Don: I am dwelling on forgiveness in part because as a physician, I understand the pathology of forgiveness–or, to put it another way, the pathophysiology of unforgiveness. Guilt, bitterness, anger, resentment… all tend to have very disabling effects. We see it in patients on almost a daily basis. The effects have been studied. Adenergic hormones like adrenalin, epinephrin, oropinephrin, and corticosteroids, which are associated with hypertension, coronaries, spasm, ulcer disease, headaches, disturbances of bowel function, psychological problems and so on, are released.
A second reason for lingering on this topic is that Jesus talked of it often. In Matthew 18, when he responded to Peter that forgiveness is to be repeated 70 times seven, he is really saying that forgiveness is a way of life. Just as we should pray without ceasing, we should forgive without ceasing.
But there is something about forgiveness that we have not yet quite worked out; that is, that we ourselves need to to acknowledge or accept something in order to be forgiven ourselves.
It was suggested last week that forgiveness, like grace, is simply an aspect of God’s love. It is as if God’s love itself is more ethereal, whereas grace and forgiveness are more tangible, more palpable, more existential. Perhaps this is because many of us have felt the powerful relief that sometimes accompanies forgiveness, from the perspective of either or both forgiver and forgiven. We feel an almost tangible warm embrace, whereas God’s love seems more like a mystical construct.
We also noted that 1 John 9 links forgiveness with confession, but by confession the passage means agreeing with what god thinks about us. We need to consider this carefully if we are to understand the power and the process of forgiveness. God tells us that he loves and and forgives our sins, as in…
Colossians 2:13-14: When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
In Isaiah 43 and Hebrews 8 god says: “I will remember their sins no more.” And in Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 10 he says: “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
But human nature tends to forget, or not to acknowledge, acts of forgiveness and the wonderful benefits it promises. it makes us blind.
Peter talked about the peril of forgetting that we have been forgiven:
2 Peter 1:2-9: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
[Next, he talks about the fruits of the spirit that come ass a result of recognizing that we have been forgiven.]
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
[Here is the part I want to emphasize:]
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
It seems that the idea that we are unforgiven or even cannot be fully forgiven is a great impediment to being a fruitful, productive, and responsible believer. It seems that when we say the same things about ourselves that god says about us, then we find ourselves in the purview of his grace and forgiveness.
[Postscript: Aldous Huxley wrote that in Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure “the genuinely saintly Isabella reminds Angelo, the self-righteous Pillar of Society, of the divine scheme of redemption ….”:
(Isabella:) … How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgement, should
But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new-made.
I am reminded too of Robert Burns’ famous stanza in “To a Louse”:
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us, …
–David]
Psalms 103:8-12 makes the categorical statement that god forgets our sins:
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
This specifically says that god’s grace and forgiveness are infinite and so is the distance he will put between us and our sins. But if we don’t say the same things about ourselves that god says about us, we exclude ourselves from them. It seems to be an element of the Unpardonable Sin, because if god says he has forgiven us and restored us as his prodigal children, but we do not forgive others, and even more importantly if we do not forgive ourselves, then we become disconnected–we “log out”–from what is otherwise a permanent connection with god.
There is something strong inside us about injustice, associated with forgiveness. The notion that there might be no consequences for a person who hurts one goes against the grain, against our notion of justice. In such circumstances, we tend to see forgiveness as a loss to ourselves, as giving in to injustice, and this causes our discontent and grievances to fester and grow into hatred. We become a slave to the person we hate.
In Isaiah 43:25, god says:
“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.”
Why does he say “for My own sake”? Does his memory of our sins cause him pain? The notion that god can suffer in some way seems to deny his omnipotence. To me, it at least highlights that forgiving others is important for our own sakes.
Harry: Forgiveness is like an umbilical cord to the divine. Without it, there is no communion with god. In the Old Testament, god seems very interested in telling us how he wants to forgive and forget our sins, in the gospels, Jesus seems to emphasize the necessity of our forgiveness of others even more, to the point of denying us entry to the kingdom of heaven unless we do so. And forgiveness applies not only between individuals, but also between classes of individuals.
Reinhard: The Israelites repeatedly sinned. God had to take the initiative to forgive them. We are blessed that our creator knows we are going to make mistakes, and that we cannot be perfect, and that god still promises us his forgiveness and redemption.
Lloyd: Sometimes we think we have reached a goal when forgiveness has been granted to us. But forgiveness is an ongoing process of sanctification, of purification; it goes along with our growth.
