Easter and Forgiveness

Today being Easter Sunday gave me a chance to reflect a bit more deeply about the work of Christ on the cross.  I read the resurrection accounts of the gospels and then turned to Paul's letters for his wisdom on why the cross means anything for us today.  I read through Ephesians when a verse caught my eye.  Paul writes in Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."  Now I'm not trying to downplay the first part of this verse, nor the context of unity among God's people, but reading "God in Christ forgave you" had a profound refocusing effect upon how I viewed the cross, Jesus and the forgiveness of sins.

I know countless times in my life I have sinned and sinned greatly and have come to Christ for forgiveness.  Yet I think many more times that it should be, I went to Christ more to not feel guilt or shame anymore.  I sought the byproducts of forgiveness, rather than true forgiveness itself.  Forgiveness is in its fullest meaning a relational term.  I think we tend to forget that forgiveness requires a forgiver when we don't understand the full scope of what Christ did for us on the cross 2000 years ago. 

Take Ephesians 1:7 for example -  "In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace."  Without deep reflection into who is forgiving us and why we're being forgiven, we will fall into the terrible habit of understanding forgiveness as some abstract status or universal stain remover upon our souls (albeit, "in Him" or "in Christ").  I've trespassed some universal abstract principle which causes me to feel bad for myself and through Jesus (don't really know how, maybe just praying to him), I can feel better about myself and move on with my life.

No wonder why our generation views Christianity as "moralistic therapeutic deism."  Christianity is just about doing right or wrong, and if one does do wrong, one can feel better by pressing the right buttons on a deified mechanism that disperses nice feelings we call "grace."

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned against You and You alone.

Why does Ephesians 4:32 say that "God in Christ forgave you?"  God forgave? Doesn't that mean that He's been offended in some manner or way?  If I rack up thousands of dollars of credit debt, can some arbitrary person come along and tell me my debt is forgiven?  Only the credit card company has the power to absolve my debt.  So if God is the one forgiving me, there must be some debt which I owe to Him.

Thus all my sins - every impure and immoral thought, every selfish and thoughtless action against my fellow man, every building up of my own glory and status, every looking to the things of this world to give me the pleasure and satisfaction only God can afford - have not just been detrimental to myself but have offended a infinitely holy God.  This offense is only punishable by blood and death.

One thing I've learned from life is if you take a jab (verbal or physical) of a physically bigger bully, he will bring the smackdown.  That's how a bully operates - with his own sense of inflated honor or ego having been lessened, there must be a retaliation to recoup the loss of honor.  Yet they don't deserve any more respect or honor than a weaker person.  But God being good and holy is absolutely deserving of all glory and honor and praise.  And He is absolutely just to punish those who have failed to give what is due to Him.  And my friends, we are all guilty.

Yet we know that God in Christ forgave us.  God saved us from Himself through the love and justice shown on the cross.  God in his holiness and justice knew we were absolutely deserving to be shed of blood and put to death, yet He in His grace and love chose not to.  Who would be the one to take our punishment?  Praise be to God for Jesus Christ, our passover lamb, our substitution, our sacrifice.  In Christ and on the cross we find our full and satisfactory payment for our debt of sin - not just to make us feel better about ourselves, not just to take away guilty and shameful feelings, but to bring us into reconciliation with the forgiver.

God did not send His Son to die so we could stop feeling bad about ourselves, but to rid us of our sinful corruption so that we could be in His glorious presence and commune with a living, personal God.

Forgiveness in its truest form is not a clean and easy thing, it's a dirty and painful process.  Remember back to anytime someone hurt you deeply and painfully.  There are so many times when I would say I forgave someone in word, yet my soul was raging for recompense, for revenge.  It wasn't some nice and easy trick like saying the right words and thinking the right thoughts - I literally had to take upon myself the rage and pain that I felt was due on the other person.  I had to realize that forgiveness, although free for the forgiven, is not free for the forgiver.  If there's anytime that you've truly forgiven someone or even tried to forgive someone for a terrible hurt or trespass against you, you just might understand a tiny fraction of what it takes for God to forgive us.

So praise God not just that in Christ we are forgiven, but that in Christ, God has forgiven you.  And the next time you go to God, go to meet the forgiver and not just to receive forgiveness.