Third, when Jesus challenges us to forgive, He asks us to do something that is difficult, but not impossible. Preaching and teaching about God's wonderful and forgiving love is easy. Practicing and living God's love is difficult, but not impossible. Even though Corrie Ten Boom's father and sister perished in a Nazi concentration camp, she was determined to forgive the Germans. One day after preaching about God's forgiveness, a man approached her, stuck out his hand, and said: "Ja, Fraulein Ten Boom, I am so glad that Jesus forgives us all of our sin, just as you say."3 Corrie could not reciprocate because the man had been a guard at the concentration camp where she had been incarcerated. After silently asking God to forgive her for her unforgiving spirit, Corrie grasped the man's hand, symbolizing forgiveness. Just like Corrie, we must eventually move from theory to practice; we must move from discussing the Karls and Manassehs of the world to dealing with real people in our lives. Has someone killed a loved-one, murdered your marriage, or stolen your dreams? Have you done something for which you cannot forgive yourself? For your own sake, mentally reach out and offer that person the hand of forgiveness. Such an act is painfully difficult, but not humanly impossible.
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Finally, when Jesus challenges us to forgive, He asks us to embody the "Golden Rule." We all have met people whom we could consider unforgivable. Unfortunately, and quite possibly, every one of us might be on someone else's unforgivable list. Thus, Jesus' words take on new meaning: "If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins .... So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." (
Matt. 6:14-15;
7:12) Thus, when we forgive, we extend God's grace, which we do not deserve but have received, to those who may not deserve it but need it. Such is the life to which God has called us.
1Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower, (New York: Schocken Books, 1976), 99.
2Quoted by Philip Yancey, "An Unnatural Act," Christianity Today, 8 April 1991, 36.
3June 7, 2001 Quoted by Louis Smedes, Forgive and Forget (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1984), 120.