Harry: What is God’s purpose in wanting to forgive us? We think it allows us to go to a higher plane when we die, but that seems to me a shallow view of forgiveness. It seems to me there must be a functional purpose that has to do with god’s creation.
To live in a community, one must accept others in the community as being like oneself. To my dismay, I find myself to be a prejudiced person. Ninety percent of my staff at work are from the lowest social strata. They are the working poor, uneducated, angry, and culturally off my measurement scale. But to treat them with love and respect–to accept them for who they are, which is in a sense “forgiving” them–I must identify with them; I must regard and treat them as my equals. I must be able to sit down with them, eat with them, understand where they came from, be interested in their lives and their culture, and offer them help when I can.
It would be much easier if I could just ignore them–manage them, give them their paycheck, and wash my hands. But this would not create community within the plant. To me, the question is: Is forgiving others going to do something for god in this world? I think it does. I think it creates community.
Reinhard: To forgive others as the Lord’s Prayer says we should is an emotional event for human beings because it requires a sort of surrender to those whom we forgive. We are good Christians when we have faith in a god whose love and forgiveness transcend our emotionally crippled ability to understand them.
Lloyd: It’s harder to forgive if one has not experienced being forgiven. I have experienced powerful grace and forgiveness at various points in my life (although I am sure it happens on a daily basis) and those experiences have changed my life and my perspective on the value of forgiveness. By being forgiven, I can better forgive others. I think that is what Jesus was trying to teach the disciples, and it perhaps explains the prejudices that Harry talked about. If we realize how powerfully god’s forgiveness has affected us then we are that much more inclined to forgive others.
David: The benefit god receives by forgiving us fits with the “Becoming god” aspect of Process Theology. While the “Being god” aspect can forgive at will, the Becoming god needs forgiveness to grow throughout his kingdom until it grows to perfection, whereupon his Being is established. Reinhard raised the Lord’s Prayer, which also says: “Thy kingdom come,” suggesting that we are instrumental in helping god and his kingdom become, to come into Being. Perhaps this explains why Jesus was so adamant that forgiveness must be infinite in order for it to be perfect and for god’s kingdom to be realized.
Lloyd: It’s natural that god must forgive, since he is love.
Ada: I share Harry’s view that it is easier to forgive people in one’s own community than to forgive those outside it.
Robin: To maintain a relationship with us–his children–practically requires god to forgive us. But there is a limit to his forgiveness, as was the case with the evil angels. So it is somewhat dangerous to take god’s forgiveness for granted. Being cast out of heaven is still a possibility.
Lloyd: Forgiveness is a gift of love. But it is not a consummated gift unless we accept it. The evil angels refused the gift, so forgiveness was not possible because it was not consummated. Does god still love the people who turn down the gift, who reject his forgiveness, his love?
Jay: Forgetting is a key component of forgiving. Somewhere in Luke 9, Jesus says that only those who look forward, and not back–I.e., those who forget the past–will enter the kingdom of heaven. Paul echoes this when he talks about looking ahead rather than looking where one came from. In order for god to be in community with us, he must forgive our mistakes. But then he also must forget them. It sort of reflects the philosophy of the Daoist “Way.”
Harry: One can only live in the present, not in tomorrow or in yesterday.
Lloyd: Perhaps we simplify the aspect of “forgetfulness.” I don’t think that god completely forgets our sins. I remember being forgiven for a very bad sin and changing for the better as a result. I still remember it, but I do not dwell upon it. I remember it mainly for its beneficial result, not for itself. Perhaps god is the same way–he forgets the origin of our sin but not the result of our being forgiven for it.
Jay: That begs the question of whether forgiveness is for the benefit of the forgiven or the forgiver. Isaiah says that god must forgive; that God’s love is not influenced by our sin.
Michael: We are supposed to be made in god’s image, but not with respect to forgiveness! How do we get there?
Chris: 2 Peter has a progression from faith to virtue to knowledge to self control to patience to godliness to kindness to love. In Psalms I see the lovingkindness of god who loves and forgives me ad infinitum as long as I fear him. So it depends on me.
David: Much of the bible–certainly the Old Testament, and many other religions–use forgiveness as both carrot and stick: “God or the church or I personally will forgive you if you change your ways to his/our/my liking, or else…!” Is that a loving thing to do?
Harry: The Old Testament and Christian/Pauline theology are certainly at odds it his regard.
Don: We have more work to do on this topic.
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