The Alternative to Forgiveness

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. (John 3:14-21 NRSV)

This concept of reversing magnetism in relation to debts or offenses that we have been learning about is still opening up new insights to me. The concept of proportional repulsion or attraction that is linked to the level of the original debt which of course is reversed by an equal amount of forgiveness has even more interesting and compelling implications.

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little. (Luke 7:47 NRSV)

If a person owes a great debt and is forgiven as was the case with the debtor in Matthew 18, there is potential for an enormously powerful attraction if the forgiveness is believed and embraced. Unfortunately that debtor never embraced the reality of his forgiveness and as a result his sense of obligation was never relieved.

This is what alerts me to another effect of this principle. Even though the tension pushing them apart was very high because of the enormity of the debt and that tension was intended to be transformed into an equally compelling attraction through the reversing power of forgiveness on the part of the king, because there was no faith exercised by the debtor he never entered into the bonding that the king had intended for him.

This is telling me that the key ingredient in this transforming act of forgiveness is the faith of the person being forgiven – faith in the person who has forgiven them.

Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God... (Hebrews 6:1)

If a person refuses to believe in the forgiveness,

then by default he is choosing to believe the opposite which only

continues the offense and even deepens it.

Unbelief is really clinging to suspicions about the character and intentions of the creditor.

In addition the person rejecting the reality of the forgiveness is

going to feel even more guilt, shame and condemnation.

But this is not because they are no longer forgiven but rather that

in their mind the opinion about the one forgiving them is propelled into even deeper suspicion.

They are quickly moving away from reality and in their deceived mind the only option left is to believe evil about the person seeking reconciliation. This is what the Bible terms the hardening of the heart.

Now I am seeing that the principle of proportion is still at work. Originally this principle can describe the proportion of love and affection as linked to the level of forgiveness experienced as we saw with Jesus' reference to Mary and Simon.

But when forgiveness is refused through unbelief then

the law of proportion works in the reverse direction.

When our mind insists that we are not really forgiven after we have been educated that we are,

then we will experience some or all of the following symptoms and many more.

We will go into deep denial that we owe any debt whatsoever and simply try to blot it out of our thinking. Of course this is hard to do when evidences of the facts keep haunting us and especially when we get around the person whom we have rejected.

We may fall into deep despair and feel terror of impending punishment.

We may become paralyzed with fear and become paranoid about even little things as we suffer from the consequences of living outside of grace.

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (Hebrews 10:26-27 NRSV)

We may also try to suffocate our feelings of fear and guilt by

throwing ourselves into a frenzy of work to pay off our debt even though if we were rational (which is less and less under these circumstances) we know that this is an absolute impossibility. Apparently that is what this debtor tried to do.

However, any and all of these options will still leave us experiencing

the principle of proportional suffering determined by the size of our debt.

Yet sadly all of these things are completely needless

because forgiveness is a continuous reality that is always present and we can embrace it at any moment.

This is exactly what causes much of our problem with God.

Because most of us believe that forgiveness is conditional with God

we are trying to work off our debts to Him and

are living in unbelief about His assurances of forgiveness.

Some of us live in constant terror of punishment and

many Christians assume that this is supposed to be normal.

We have embraced the lies about God circulated by His great accuser and

we suppose that God wants to keep a certain level of fear in our hearts

to motivate us to keep in line with His rules.

But this is a scheme of the enemy to prevent us from entering into the rest and the love that Jesus came to give us.

The real problem is that as long as we cling to our false ideas

we often absorb from religion or culture about God and salvation,

we are really storing up the very fuel of wrath inside of ourselves

that will serve to destroy us when the real loving God shows up in person.

But because we cling to false assumptions about Him,

then when we see His passionate love up close

we will feel that our greatest fears are confirmed for

we will interpret the passion we see on His face as anger instead of love and forgiveness.

This is what is behind the cry of those who have clung to lies about Him as recorded in Revelation who are calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. (Revelation 6:16 NRSV)

Truly our greatest danger is unbelief.

Unbelief in the reality of forgiveness prevents us from experiencing the magnetic drawing of our gracious God into deep bonding with His passionate heart of love.

Unbelief in the truth about how God feels about us and how He treats sinners blocks us from properly interpreting the passion on His face.

Unbelief hardens our hearts and distorts our perceptions of reality until our thinking becomes completely backwards from what is real.

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light...

So what is your story? Who has been cruel to you? Perhaps bitterly cruel. What injustice have you suffered? How have you been mistreated? Perhaps miserably so. Who has cheated you? Abused you? Mistreated you? Lied to you? Lied about you? Maybe it was last week. Maybe it was a lifetime ago. As you remember your suffered injustice, how does it affect the way you view the future? Or let me put it another way: What are you waiting for? Are you waiting to get even? A chance for payback? An opportunity to exact your revenge? If so, you have no future.

You may get even, you may achieve payback, you may gain your revenge, but you will stay forever chained to the injustice done to you. You are in danger of forming your identity around your injustice in such a way that it forever shapes your future. Even if you get even, you will still drag that ball and chain with you. In looking for an opportunity to be cruel to the person who was cruel to you, you will become a cruel person. And in becoming a cruel person, your cruelty will, in all likelihood, not be limited to the person or persons who have treated you cruelly. In seeking the opportunity to repay cruelty with cruelty, cruelty will become your identity, your lifestyle, and your character. Tragically, you will do the very thing you hate: you will inflict cruel injustice upon others.

Worse yet, you will become the very thing you hate. This is how evil perpetuates itself. This is how evil moves from host to host until the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Evil is only defeated when someone absorbs the blow and forgives, thus ending the cycle of evil. Absorbing the blow without retaliation by exercising the option to forgive is not weakness or acquiescence with injustice; it is taking up your cross and following Jesus. It is following Jesus to Calvary, and there ending evil through the triumph of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not weakness; it is the power of God – the power of God to overcome evil by depriving evil of a host for retaliation. (Unconditional p.83-84)

And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. (Matthew 18:34-35)

The choice is ours – yours and mine.

Our choice will be influenced and will in turn shape our views of how God views us and treats us.

Our choice in this matter determines our eternal destiny, not because God will punish or reward us but because there are natural principles at work here that have their unavoidable consequences.

Belief in the truth as it is in Jesus will unlock our heart

and will use the principle of proportions to draw us inexorably into

the atmosphere of heaven where real healing will begin.

Our assurance of how much we are really loved and forgiven will work

to effect real transformation from the inside out.

Belief opens our heart to feel the passion of God firsthand

which in turn energizes us to feel more alive, to feel worth and value and discover our true identity as designed by God.

Belief allows Jesus to enter into and permeate our lives,

to dwell in us and to impart His divine nature into our humanity

so that His life will be reproduced in our daily lives and in our interactions with others.

Forgiveness is a reality that is irrevocable.

God's love for us is a constant reality that is unstoppable, unavoidable and cannot be diminished.

The deciding factor that determines whether we will enter into abundant life

or will experience our greatest fears is our choice of how we will respond to these truths.

The power of our mind to create an alternative reality is amazing and the decisions we make each day about how we will relate to God's offer to transform us is what will shape our opinions about Him which in turn affects our future decisions about Him.

"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." (Acts 16:31)