Keeping Score

I love bowling. I really do.

I think it’s mostly nostalgia. I learned to bowl from my grandmother and great-aunt (both of whom I loved – and both of which passed away in the last handful of years). I have a lot of sweet memories of bowling with them.

Then, when I was in high school, my brothers and I picked up bowling again. I’m the oldest. Michael is a little more two years younger and Matt is three years – almost to the day – younger than Michael. I don’t know why but bowling bonded us. It’s what we did together – just the three of us.

So, when my mama called me to say that she was taking Annie – my oldest niece and my little brother’s daughter – bowling and asked if I wanted to come, I dropped what I was doing to be there.

Moments before I arrived Annie smashed her finger between two bowling balls on the rack. She finished out the last two frames but had no desire to play another game. She asked if I would play the second game for her.

So, I did.

I bowled my own game – and I bowled hers.

I honestly don’t remember what I scored for Annie.

I do know that a handful of frames in I had bowled a hundred points in Annie’s name.

And she was delighted.

“Chrissy!” she shouted to my mama. “I have a hundred points!”

Let’s be honest. Annie didn’t have a hundred points. I had a hundred points.

But she got that I was bowling for her. She got the credit for the score I bowled. It wasn’t my score – it was hers.

Here’s the thing.

I’ve gotten credit for a game I didn’t bowl.

Jesus played the perfect game. He bowled 300 (the highest score you can get in bowling, in case you didn’t know).

And He did it on my behalf. He bowled, if you will, in my name.

I did nothing. I bowled only gutter balls. I didn’t knock down a single pin.

But Jesus credited His perfect game – His perfect life – to me.

He’ll do the same for you.

All you need to do is stop trying to bowl your own game and let Him give you His score.

When Christmas is Over

Christmas is over.

 The gifts have all been opened and the wrapping paper discarded.

The lights and decorations have been taken down and relegated to the attic.

The Christmas cookies have all been eaten.

The Christmas movies have been shelved and the Christmas songs have been silenced - save for the few holding onto the holiday season.

But, Christmas is about Christ and, today and tomorrow, Christ will still be Christ.

Let’s not forget that, for the Christian, every day should be Christmas.

Every day should be a celebration that, in Christ, God dwelt among us. Every day should be a celebration that, in Christ, God came to rescue us. Every day should be a celebration that, in Christ, we are free from our sin.

If you don’t know Jesus, I pray that you would come to know Him. There is no other name by which we are saved. There is no other means by which we can experience a relationship with God. There is no other truth. There is no other road. Forgiveness is offered to all, but given only to those who will accept it. I pray that you accept it.

If you do know Him, I pray that the spirit of Christmas would reign in your hearts all year long.

Merry (belated) Christmas, friends.

The Mechanics of Change

Newton’s First Law of Motion states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, consistent in both speed and direction, unless either is acted upon by a force greater than itself.

The law is fundamentally about change.

The implications extend well beyond physics.

In fact, we watch this law at work in just about every area of our lives.

We all have situations and circumstances in our lives that we would like to change. We want to change our bodies so we go on a diet and start exercising. We want to change our career so we take new jobs and move to new places. We want to change our relationships so we find new friends or get married or have kids.

When we want to change something about our lives, we simply exert the force of our will and that which has been at rest will spring into motion or that which was in motion will change directions.

While it may seem to work for a time, sooner or later we realize that a deeper change is in order.

We need more than an external change of behavior. We need an internal change of heart.

Our hearts, though, cannot be changed by the force of the will.

We need something greater than ourselves to act upon us, to set our hearts in motion.

God Himself has acted, not by impersonal force, but by personally stepping into history as one of us.

By living the life we should have lived. By dying the death we should have died. By offering to get our still hearts beating again. By shaping us from the moment we receive His forgiveness to the moment we take our last earthly breath.

We cannot encounter Jesus and not change.

How has He changed you?

Monsters

There was a monster under my bed.

At least, that’s what I believed as a child.

