Do You Know How To Forgive?

Last post I shared from the Lord’s Prayer the freedom of forgiveness. The big idea was: To know forgiveness is to know the heart of God. We even shared a forgiveness process from Shepherd’s Heart Ministries. Click link to download: forgiveness process

This sounds right, but for many forgiving seems out of reach. There is so much pain, so much bitterness, where do you start? In this post we are going to see from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians a process that shows us how to forgive.  Colossians 3:1-14

I      Know How To Forgive –  You Are A New Creation. Put To Death The Old Col 3:1-3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

I don’t think it’s a stretch of our imaginations to see what we deserve for our sins. Can you imagine all of your sins, all transgressions, all stray thoughts? It is too large and foul to even think about. Based on our sinful behaviour, what do we deserve? Yes we deserve death, for we have broken God’s commandments and broken his heart. Were it not for the love and mercy of God, we would be eternally separated from Him.

Yet, through the forgiveness that came through Jesus, we are redeemed. That mountain of sin, the size of a landfill, has been washed away. We are now hidden with Christ in God.

Verse 5 exhorts us to “put to death” whatever belongs to our old sinful nature.Romans 8 agrees and reminds us to “mortify our flesh”. Then Paul reminds us that we have been raised with Christ. We are a new creation, the old has gone the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17).

So then see verse 1b, we set our hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. We must long for a heart of forgiveness like God’s. After our hearts are turned to Christ what’s next?? See verse 2. Yes, we are to turn our minds to things above, not earthly things.

Think about how God forgave you, how forgiveness is the central part of His plan. How His forgiveness has blessed you to the point that Christ actually lives in you. This is a whole new way of living. Not us trying to keep the rules, the commandments, but Christ living in us. This is the new creation.

Yet it is unattainable unless we by an act of the will put to death, unless we mortify, our flesh.

II    Know How To Forgive – You Have New Character. Put Off The Old Col 3:9b, 10 you have taken off (put off) your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, Col 3:12, 13 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Now Paul has shifted gears. He is no longer speaking of being a New Creation, of dying to our old sin nature and Christ living in us. He is now speaking about a New Character. The habits, and virtues associated with this New Creation life. Have you ever noticed the power of habits?

I have noticed that when driving to a meeting with someone, if it goes by my old office, I often thoughtlessly drive in. Or, when we are in a heated discussion, the same old issues come up over and over again, with the same tired, yet hurtful arguments? This from a biblical perspective is the “old self” or the “old man”. The old self  is the accumulation of the habits, vices, virtues, thought patterns, and character traits you developed when growing up and living in this fallen world.

Paul exhorts us as an act of the will to put off the old self and put on the new habits, virtues and character that are made in us by Christ. See verse 12 “As God’s chosen people, holy (forgiven/set apart) and dearly loved”. As children of the king, we are to go to “finishing school” to learn how to behave.

In God’s finishing school we clothe ourselves with the nature, character, virtue and habits of Christ. See verse 12 “Clothe yourselves with compassion and patience”. Then verse 13 “bear with each other”.. Bear with them. My wife gets a lot of practice at this… Cause sometimes, I can be a bear!! Paul continues, “forgive grievances”, like he said to the Ephesians is chapter 4 verse 32 “be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you”.

I have the power, the ability and the desire to put on forgiveness as a new virtue, new character as an act of the will.

III   Know How To Forgive – You Have New Charity/Love. Col 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

What a picture. Over all of this, put on love. Love is like the crown of all these virtues and a blessing to all.. Love is the crowning virtue of God and God’s people. Let the love of Christ compel you 2 Cor 5:14. God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Rom. 5:5.

Can we see ourselves as the sinful woman at Simon the Pharisees house? She loved much because she was forgiven much. Do we then love little, because we feel we have been forgiven little? Never! We owed a vast debt to God for our sin, and all of it was forgiven. Surely we can love much when we recognize this.. Please click on link below to hear this message on forgiveness preached at Kanata Baptist Church on March 8, 2015. http://www.multiplyme.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lords-prayer-forgiveness.mp3