Forgiveness 101

John 20:22-23 (ESV) 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

So many times, we want to take scripture at face value instead of digging into what it really means. All scripture for me has a deeper meaning and understanding other than just what it says on the page, you got to look at the words what do they mean in the Greek what do they mean in the Hebrew. You have to look at the whole body of work. What is Jesus? He is forgiveness.

The word “forgive” in the Greek means to “send away,” which is synonymous with the concept of “putting off.” The word “offense” means “cause to stumble.” When others wrong us, if we do not send away the offense, i.e., the negative feelings of shame, anger, and vengeance, we will justify sinful behavior toward them. Thus, we become more corrupted by a reaction to offense than the offense itself! Dr Jim Richards.

Forgiving somebody is so simple and we make it about all kinds of things. All you have to do is send it away

Jesus basically says there’s only two ways to deal with offenses you hold on to them or you send them away. We all know what happens when you hold on to it. I can tell you one thing I know for sure that doesn’t happen. God doesn’t stop forgiving you just because you haven’t forgiven somebody. I love what Dan Mohler says. He lays it out perfectly, you might say in laymans terms.

People haven’t tasted the glory of being of being forgiven,  so they haven’t become forgiveness.

If you believe that God will not forgive you because you won’t forgive somebody. That is religion. That is a Works mentality. It’s interesting that Jesus also speaks about this in Matthew. Here’s what I know Jesus died so that I would be forgiven. End of story! There aren’t any,…. well but,…. what about,…. what if I did…

When you are walking in unforgiveness bitterness whatever you want to call it. You will reap what you sow. It is not that God will not forgive you but your heart has been compromised. You now can’t experience God’s forgiveness. You must assess and reconcile

Matthew 6:15 (ESV) 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

What happened on the cross? Jesus forgave, he forgave me for my past my present and my future 2200 years ago. It does not matter if I’m walking in unforgiveness. Some people don’t even know how to get rid of unforgiveness until they meet Jesus.

Take heart that Jesus loves you and he forgave you for whatever happened for whatever you did.

I’ve been redeemed