When I turned out the lights, I would quickly scramble to the center of the mattress, trying to outrun whatever was sure to emerge from the darkness. Any stray limb dangling off the side of the bed put me at risk of being nabbed. So, each night, I would wrap myself in the blankets.

After all, everybody knows a monster can’t get to you if you’re under the covers.

As I grew up, I left behind my imaginary monsters, but found that there is, in fact, a monster at large – a very real and very powerful enemy.

He lures me with temptations. He entices me with his lies. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy all that is good and all that is right.

Yet, for those that belong to Jesus, for those that have received His victory, there is nothing to fear. Ours is a strong but defeated enemy.

Jesus invites us to take cover in Him, to wrap ourselves up in His strength, in His power.

After all, the monster – the enemy – can’t get to you if you’re under the cover of Christ.

Drawing Targets

There once was a little boy that received a bow and arrow set for his birthday. He excitedly ran outside to practice his shot on the side of an old barn that stood on the property. After he’d been at it a while, he ran back in to get his parents. “Mom! Dad! Come look!” he shouted.

They followed him out to the barn and were amazed at what they saw. Along the side of the barn, half a dozen targets had been drawn in chalk, each with an arrow lodged in the center.

Every single one had hit a perfect bullseye.

“That’s incredible! How did you manage to hit the bullseye every time?” his father asked.

“It was easy!” said the boy. “I shot the arrow first and then drew the target around it.”

You’ve got to admire his creativity.

Did you know, though, that the word “sin” is an archery term?

It means to miss the mark. It doesn’t matter if you miss by an inch or a mile – it’s a “sin.”

I’ve gotten really good at drawing circles around my sins. I’ve gotten good at justifying the miss by simply changing the target.

But the target isn’t mine to draw.

God has already done that.

And the target He has given me is Jesus.

If it’s not in obedience to Jesus, I’ve missed the mark. If it’s not in alignment with His heart and character, I’ve missed the mark. If it’s not how He would love and serve, I’ve missed the mark.

Instead of drawing our own targets, let’s spend a little more time improving our aim at the only target that matters.

Watercolors and Pencils

I got coffee with an artist friend of mine a while back.

I have no artistic ability whatsoever – at least not in the fine arts of sculpture, drawing, or painting.

She was showing me samples of her most recent work and made an interesting comment.

“Drawing is easy. You learn the techniques and skills and then you’re in total control of the end result. Watercolor is much harder. You really can’t control where the paint goes – you can only guide it.”

I think that our relationship with Jesus might be more like watercolors than it is like drawing.

Jesus could, of course, control us at every turn. He could strip us of our free will and force us to bend to the strokes of His pencil.

But I think He might be more interested in letting us flow under the guidance of His brush.

That doesn’t mean following Jesus is a free-for-all. That doesn’t mean we can wander wherever we will.

It just means there might be more freedom than we think there is.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

What if that masterpiece is supposed to be a watercolor in which the artist and the paint work together? What if God gives us direction and allows us to explore the edges of His plan?

Don’t get me wrong. This is not relativism. I’m not advocating for a faith that allows us to do whatever we want.

I’m just suggesting that God is not a puppet master.

I’m suggesting that God invites us to participate in our relationship with Him.

I’m suggesting that God wants to lead and guide us so that our lives become an absolute work of art.

We can’t do that on our own – but with the brush strokes of a master Artist we can become beautiful.

Finding Shade

Jadav Payeng lives on the river island of Majuli.

In 1979, when Payeng was just 16-years-old, the island was hit by heavy rains. The floods washed a large number of river snakes ashore, where they were unable to survive the intense heat that broke when the rain subsided. Payeng stumbled upon dozens of dead snakes and wept over their carcasses.

Payeng decided to abandon his education and dedicate himself to planting trees along the shoreline so when the next heavy rains came the snakes that ran ashore would be protected from the hot sun and have a chance at survival.

As I read Payeng’s story I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth would possess anyone to give up everything they had to save snakes. Snakes! 

