Forgiveness is something that is special to God and extended to humanity, but what does it mean to forgive? What does it mean for God to forgive and then what does it mean for me or you to forgive? God's forgiveness is intrinsically tied to the cross and any understanding of forgiveness that doesn't take the cross into consideration isn't forgiveness. It is helpful to understand what forgiveness is not in order to gain a better understanding of what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is not ignoring the wrong done. It is not covering up or trying to hide the wrong done. It is not based in sentimentality and it is not self-serving. For God to forgive, sin had to be dealt with in such a way that would not diminsh the reality of who God is and at the same time not ignore the sinfulness of humanity. The cross, then, is the place where God's justice is satisfied and the same place where his love is displayed. God didn't ignore, cover-up, try to hide or give surface treatment to the problem of humanity's sin. He met it and conquered it without denying himself of his Godness or denying the reality of humanity's rebellion. In the act of the cross, Jesus both satisfied God's wrath against sin and manifest God's love to us. We should be moved by the demonstration of love God brought to pass at the cross. He could have just destroyed humanity, but out of his love he redeemed those who were once slaves to sin. No wonder we sing about the wondrous cross?

I've recently been thinking about forgiveness and what that means for relationships between people. Forgiveness can be defined as letting go. To forgive, then, means to let go of something someone did. That doesn't seem to be so easy, though. If you let go of the wrong that was done, then you let go of any right to bring up that wrong or do you? It seems to me that forgiveness can be accomplished even if consequences of a wrong remain. A person can let go of wrongs committed, but that doesn't mean he has to be best friends with the guy who wronged him. Right? Sounds good until the guy or gal you need to forgive is your husband / wife / mother or father / son or daughter / and so on. To forgive those we are closest to takes the greatest effort. We don't just let it go and then go our separate ways. We let it (whatever it may be) go and then we go on developing the relationship with the one who wronged us. We do that because we love one another or feel some sense of obligation to one another because of our familial relationship. There is a sense of duty or obligation to the person who wronged us. Wouldn't life be grand if everyone felt a sense of duty or obligation to everyone else? If that were the case, there would probably be a whole lot more forgiving going on...