Imitating God's Love: The Call to Forgiveness
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Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [00:31:36]
If you know someone loves you, really loves you, you can endure anything. No matter how dark the darkness, how intense the pain, if we know that God the Father loves us, we can endure everything. And knowing that He loves us, and how much He loves us, despite our sin, this is Paul's simple point, must, should, drive us logically to desire to imitate it, to love other people. [00:35:00]
It is ironic, isn't it? I find it ironic in my own heart. The thing that I appreciate most about God, my relationship with Him through Christ is the thing that I am least willing to give to other people. That I love that He forgives me, no matter how great a sinner I am. But when someone sins against me, I sometimes have a difficult time extending it. [00:36:50]
To imitate God in his forgiveness is to act outside of expectations. It is something not required technically. And something that displays surprising and ingenious grace. Tim Keller said in his great book on forgiveness, forgiveness is bringing someone back into the fold. It's granted before it's granted before it is felt, and it is not felt before it is granted. It's kind and tenderhearted. [00:40:21]
The receiving of that forgiveness is conditioned upon repentance, receiving the gift that is offered, turning to the cross and receiving that grace. So it's important for us to tease out the fine distinction of words or thoughts, concepts used in Scripture. Sometimes we confuse forgiveness with reconciliation. And we confuse a lack of forgiveness with resentment. [00:42:04]
Okay, you may not go back into a normalized relationship, but neither can you allow the bitterness, and the resentment, and the desire for revenge to consume you. You give that to the Lord. You give it to the authorities, if there's a legal issue. You give it to your spiritual leaders. But you give it away. The perceived right to bring revenge yourself, which will only destroy you, and continue the negative impact that that one who has wronged you has made on you. [00:45:14]
So, when we say, you must forgive as you have been forgiven in Christ, we are saying, you must let go of your bitterness you must not take revenge in yourself and you must love you're never free not to love that love is going to take different forms it's going to it's the it's the pursuit of the one who has wronged you in the appropriate way sometimes it's pursuing them to initiate reconciliation at other times it is pursuing their defeat that they might be brought to justice and repentance. [00:46:05]
Gladys went to her daughter and she said, Daddy and the boys have died for Jesus and we must forgive the people who did this, mustn't we? And she said, Mommy, yes, we must. The news of that forgiveness spread. Among the extremists, it sent off more protests because they knew this was a threatening thing. A faith that, a Christian faith that proposed this kind of, this kind of out -of -the -box, transcendent, supernatural forgiveness was a threat to the entire country. [00:50:49]
In her affidavit before the commission that ultimately brought those men to justice, she said, My God is mighty enough to supply all my needs and to guide me in my work, continuing Graham's work. I often question why it was necessary for him to die, but I will not participate in punishment. I will not take it upon myself to punish. I will, however, she said, pray that God would restore and redeem and grant repentance to those men who have done that evil. [00:52:36]
It says, therefore, be imitators of God. This is the only place, by the way, in the Bible where we're called to be imitators of God. Of course, by teaching, we imitate all three persons of the Godhead, but here it's explicitly said, imitate God himself as his beloved children and do it habitually, walk in it. What is walking but repeating the same thing over and over and over again? [00:54:06]
He gave himself up for us. One translator, guiding other translators, said, here is another way you can communicate this in a different culture. You can translate it, he let himself be killed. Jesus let himself be killed because he loved us. It makes a vast difference in your day. Vast difference in the way you speak, a vast difference in the way we live. If when we wake up in the morning, we say, I'm called to be a living sacrifice. [00:57:08]
We must love in surprising, ingenious, non -transactional, not culturally normative ways. Because that's exactly the way he loved us. We come to the table to find the power and the grace if we're living in just that kind of love. [01:04:37]
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If you know someone loves you, really loves you, you can endure anything. No matter how dark the darkness, how intense the pain, if we know that God the Father loves us, we can endure everything. And knowing that He loves us, and how much He loves us, despite our sin, this is Paul's simple point, must, should, drive us logically to desire to imitate it, to love other people. [00:35:00]
It is ironic, isn't it? I find it ironic in my own heart. The thing that I appreciate most about God, my relationship with Him through Christ is the thing that I am least willing to give to other people. That I love that He forgives me, no matter how great a sinner I am. But when someone sins against me, I sometimes have a difficult time extending it. [00:36:50]
To imitate God in his forgiveness is to act outside of expectations. It is something not required technically. And something that displays surprising and ingenious grace. Tim Keller said in his great book on forgiveness, forgiveness is bringing someone back into the fold. It's granted before it's granted before it is felt, and it is not felt before it is granted. It's kind and tenderhearted. [00:40:21]
The receiving of that forgiveness is conditioned upon repentance, receiving the gift that is offered, turning to the cross and receiving that grace. So it's important for us to tease out the fine distinction of words or thoughts, concepts used in Scripture. Sometimes we confuse forgiveness with reconciliation. And we confuse a lack of forgiveness with resentment. [00:42:04]
Okay, you may not go back into a normalized relationship, but neither can you allow the bitterness, and the resentment, and the desire for revenge to consume you. You give that to the Lord. You give it to the authorities, if there's a legal issue. You give it to your spiritual leaders. But you give it away. The perceived right to bring revenge yourself, which will only destroy you, and continue the negative impact that that one who has wronged you has made on you. [00:45:14]
So, when we say, you must forgive as you have been forgiven in Christ, we are saying, you must let go of your bitterness you must not take revenge in yourself and you must love you're never free not to love that love is going to take different forms it's going to it's the it's the pursuit of the one who has wronged you in the appropriate way sometimes it's pursuing them to initiate reconciliation at other times it is pursuing their defeat that they might be brought to justice and repentance. [00:46:05]
Gladys went to her daughter and she said, Daddy and the boys have died for Jesus and we must forgive the people who did this, mustn't we? And she said, Mommy, yes, we must. The news of that forgiveness spread. Among the extremists, it sent off more protests because they knew this was a threatening thing. A faith that, a Christian faith that proposed this kind of, this kind of out -of -the -box, transcendent, supernatural forgiveness was a threat to the entire country. [00:50:49]
In her affidavit before the commission that ultimately brought those men to justice, she said, My God is mighty enough to supply all my needs and to guide me in my work, continuing Graham's work. I often question why it was necessary for him to die, but I will not participate in punishment. I will not take it upon myself to punish. I will, however, she said, pray that God would restore and redeem and grant repentance to those men who have done that evil. [00:52:36]
It says, therefore, be imitators of God. This is the only place, by the way, in the Bible where we're called to be imitators of God. Of course, by teaching, we imitate all three persons of the Godhead, but here it's explicitly said, imitate God himself as his beloved children and do it habitually, walk in it. What is walking but repeating the same thing over and over and over again? [00:54:06]
He gave himself up for us. One translator, guiding other translators, said, here is another way you can communicate this in a different culture. You can translate it, he let himself be killed. Jesus let himself be killed because he loved us. It makes a vast difference in your day. Vast difference in the way you speak, a vast difference in the way we live. If when we wake up in the morning, we say, I'm called to be a living sacrifice. [00:57:08]
We must love in surprising, ingenious, non -transactional, not culturally normative ways. Because that's exactly the way he loved us. We come to the table to find the power and the grace if we're living in just that kind of love. [01:04:37]
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