Snakes are not beautiful. They’re not appealing. They hiss and they bite and they poison.

Why would anyone abdicate their opportunity for a comfortable life to dedicate themselves to saving snakes?

I honestly don’t know.

What I do know is that we’re not that different than snakes.

Don’t get me wrong. We are made in the image of God and, so, dignified. 

But our sin has tarnished our beauty. Our sin has, frankly, made us unappealing. We hiss and we bite and we poison.

Our sin renders us about as worth rescuing as a bunch of river snakes.

Yet God.

 I don’t know what Payeng believes. I know nothing of his faith.

But I do know that, in planting trees to protect river snakes from the heat, he was imaging his Creator.

As Payeng abandoned his comfort, so God stepped down from His throne to give Himself over to covering us – not with the shade bamboo but with the blood of His Son.

Praise God that as we wash ashore – left to the oppressive heat of sin and death – we find shade in the presence of our loving God.

Clarabelle, Zazu, and Ludwig von Drake

Annie (my oldest niece) is going to be four in May, and she loves everything Disney (except for the “scary” parts – like the wolves in Snow White and the sharks in Finding Nemo).

Her favorite characters, though, are the most obscure ones.

Oh, she likes Mickey and Minnie and all of the princesses. But she loves the characters everyone else seems to overlook.

Her first love was Clarabelle the cow.

Do you know who that is? Neither did I until Annie started watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Clarabelle shows up about once every ten episodes and makes “udderly ridiculous” cow puns. When her Daddy (my brother) got her a stuffed Clarabelle, Annie put her hands over her mouth in delighted awe. She even got a little shy and backed away – so overwhelmed was she by the thought of having her very own Clarabelle to snuggle.

Then she saw the Lion King. She thought Simba and Nala were fine. She thought Timon and Pumba were alright. But she loved Zazu – the annoying, uptight hornbill.

Who loves Zazu?! This girl. She loved Zazu so much that she went as Zazu for Halloween. Since no child has ever wanted to go as Zazu, my Mama and Annie’s Mama had to make her costume from scratch.

Now she’s into Ludwig von Drake (better known as Scrooge McDuck). He, like Clarabelle and Zazu, is a rather obscure character. We’re going to Disney World in April and she has been doing extra chores to earn enough money to buy a von Drake toy. Prayers that they even have a von Drake toy.

Here’s the point.

I love how Annie loves the obscure – the fringe – characters. I love how she isn’t enamored with the big shots. I love how she doesn’t care if it’s “cool” to like them.

I hope she always loves those on the fringe – always loves those living in the margins. I hope she always cares for those that everyone else seems to overlook. I hope she’s never too “cool” to befriend the “uncool.”

Because that’s how our God has loved us. He loves the “main characters,” to be sure. But He’s equally enamored by the least, the overlooked, the forgotten.

And He calls us to love the least, the overlooked, the forgotten, too.

Prepare Your Hearts

Christmas is upon us and we have entered into the Advent season.

The word “Advent” actually comes from a Latin word – adventus – and it means “coming” or “arrival.”

You won’t find the season of Advent laid out in the Bible. We aren’t commanded to observe it.

But, for generations Christians have counted off the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and devoted themselves to preparing their hearts for the coming – the arrival – of Jesus.

It’s a really beautiful – and really profound – tradition.

See, we spend a lot of time preparing for Christmas. We prepare to throw parties. We prepare to host meals. We prepare cookies and trees and decorations and gifts.

But so often we forget to prepare our hearts.

We let the chaos of the Christmas season overtake us and, before we know it, Christmas is over, and we hardly even thought about the very One we celebrate at Christmas. We hardly even thought about Jesus. We didn’t prepare our hearts for Him.

So, how do we do that? Let me give you just two ways.

First, make time with God a priority. Take time to read the Christmas story from the Bible. You can find it in the book of Matthew, chapters 1 and 2, and in the book of Luke, also in chapters 1 and 2. Read just a little bit each day and consider this incredible story. Prepare your heart by spending time with Him.

