We Need Scandalous ForgivenessEsimerkki

The Cost of Forgiveness Although forgiveness is necessary, it often comes at a great price. Forgiveness means letting go of the anger, bitterness, and hatred that, honestly, usually feels better in the moment. Sometimes the people we need to forgive don’t deserve forgiveness, so we rather wait for them to change before we forgive. The same is true when we can’t forgive ourselves for something we’ve done. We know the pain we’ve caused or the problems we’ve created, so we try to fix ourselves before we forgive. This is what makes the Gospel so extraordinary. The God of the universe did not wait until we fixed ourselves. He offered forgiveness before we deserved it, while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). What Christ did can teach us a lot about forgiveness. When we know that the people in our life do not deserve our forgiveness, when we can’t look past the hurt we’ve caused other people, we can always look to the cross and embrace the forgiveness that he freely gave. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we now have the power of His Spirit to go and demonstrate that same kind of love to others. In today’s passages, we will see how God loved you so much that He did not wait until you earned your salvation. In fact, he knew that was impossible. Instead, He humbled himself to the point of becoming a poor carpenter of an oppressed people destined for death so that we could be forgiven. Through this, we can confidently live out that same love and forgiveness towards others and towards ourselves.