By Funom Makama
Humanly speaking, forgiveness is a very difficult thing to do, especially if we have been hurt so badly. Do you remember the adage, "To err is human, but to forgive is divine"? If you do, then it is very comprehensible to know that we need divine grace, a force which supersedes our human emotions, will and every mind to be able to forgive. If this is the case, then we need to understand how God has forgiven us and how he expects us to forgive one another.
Every Person is separated from God Because of Sin (Isaiah59:1-15, Romans3:9-20, Romans5:12-21, Ecclesiastics7:20, Romans7:14-25)
Ecclesiastics7:20 revealed that no one in this world always does right. So our imperfection is our greatest weakness. Since the Adamic sin, everyone is condemned a sinner and so we must all die and for this reason we are worthless and unacceptable to God. Sin has hindered God to answer our prayers and we commit a lot of actions unpleasing to God. As mere humans, we have been sold as slaves to sin, we want to do right but we end up doing the things we hate. How miserable this situation is.
God has always sought to form a close relationship with People. (Exodus 19:3b-8, Jeremiah31:31-34, Isaiah54:1-10, 1st Peter1:1-10, 1st John3:1-10)
In exodus 19, the Lord brought the Israelites out of slavery. As such, he has "earned the right to be heard" when He offered to enter this relationship with the Israelites in verses 5 and 6. Why did God choose Israel as His nation? It was not because Israel was perfect. In fact, He chose Israel in spite of many evil things they had said and done. Through Israel, God chose to work out His plan for the entire world. On several Occasions has God tried to create new agreements with them and in Jeremiah 31:33, He said "Here is the new agreement that I, the Lord, will make with the people of Israel; "I will write my laws on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people". Not to forget His promises of protection in Isaiah 54:1-10, 1st peter 1:1-10 and finally His love for us as His children in 1st John 3:1-10. All these were shown to us despite our great unfaithfulness and sin.
God has reached out to people in a personal way by sending Jesus Christ. (Col1:15-23, Romans5:1-11, 1st Peter 2:10-25, John3:1-21, 2nd Timothy1:3-10, Ephesians 2:1-10)
God hates sin so much that its only remission is the shedding of blood. In the days of Old, animal blood was shed for temporal cleansing of sin. But clean and blameless blood, perfect and sinless is needed to once and for all bring a permanent redemption to man. Since all humans at least have the adamic sin in them, the best option was a blameless being, pure and clean, which Jesus Christ volunteered to. And God is His infinite mercy and immersed love for Man allowed His only begotten son to come and die for mankind on the cross.
God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ is available to every person (Psalm 52:1-17, 1st John 1:5-10, romans10:5-13, psalm32:1-11, Romans8:31-39, Romans3:21-26)
Now that Christ has died for us, the redemption of Sin has been achieved. But only if we accept Him and appreciate His forgiveness, we will not be forgiven. Romans3:21-24 makes this point quite explicit. "Now we see how god does make us acceptable, and it isn't by obeying the Law of Moses. God treats everyone alike. He accepts people only because they have faith in Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. But God treats us much better than we deserve, and because of Christ Jesus, he freely accepts as and sets us free from our sins. New Life in Christ calls a person to live in a Christ-like way (Romans6:1-14, Matthew20:20-28, Ephesians4:17-32, Galatians5:16-26, 1st John 4:7-21, Romans 12:1-21)
One of the characteristics of Christ is Love, and abundant Love flows from Him. There are some people we meet, who are full of hate. They hate because they have never accepted love for themselves. God pours His love into us, but we hope to accept it. When we do, then our response is to Love Him in return and Love others as well. Love does overcome hate and one of the major ways it does is through forgiveness. Remember that we were once very wicked and while we were like that Christ died for us. So, how then can we explain not forgiving one another? If this is the case, we will be like the parable of the Official who refused to forgive in Matthew18:21-35. This official owed his king 50 million silver coins but was forgiven after begging. But he could not forgive another man who owed him just a hundred silver coins, putting him in jail until he could pay what he owed. Of course! The king was so angry that he ordered for the wicked official to be tortured in jail until he pays up. If God can forgive the 50 million silver coins we owed Him, it is expected of us to forgive the 100 silver coins our fellow neighbor owes us, and no matter how bad such debt hurts us. In essence, not forgiving each other nullifies our salvation, and if we meet the Lord that way He will surely deny us in Heaven.
It is reasonable to admit that as Humans we can get hurt from the actions of others and hence feel pain. But Jesus Christ has laid an example for us, suffering from the greatest torture ever, from the same people He came to save. Can you imagine that?! If He has gone through this much for us, then we do not have any excuse not to forgive one another.
Article directory networking is an excellent, but hidden strategy of making lots of money through the internet. It is not an easy-money making system and does not require your dollars for you to get any information from an e-book. It is a free strategy which is happily shared to as many individuals as possible. It is 100%, if and only if you follow the strategies required. Every website, technicalities and 'know-hows' are exposed and you need not worry, you will get all that you need to know. So What is article directory networking? Click on the link below to get adequate information on this awesome revelation
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Funom_Makama
http://EzineArticles.com/?To-Err-is-Human-But-to-Forgive-is-Divine&id=4229893
No comments:
Post a Comment