Second, make time with God’s people. Join others in worship – whether in person or online. Learn together. Wonder together. Celebrate together. Prepare your heart by spending time with others.

I know it has been a crazy year and this Christmas will probably look different than past Christmases. But I hope and pray that you encounter God in an incredible way during this season of Advent. I hope and pray that you would experience the joy and peace that He came to bring.

Happy Advent!

Make Us One

Do you ever think about the last words you’ll ever say?

I think about it, every once in a while. I think about who I’d be with if I knew time was short. I think about what I’d say – what I’d want them to know.

If you knew time was short, you’d focus on what mattered most, right?

Well, that’s what Jesus did.

He knew He was going to die. He came to die.

So, He spent His last night with those closest to Him. Wouldn’t you love to know what He said?

Fortunately, John, one of only twelve who were present, recorded it for us. He preserved the last prayer Jesus prayed with and for His followers.

I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one…

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:11, 20-23, NIV)

Jesus used His last night to talk about unity.

That may be more significant – and more relevant – than we realize.

See, Israel was under Roman occupation. They weren’t a free people. Matthew – one of Jesus’ followers – was a tax collector for Rome. He was literally employed by their oppressors. Simon – another of Jesus’ followers – was a member of a group that resisted Rome. He literally killed their oppressors.

And Jesus says to them, “I want you to be one. I want you to be united. Yes, you disagree on the best political course but because you follow Me, you’re a part of something much, much bigger than your current government. You are citizens of a different Kingdom. And that is what unites you.”

Friends, I don’t know where you stand politically. Unless you happen to be particularly close to me, you don’t know where I stand.

But if you follow Jesus, you and I are a part of the same Kingdom.

We may vote differently tomorrow.

But let’s be one.

Let’s be united in our love for one another.

Let’s not tear one another down – in person or on social media. Let’s not make snap judgments about anyone’s character based on how they decided to vote. Let’s stop setting up caricatures and start seeing individuals. Let’s have conversations – loving and gracious conversations – about our differences.

But let’s be one.

And, whoever wins, let’s commit to praying for our president.

Let’s commit to praying for wisdom and discernment.

Let’s commit to praying for compassion and grace.

Let’s commit to praying for decisiveness and strength.

How to Use the Lord's Prayer

So, Jesus taught us to pray, but what does that mean for how we actually pray?

As we wrap up our series on the pray Jesus taught us (commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer), let consider two simple ways to incorporate this prayer into our daily lives.

First, we can pray it verbatim.

If you learned this prayer as a child, you may cringe against this suggestion. It may feel mechanic or forced. But I would encourage you to review where we’ve been and pray through it again. This time, do it slowly. Pause at each line. Meditate on what it means – what your asking and what your committing.

Think through each category.

Consider what it means to come to God as your Father. Pray about areas of your life where you’re not keeping His name holy – where you’re not upholding His reputation. Talk to Him about what it looks like for His kingdom to come in your life and confess where you’ve lived more as a citizen of this world than as a subject to the King. Ask Him to reveal His will to you – through His Word and through His Spirit.

Pray for your daily needs. Recognize that even if you are confident that your next meal has already been provided, it’s God’s provision that has sustained you. Bring Him your mental and emotional and spiritual needs. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him for forgiveness. Take stock of those who you need to forgive and ask Him for the strength to give it. Reflect upon the areas you know you’re prone to temptation and ask Him to give you what you need to resist it. Consider the areas you think you are strong and ask Him to show you where you’ve let your guard down.

Then, recommit to Him. Tell Him that you are totally dependent upon Him and you long to be totally committed to Him.

Pray “Amen” with the authority it deserves.

Second, we can pray it in conjunction with our study of God’s Word.  

Choose a passage and ask the following questions.

