Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things God tells us we must do.  In fact, our own forgiveness is dependent upon our forgiving others when they sin against us(Matt. 6:12).  It is effectively another example of God calling on us to be like Him.  Let’s see how this works.

When we sin, we separate ourselves from God.  The Bible refers to this as death(Rom. 6:23).  That is not a physical death, or every time someone sinned for the very first time in their lives, they would die.  Humanity would not last long if that were the case.  Instead, the death is far worse.  And no, you did not read that wrong.  I said the death we experience is far worse than physical death.  Let me explain.

Physical death is just that; it is when our body dies.  However, it is merely the end of our life in this physical world.  This physical death is inevitable.  On average, people in the US live to about 75 for men and 80 for women.  But even if you make it to 90 or 100, that just is not comparable to eternal life(more on that later).  I am not suggesting that physical death is nothing; it certainly is a source of great sorrow(I Thess. 4:13).  But it is inevitable, and even if someone lives a very long life, they will still die(physically).  So what do we do about that?

Although we cannot forestall physical death forever, spiritual death is a completely different matter.  Whereas someone physically dies once, and after that there is judgment before God(Heb. 9:27), spiritual death is something you can come back from.

When a person dies spiritually, they separate themselves from God.  This happens when they sin(Rom. 6:23).  However, Jesus came to this world specifically to save people from their sins(John 1:29).  He accomplished this by dying as an atoning sacrifice for our sins(I John 2:2; 4:10).  This is great news(the Bible refers to it as “good news” or the “gospel” – Mark 16:15).  It means that when we sin, we can still be forgiven.  If someone is not a Christian, they need to accept God’s gift(the Bible calls this grace – Eph. 2:8-9).  This is done through faith in Jesus as the Son of God(there are other things they have to do, but none of it amounts to earning forgiveness from sin).  If someone is already a Christian and sins, they need to ask for forgiveness, which would involve confession of that sin(how can you ask for forgiveness without admitting you did something wrong?) – Matt. 18:15-20.  If we have sinned against someone and that is known, you need to go to that person.  If you have sinned and only God knows, He is the only One you would need to confess to. 

We are not looking at sinning against someone, but rather someone sinning against us . . . and our need to forgive them.  Do we?  What happens if someone sins against us and they ask us to forgive them, but we say no?  Jesus makes it very clear in Matt. 6:12 that God will forgive us as(or in the same way that) we forgive those who sin against us.  In the abstract, this might not sound that difficult, but the difficulty arises when someone specifically sins against us.  They may have publicly embarrassed us.  They may have humiliated us.  They may have caused us to lose our job at work.  They could have caused a problem with our spouse(maybe our spouse no longer trusts us because of a lie told by someone else).  These can be hard to forgive, when there are lasting consequences.  Yet, that is exactly what God says we must do, at least if we want to be forgiven by Him of our own sins.  And we absolutely need His forgiveness.

Without forgiveness, we are still guilty of our own sins.  And as mentioned earlier, sin separates us from God.  And that separation from God is spiritual death, which is far worse that physical death.  We cannot recover from physical death, but we can recover from spiritual death during the course of our physical lives.  We can seek forgiveness, in whatever form that requires, based on the situation.

We can have our relationship with God restored, once we are forgiven of our sins.  But if we are not forgiven during this physical life, we can never restore that relationship with God.   And being separated from God results in being eternally separated from Him for eternity(Matt. 25:31-46).  And eternity lasts forever, not just 70 or 80 years.

This means that we need to be forgiving . . . of everybody.  People we like.   People we do not like.  People who sin against us more than once(Matt. 18:21-22).  People who commit heinous sins against us.  Basically, we need to be forgiving of everyone.  And that can be hard.

God does not ask us to do any more than He does.  He forgives us because He loves us.  He wants us to forgive others, because He wants us to be like Him.  Forgiving.  That is a part of Who God is.  It is who we should be as well.  Let’s be forgiving, when it’s easy and when it isn’t.  God wanted to forgive those who killed His own Son, Jesus.  We will never be asked to forgive more than Him.