Forgiveness

Genesis 50:17 "Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you."' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him."

This is the very first instance of the word “forgive” in the Holy Bible. It pertains to the fear that since their father Jacob had died, that Joseph would now take vengeance on his brothers for selling him into slavery to the Egyptians when he was just a young man. My guess is that his brothers thought that as long as Jacob was still alive, they were safe from Joseph’s wrath and revenge.

What they failed to realize is that Joseph had forgiven his brothers long ago. He realized that God had placed him in Egypt to save his family. He had been a spoiled son, favored by his father over his brothers. What his brothers had done to him was wrong, but his time in Egypt, being falsely accused and imprisoned had humbled him – had made him able to be worked with by God. Joseph didn’t want revenge – he wanted his family and the love of his family.

To Joseph the thought that his brothers had lived in fear of his anger and revenge was so devastating that he cried. To think that his brothers did not know that he had forgiven them truly saddened him. All that time from when they had first been reconciled during the famine in Egypt until their father, Jacob, died, his brothers had lived thinking Joseph was only biding his time until Jacob died. How sad. What a waste!

Have we truly forgiven the people in our lives that have hurt us? Are we carrying around a list of wrongs that we can drum up on command to justify our anger at those people or that person that wronged us in some way?

I think if we are truly honest with ourselves, the natural tendency after being hurt by someone – especially someone we love – is to seek revenge. We give them the silent treatment, or blow up at them or someone else for something not even related to the situation that caused the hurt. (The technical term for this is “displacement”. We displace our anger for one thing over which we have no control, on someone else. A good example is a teacher that made you mad. You can’t take anger out on a teacher, but you can displace that anger on your dog, or a brother or sister that is getting on your nerves.) Or we plan on how to get even with them.

We can be so very glad that God does not treat us like that. He had and has every right to wipe us off the face of the earth for our sins. Instead, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, who volunteered to die a horrible death in order to atone or make up for the sins of all mankind. Jesus died not only for those who had already sinned and died, but also for those living who were still sinning, and even for those of us who had not even been born yet who had not even committed a single sin yet. He died for the sins we would commit in our lives. His forgiveness is available to all. His forgiveness covers all our sins. His forgiveness enabled us to be reconciled to the Father and have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. All we have to do is realize that we are sinners – that nothing we can do in this life could ever make up for the sins we commit every day, and then repent – ask for His forgiveness – accept His atoning sacrifice. We get baptized to show the world that we are His. He promises to forgive our sins, give us His Holy Spirit, and give us eternal life with Him. We could be the most wonderful, kind, loving person on earth, but none of that would wipe away a single sin. Jesus is the only way we can ever be reconciled to God. Jesus’ sinless life and horrible death and glorious resurrection is the only way back to a relationship with God.

John 14:6 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me."

What a wonderful gift He has given us! It is so simple and yet so hard.

We want to think that we are “good”, but God sees none of us as “naturally good” – "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) -- but we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags (Isa. 64:6)

It is hard to admit that you need God’s forgiveness when you think that you don’t need God. Sometimes God has to bring us to the point where we admit we need Him – like He did with Joseph in Egypt. The Joseph in Egypt was a much humbler, not so arrogant a person than the Joseph with the Coat-of-Many Colors.

Just as Joseph, we all need Jesus. We cannot have eternal life without Him. He has given us a great and wondrous gift – forgiveness. He could have stopped there, but He went on to give us eternal life with Him forever. We have to admit we need Him, accept His gift of forgiveness and eternal life, be baptized and allow His Holy Spirit to work with us, conforming us, little by little over time into His very image and likeness. Just as Adam and Eve were created in His image and likeness so His Holy Spirit works in us to return that which was lost when Adam and Eve sinned – His image and likeness. Little by little, if we allow Him to work in us by studying His Word and learning about Him, by praying to Him and praying for others, He restores that image and likeness back to us. We change from darkness into light. Our speech, clothing, decisions, the things we like to do, the way we dress, the way we treat others, the way we think, will all begin to conform to His image and likeness. We don’t lose ourselves or our identity – we add His. We stay us, but better!

We obey His law because we want to. We keep His Sabbaths and Holy Days because we want to. These are ways we show our love for Him. "If you love Me, keep My commandments. John 14:16 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." John 14:21

We want to spend the rest of our lives showing Him how grateful we are for what He has done for us, and telling anyone that will listen to us what a wonderful gift is also available to them.

We learn to forgive. We learn to forgive others and we learn to forgive ourselves. We learn that forgiving means we give up our right of revenge and vengeance and put it all into God’s hands, letting Him deal with it. That frees us from the burden of grudges and hatreds and the extreme danger of allowing a root of bitterness to start growing in us. That root of bitterness (held-onto anger, hatred, revenge, vengeance) can rob us of our salvation. It will grow and infect everything in our lives, making us angry, bitter people. No one likes to be around someone who is always complaining, never happy, bitter. So it also robs us of our loved ones and our friends. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; Hebrews 12:14-15

We forgive because He forgave us. “We love because He first loved us” 1John 4:19 We pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” Matt 6:12

We are commanded to forgive. "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15

God tells us we will be forgiven by Him the same way we forgive others. In other words, if we do not forgive, we are not forgiven either. Jesus forgave us, now we are expected to forgive others. Jesus set the example for us.

He not only told us to forgive, but we are to do good things for those who hurt us. Ouch! That really hurts! We are to be LOVING to our enemies? How can we do that? They are people that hurt us or don’t like us. "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, Matthew 5:44

Again, Jesus set the example for us in His life. Jesus died for ALL mankind for ALL time! Jesus died for the Roman soldier who nailed Him to the cross. Jesus died for the soldier who whipped and scourged Him. Jesus died for Judas who betrayed Him. Jesus died for the Pharisees and Sadducees who conspired to have him crucified. Jesus died for the Jews who rejected Him. Jesus died for Hitler. Jesus died for the Muslims. Jesus died for the terrorists that attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Jesus died for you and me. Jesus loved His enemies and did GOOD to those who hated Him and persecuted Him. We are expected, as His brethren, as children of the Father, to do the same. It is hard. It was not easy for Him either – He was fully human, yet fully God. He hurt just like the rest of us – but He lived His whole life without ever committing a single sin. As the unblemished “Lamb” was sacrificed on Passover, so our unblemished Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ was also sacrificed – voluntarily. He volunteered to die a horrible death to save his enemies – mankind – you and me and everyone that has ever lived, now lives, or yet will live in time to come. He set the example for us.

We are to forgive just as God forgave. It is a part of the command to love our neighbor as ourselves. We obey, we forgive, because we love Him. It also becomes part of the command to love God. Forgiveness embodies both love of God and love of our neighbors, which includes all our enemies.

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