1.     What does this teach me about upholding God’s name and reputation?

2.     What does this teach me about living in God’s kingdom?

3.     What does this teach me about following God’s will?

4.     What does this teach me about my dependence upon God?

5.     What does this teach me about my sin and need for forgiveness? What does this teach me about my need to forgive others?

6.     What does this teach me about my tendency towards temptation? What does this teach me about my need for rescue from the evil inside and outside of me?

Journal your notes and then use them to personalize the prayer Jesus taught us. Not ever passage you read in the Bible will cover every category. But use it as a guide. Learn to pray through the Bible the way Jesus taught us to pray.

So, one last time, let’s read that pray together.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

And let me include our doxology, one last time.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
   forever. Amen.

Prayer and Mission

Have you ever noticed how the prayer Jesus taught us really encapsulates His entire mission?

Think about it.

He came as the perfect Son of the Father.

He kept holy the name of God by upholding His reputation.

He ushered in the kingdom of God.

He obeyed to the will of God – even to the point of death.

He provided for both the physical and spiritual needs of those who followed Him.

He offered forgiveness through His death on the cross and the means by which we could forgive others.

He resisted every temptation He encountered and so rescued us from the grip of sin.

If you want to understand what Jesus came to do, look to the prayer He gave us.

His entire mission is contained in this prayer.

So is the mission He gave us.

Amen

I’ve always finished every prayer with “Amen.”

It’s just what I learned to say. It didn’t mean anything to me. It was just a way of letting God know that I was signing off.

I started digging into it, though.

Why do we always end our prayers with this odd word?

A cursory study reveals that it simply means, “let it be.”

But if you dive deeper, it means so much more.

“Amen” is more than a statement of hope.

It is a declaration of commitment.

Every line of the prayer Jesus taught us is both a petition to God and a declaration of our allegiance to Him.

Rather than go back through the whole prayer, I want to challenge you.

Go back through it yourself.

Pay close attention to each line.

Consider what you’re asking God and consider what you’re promising God.

As historian and theologian Justo Gonzalez put it, “As we close our prayer saying ‘amen,’ we are expressing an unshakable hope based on our knowledge that this Father to whom we address our prayers is the same to whom forever belongs the kingdom, the power, and the glory. And we are also saying that we are so certain that it is so that we are committing ourselves to it.” (Teach Us to Pray)

So often we think of prayer as a list of petitions. But Jesus’ prayer pushes us to think of prayer also as a commitment.

So, let’s pray it together again.

Our Father in heaven,
   may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
   as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
   as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
   but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13, NLT)

And let me include our doxology.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
   forever. Amen.

Doxology

The prayer Jesus taught us was the first Bible passage I ever memorized.

Maybe it was for you, too.

The last line I learned, interestingly, is not included in every ancient manuscript.

For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

We do have evidence, though, that as early as the late first century Christians had added this doxology to the Jesus’ prayer.

A doxology is simply an ascription of praise to God.

Whether Jesus actually included it in His prayer or not, I think it is a proper ending.

It reminds us that everything we have prayed is prayed on this foundation.

God, Your kingdom is bursting forth.

God, Your power is indescribable.

God, Your glory is unimaginable.

God, because of who You are, we want to honor Your name.

God, because of who You are, we want to live as citizens of Your kingdom.

God, because of who You are, we want Your will to be done in our lives.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to provide for our daily needs.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to forgive our sins and to empower us to forgive others.

God, because of who You are, we trust You to provide a way out of temptation and to rescue us from the evil inside of us and outside of us.

God, You are a good and great God. We can only come to You because You have graciously invited us to participate in Your kingdom, to experience Your power, and to share in Your glory.

God, we come to You humbled by this prayer Your Son gave us.

We are can’t live any of this out. We need You.

God, we come to You challenged by this prayer Your Son gave us.

You have challenged us to come to You as a loving Father. To uphold Your reputation. To participate in Your kingdom. To do Your will. To rely on You for everything. To trust You for forgiveness. To extend Your forgiveness to others. To give us the strength to follow You.

God, Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Evil and the Evil One

Jesus knew that, like every other human in history, we would struggle with temptation. That’s why He taught us to pray, “Let us not yield to temptation.”

But we are not done. We need more than to simply “not yield.” We need rescue.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Other translations render this last line simply “deliver us from evil.”

The language actually allows for either translation. I think Jesus did that on purpose.

See, throughout the Bible, evil is an internal and external reality. It resides inside of us as sin. It resides outside of us in our Enemy.

We need deliverance from both.

We cannot battle the evil inside of us.

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Likewise, we cannot combat the sin in our lives with the same sinful hearts that ushered it in.

We are not greater than our sin. But God is. We need His rescue.

We also cannot wrestle down the evil outside of us.

As James Emery White once wrote, “At this point it is customary to declare… that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Yes, but he that is in the world is greater than you. That is why Jesus instructed us to pray not, you will notice, for dominance… but for deliverance” (The Prayer God Longs For).

We are not greater than our Enemy. But our God is. We need His rescue.

This is a humble prayer.

It eradicates any notion of self-righteousness. It forces us to confront out own weakness. It challenges the popular conception that we are “basically good.”

We are not good. But our God is.

We are not great. But our God is.

That is why we pray, “Rescue us, God, from the evil inside of us and outside of us.”

Let Us Not Yield

Temptation hounds us at every turn. Every day we are bombarded with opportunities to turn our backs on God and to deviate from His will for our lives.

It’s no wonder Jesus instructed us to pray that God would not let us yield to temptation.

Remember, God does not tempt us. He tests us, but He does not tempt us.

This prayer confesses our desire to walk in God’s way – to uphold His name, to advance His kingdom, to carry out His will.

But there is an obstacle to walking in God’s way.

That obstacle is, of course, temptation.

Do you remember Frogger – the vintage arcade game?

It’s really an obstacle game. In order to get the frog safely from one side to the other, you have to navigate countless pitfalls.

They’re obstacles, but they are not insurmountable obstacles. There is a way through.

So it is in our lives. There are obstacles, but they are no insurmountable. God has provided a way through.

Paul, one of the New Testament writers, was quite clear on this.

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Corinthians 10:13, NLT)

When we succumb to sin, we can never claim, “The devil made me do it.” We certainly cannot claim, “God didn’t keep me from sin.”

We are responsible for our choices.

God always provides a way out. He always gives us everything we need to resist.

Our prayer is not that we would never face temptation. As a pastor of mine once said, “If you’re not facing temptation, that should concern you. It means you’re making no difference whatsoever for the Kingdom of God and the Enemy isn’t worried about you.”

Our prayer is that God will keep His promise.

Our prayer is that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.

Our prayer is that He will show us the way out and give us the strength we need to take the way out.

Temptation and Testing

Oscar Wilde famously quipped, “I can resist everything except temptation.”

It’s the cringe kind of funny, isn’t it? We laugh uncomfortably because it hits so close to home. Temptation is hard to resist.

It’s no wonder Jesus included it in the prayer He taught us.

“Lead us not into temptation.”

The Greek word translated as “temptation” is peirasmos. It can mean “temptation.” But it can also mean “test.”

So, before we can really dive into what we’re praying here, we need to understand the difference between being tempted and being tested.

The difference lies in the motivation – the intent.

Temptation comes from the Enemy. He wants us to fail.

Testing comes from God. He wants us to succeed.

The Bible affirms the existence of an Enemy – one who stands in total opposition to God and to the people of God. He is a created being that rebelled against God. He is, indeed, powerful, but he is still a creature under the rulership of the Creator. He can do nothing that God does not allow. And what God allows, He allows for our good and for His glory.

When God allows the Enemy to tempt us, He does so in order to test us.

The Enemy wants us to rebel against our God.

Our God wants us to prove faithful to Him.

We’ll talk more about what, exactly, Jesus is calling us to pray next week.

But, for now, let’s reconsider how we think about temptation.

