Wednesday, March 20

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Hebrews 9:22

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed by blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

As a pastor I have had the privilege of hearing hundreds and hundreds of people share parts of their stories with me. Like fingerprints, every life story is absolutely unique; like fingerprints, every life story is also somewhat similar. Every life story includes joys, sorrows and pain. And at some level, sooner or later, every life story revolves around forgiveness, or the lack thereof.

We all need to be forgiven and we all need to forgive. Each one of us is both sinner and sinned against. The names, faces and situations may be completely different, but somewhere, sometime, someone did or said something that caused us injury and pain; or we did or said something that created pain in another. And until we forgive and are forgiven, we carry that pain with us and in us.

But forgiveness is not easy. Forgiveness is hard; and forgiveness is always costly. To forgive someone is to surrender the right to both judge and punish the person who wronged you. To forgive is to give up the natural desire to seek retribution. In another sense, to forgive is to refuse to carry the weight of another person’s sin in our hearts and minds as bitterness. To forgive is to release someone from your judgment and turn them over to God’s judgment. But forgiveness is always costly.

So how do we forgive others? We forgive byy remembering what it cost God to forgive us. Scripture says:

…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

The price God paid for our forgiveness was the blood of his own Son. My sin and your sin are covered, paid for, atoned, forgiven, by and through the blood of Jesus Christ poured out for us. He accomplished our forgiveness before we asked for it; he provided for our forgiveness before we were even aware of our sin; he paid for our salvation before we understood we could not.

So how do we forgive others? By remembering that forgiveness is always costly; by understanding that forgiveness is always a gift; and by knowing that forgiveness is never, ever, deserved.

Brian Coffey