Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us -By Joe Dauda

It was while the blood was flowing from the nails hammered into His feet and hands, and the crown of thorns forced upon His head, and the 40 stripes on His back ordered by Pontius Pilate, that Jesus Christ heaved the following words from dry and thirsty lips:

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.

The biggest test for some children of God (on their heavenly race) will be the challenge of forgiveness. If you are in such a situation, perhaps you will be inspired by the true story of Jesus Christ, Who, although He was as innocent as a lamb, and had only done good to the people (healing all their diseases, telling them the truth about God, raising their dead back to life and feeding them miraculously) was denounced by them and treacherously rejected. Moreover, His crucifixion was demanded by these same people, who loudly called for the release of a real criminal named Barabbas.

There are two reasons why you should forgive and highlighting them may provide you with the courage to choose to forgive, for forgiveness is a decision.

Whether or not you feel so, you are a sinner. This is unlike Jesus Christ Who committed no single sin and still suffered and died. Thank God that Jesus Christ rose again and is seated at the right hand of God. God declares that we all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. That is the official status of every human being, and especially those who have crossed the age of accountability and who have lived long enough in the world to know the difference between good and evil. Even if it is just one sin that is chargeable to you in the courts of heaven, it is sufficient to disqualify you from spending eternity with God. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from sin but the same Jesus Christ said that, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither would your father in heaven forgive you your own trespasses. Now that is as serious a statement as any that you can find in the Bible. Although Jesus Christ has died and His forgiveness is available for free to all who just ask, this forgiveness will be neutralized in at least one situation: and that situation is where the person requesting this free forgiveness has not completely (from their heart) forgiven that person or those persons who have offended, hurt, cheated, brutalized, lied against, and dehumanized them. For those who want to be children of God, the bar is a bit higher because Jesus Christ requires them to pray for these same people who have hurt them: and love them, and even do good unto them. This thing is harder than pushing a loaded 22-wheel trailer, but the grace of God makes it easy and all things are possible to them that believe. If you are convinced that there are people out there you need to forgive but do not feel capable of really forgiving them because of the intensity of the pain and the fact that you are still suffering from the damage they have caused, it’s ok to fall down on your knees and tell God exactly what you’re feeling. This is no Prayer Book prayer. It is more like the prayer of Hannah. Tell it like it is: ask God to give you the courage to let go. You will experience joy like a river at the end of this exercise (because God is sure to answer you and touch your heart) and it will open for you the door to a new life. 

The second reason why you should forgive is based on the reason why people who are hurt do not want to forgive. When you are hurt, the natural reaction is for you to seek vengeance by wanting to hurt the person back. Forgiveness is practically letting go of this natural compulsion for vengeance: it is saying that, although this person wounded my pride and I now have a microphone and a ready audience and a scandal to broadcast, I will not do that, even if their own broadcast against me was full of lies and the privileged information I have about them is damning and 100% true. Of course the person that hurt you by spreading falsehood about you deserves your reciprocation. But here is the crux of the matter: forgiveness is based on the fact that God does not want you to be the one to implement the vengeance. Every human being will reap what they sow but God wants you to leave vengeance to Him, because, surprise surprise, one of God’s nicknames is “avenger”. God wants your heart so pure there is no space for plotting revenge against anyone who has hurt you. The true child of God will so thoroughly forgive their enemies they no longer want God to destroy them — except they refuse to repent. This is the purity of emotion God wants in His children. My point is that having this emotion will not stop God from avenging the wrong done to you. And there could be punishment even for sins forgiven. That is to say, even if a person repents of their sins, God can still punish them, perhaps depending on the gravity of their crime. Paul the Apostle so persecuted Christians that, after he accepted the direct invitation of Jesus Christ and became born again, he himself was severely persecuted. It is the immutable law of sowing and reaping. The good thing about Paul’s persecution as a Christian is that it will not be in vain: our gracious God will turn around and reward Paul for keeping his mouth shut while experiencing the same thing he had done to Christians. King David also asked for forgiveness after murdering Uriah and taking His wife, Bathsheba. God forgave David. But God told David that he was going to have a taste of his evil deeds — and David’s son, Absalom, became the agent for bringing that word to pass. 

You may have heard someone say “heaven will be full of surprises”. If you don’t want to be negatively surprised by being shut out of heaven, heed the counsel above. Use your reasoning and realize that there must be people out there who are too powerful for you to repay, no matter what evil they do to you. Think of the President of a third world country hurting you. What can you do to hurt him back? Some others who have hurt you are out of reach. Will you seek a visa and travel to the United States just to go and fight with the man that killed your father? Or will you spend the rest of your life trying to track down and murder the policeman that arrested you on trumped up charges and had you detained for a whole month in a dirty cell simply because you refused to bribe him? Your inability to punish each and every single person who has hurt you should encourage you not to even try. Why not settle for the peace that comes from letting go and letting God instead? It’s ok to tell God that you feel cheated; you feel like killing this person with your bare hands; you feel like making sure they end up in hell fire; bla bla bla. But, at the end, tell God that you are counting on Him to replace that natural feeling for revenge with the type of unnatural mercy, sympathy, and divine love that made Jesus Christ forget His excruciating pains while hanging on the cross and thought, instead, about the eternal destiny of his tormentors. If you ask, God can (and He will) fill your heart with that same type of love and, like your Master Jesus Christ, you will be able to say:

Father forgive them for they know not what they do; or 

Father forgive him, for he knows not what he has done; or 

Father forgive her, for she knows not what she has done.

If you do not believe in God and in life after death, forgiveness will be the most stupid principle to live by because it will mean you were cooperating with others to cheat yourself. So true forgiveness invariably becomes a statement of faith that there is life after the current life; it is a statement of belief in the idea that the Person Who created human beings and put them on this planet will settle accounts and make things right one day. 

May God have mercy on all of us.

This post is specially dedicated to my Sister, Patience, and my other Sister, Stellamaris.

References: 

Matthew 6:14, 15

Romans 12:19

Matthew 5:44, 45.