of fulfillment which we had before the injury. By nature we wish to be self sufficient – to establish our future security by our hard work or clever machinations. Indeed, that mentality formed the root of the original sin described in the Bible at the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve partook of the “forbidden” fruit as an act of independence, thinking that they could secure for themselves a desired commodity apart from the Creator. When someone causes us injury and/or loss, we lose a bit of that ability to secure our own future – and the greater the injury, the greater the loss of control we feel (and the greater animosity we harbor against the transgressor who forced us into this needy circumstance). The only way for us to find satisfaction after such a disruption is to entrust our wellbeing or enjoyment to an external benefactor which by nature is unpredictable. If the “original” sin can be boiled down to our own choice for independence and self sufficiency and whose antidote is that we once again entrust ourselves to a benevolent God, an injury or injustice that requires us to forgive places us into that exact same posture of needing to entrust ourselves to a benevolent God. The injury, loss, or injustice yanks the certainty or likelihood of satisfaction out of our hands and forces us to confront the inevitability that the only way we will hope to find satisfaction is through an agent outside of our control. We find forgiveness difficult because the solution to injury and injustice is the same as the solution to our own sinfulness. We hate being forced to depend on an outside entity to make us whole. We detest having to trust God when we are not convinced of His creativity and compassion. The stronger we believe that God is indeed Compassionate (loving) and Creative, the easier it is for us to forgive and to wait for the revelation of His Creativity.
If we find it hard to forgive, the solution is not to try harder. The solution is to find a way to remind us or convince ourselves that God’s creativity is big enough and unlimited enough to turn EVEN THIS tragedy into a beautiful story, and to ask for eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to sense and recognize His loving compassion throughout our time of waiting for His creativity to be revealed.
WHAT: Forgiveness means accepting the extended consequences of an injury and loss.
HOW: Entrusting the fulfillment of a prior sense of sufficiency (self sufficiency) to an external source (ultimately, a benevolent God).
WHY: We believe that God is compelled by his nature of compassion and creativity to craft beauty out of tragedy
WHEN: (When will God exercise the transformation and redemption of tragedy into beauty?) Sometime in the future – hopefully before we die, but not necessarily so. (Psalm 27:13-14)
How did God forgive us of our sins by sending Jesus to die on the cross?