December 24, 2009 Christmas eve
Notes from an email I wrote this evening, home alone! …
Going back over things you wrote from a while ago… Something to do when I’m “alone” on Christmas eve… Peter and Lionel both working! Wouldn’t it be lovely to be walking along a wild and lonely west coast beach this Christmas? Well, maybe another Christmas, eh… There are many good things here, and mostly I am happy… funny how Christmas, when we should be most joyful, is a time that somehow reawakens disappointments, eh…. I feel silly to be disappointed when I KNOW that God’s ways (beyond our understanding…) are better than ours. Well, self, buck up! It really is a small thing, staying here… ?
My friend wrote: “There are few feelings so sweet as relief from guilt. What ‘a deal’ God’s forgiveness is! The beneficiary receives full pardon from the appalling,unpayable debt of his sins and walks free to start a new life without the unbearable burden. Jesus, viewing from His cross His unrepentant and pre-meditated killers, prayed, “Father forgive them.” He then declared “Paid in full!” (He was referring to the Hebrew practice of a redeeming relative purchasing a slave back from his indebtedness with the full price of his debt.) Nor was He adding any works to the bargain – not even Bible reading, praying or ‘going to church’; the pronouncement was His to give freely so He did. Read Romans 4:4-8 again and you’ll see it explained by Paul who had been forgiven for an enormous load of dept himself. There are no religions that offer anything even close to this; they offer works and more works. Futile works. Wearisome works. But Jesus cried that we get off ‘scott free’ because He did all the work.
I responded: For years it seemed like I “could not forgive” certain people, “no matter how hard I tried.” And now… now it seems incredible to me that people hold unforgiveness in their hearts… A total change… and I believe it is because I finally came to the understanding that JESUS LOVES ME!!! without reserve! And has forgiven me completely… without any “effort” on my part… There is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, nothing I can do to make Him love me less!!! … And when that understanding finally broke through, it seems to me that now I can also forgive others in turn, since He HAS forgiven me!!!!
Well, that’s got me smiling!!! Even without wild, lonely beaches!!!! ?
My friend wrote: “But understand what forgiveness is NOT. It does not deny the outrage committed. It does not excuse the offender. Forgiveness does not forget the wrong because some wrong is unforgettable. It does not demand that we trust the treacherous while they persist in their treachery. Forgiveness does not pretend the offense did not happen, or that nothing is wrong. It is not mere healing though the passage of time. Forgiveness decides and declares, “I will not hold the offenders in my debt, nor will I fix blame on them. I will remove my own judgment, I release them to God who alone is the judge.”
And I replied: Exactly. What a relief to rest in His love… and in consequence to long for others (even those who I once found “unforgiveable”!!!) to find that same rest, that same Love!!!
My friend wrote: “It is no longer ours to judge; only to trust in His perfect sacrifice, then to forgive, to release the captives of guilt, to break the bonds of fear. The Father sent Jesus into the world to bear its shame, to accept its blame, to cry its forgiveness. He will take care of the judgment; it is not ours to bear. As with Steven, He sends us forth with the privilege and power of forgiveness. Judgment belongs to God.”
And I answered: Yes, yes, yes! What an amazing Christmas message. Peace on earth!!!