Every temptation is a test. Every test is an opportunity for God to reveal and form our character.

Breaking Down Barriers

Forgiveness is hard.

It’s even harder when the person who wronged us doesn’t own up to the wrong.

I’ve been there. I get it.

What does forgiveness look like then?

Lewis Smedes, in his excellent book The Art of Forgiving, writes, “When a person close to us wrongs us, he throws up two obstacles between us. One of the obstacles is our sense of having been violated, which produces our anger, our hostility, our resentment. This is the obstacle that our forgiving removes. But only the person who wronged us can remove the other obstacle. And he can remove it only by repentance and, if need be, restitution.”

You can’t control the second obstacle.

You can only control the first.

You can only deal with your anger, hostility, and resentment.

And you can deal with it by taking on a posture of forgiveness.

We’ve been talking about forgiving others. But the reality is forgiveness can only be given when it is accepted.

Think about it.

God offers forgiveness to everyone. But not everyone receives forgiveness. Only those who accept it receive it.

So it is with us.

We are called to offer forgiveness. But we can’t give it to anyone until it is received through repentance.

Now, that doesn’t let us off the hook.

Offering forgiveness looks just like giving it.

It means refusing to harbor bitterness and resentment.

It means giving up your right to get even.

It means holding your tongue when you’re tempted to gossip or lash out.

It means desiring the best for your offender.

It means praying for the one who hurt you.

That’s what it looks like to offer forgiveness.

Whether or not the person who has wronged us ever repents, that is what we’re called to do.

It’s hard.

But so was the cross.

And the cross is not only our model of forgiveness.

It is our source of forgiveness.

We love because God first loved us. We forgive because God first forgave us.

He broke down His barrier. It is our responsibility to break down ours.

The Cost of Forgiveness

Jesus assumed that if we asked God for forgiveness we were, in turn, offering that forgiveness to others.

If we are to forgive others, we have to understand what forgiveness isn’t.

Forgiveness isn’t condoning the wrong done.

Forgiveness isn’t pretending it never happened.

Forgiveness isn’t necessarily reconciliation (we’ll talk about that next week).

Forgiveness, properly understood, isn’t unjust.

See, when another person sins against us, they incur a debt. They owe us.

Now, when we withhold forgiveness, we are putting the burden of repayment upon them.

That seems right and fair, doesn’t it?

Here’s the problem.

When we sin against the eternal God, we incur an eternal debt – a debt we could never repay in a thousand lifetimes.

So, there are two options.

We can pay the debt ourselves by spending eternity separated from Him.

Or, we can take God up on His offer to pay the debt Himself.

God never condones our sin or pretends it never happened. He pays it in full. He absorbs it on our behalf.

That is what He asks of us. He calls us to forgive others – to absorb the debt they owe us.

Forgiveness always comes at a cost.

It’s not unjust.

It’s sacrificial.

Jesus sacrificed His life to pay our debt. We owe Him our very lives – our very eternities.

Can we really do any less than all that He’s asked?

Assuming Forgiveness

God’s forgiveness is a gift of grace.

It is not deserved, and it cannot be earned.

We know that and we love that. We are grateful for it. We rejoice in it. We sing songs about it.

But when it comes to forgiving others?

Well, that’s another story.

“They don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

“They are going to have to earn it.”

What happened to grace?

We are so quick to receive it and so reluctant to give it.

Jesus, though, assumes that if we have been forgiven then we will forgive others.

Listen to how He taught us to pray.

Forgive us our sins,
    as we have forgiven those who sin against us. (Matthew 6:12, NLT)

Jesus assumes that if we are asking God to forgive us, then we have forgiven others.

Jesus assumes that, surely, we are not asking God to give us something that we are refusing to give to others.

We’re going to camp out on this concept of forgiving others for a while.

But let’s not move on too quickly.

We have to wrap our minds and our hearts around this.

An unforgiving Christian is a contradiction in terms.

Forgiven people forgive people.