MESSAGE ARCHIVE

This week’s message on biblical forgiveness focuses on how forgiveness aims to restore community. God’s forgiveness of us individually is meant to be reflected in our own relationships with other broken people. Scripture calls us to rebuke those who sin against us, but also to forgive endlessly. This combines confronting wrongs while being willing to reconcile when the other party is willing. The Passover shows that all are guilty and substitution is the only way to satisfy justice and love—Jesus’ death is that substitution for us. Mark 11 and Luke 17 give a nuanced view - we can forgive inwardly even without the offender’s repentance, yet full reconciliation requires their repentance. These passages show how forgiveness entails an inward attitude and an outward action. Both are vital—inner forgiveness alone risks enabling harm, while outward forgiveness alone risks being transactional. Forgiveness promotes justice by confronting evil out of love, like Jesus’ command to love our enemies. This distinct love reflects God’s gracious love toward us. Restoring community requires learning to live in the grace we’ve received.

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From Series: "Forgive"

Human forgiveness is dependent on divine forgiveness. There is a vertical aspect of forgiveness that starts with God’s forgiveness of us that translates into an internal aspect as we understand God’s forgiveness. That leads to the horizontal aspect which results in how we offer forgiveness and reconciliation others. Our society’s anxiety and confusion regarding forgiveness is real, but our world cannot live without forgiveness and that is why this series is so important.

Listen to Justice: The Foundation of a Christian Approach to Abuse     Read Justice: The Foundation of a Christian Approach to Abuse     Download Reading Plan     Download Sermon Notes