Page updated 22 September 2018
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What does the BIBLE say about Forgiveness
Friend, this is not a state of broken fellowship with the Lord. It is, rather, a state of damnation because no murderer, including anyone who hates his brother -- whom God calls a murderer -- has eternal life abiding in him. Many of you reading these words today religiously carry out church functions. You say the anthems, pray the prayers, recite the creeds, give your tithes, and thank the minister for his sermons. However, YOU OVERLOOK THE SIN IN YOUR LIFE WHICH WILL DOOM AND DAMN YOUR SOUL IN HELL -- the malicious hatred being harbored toward others. Get right with God. Godly love is the greatest proof one has that his experience is real. -Jack Van Impe, July 2006, www.jvim.com, This is Christianity-
scriptures
Psalm 25:18,
Psalm 86:5,
Psalm 130:4,
Jeremiah 31:34,
Ezekiel 18:21-22,
Daniel 9:9,
Hosea 14:2-3,
Matthew 5:22-25, 44-48,
Matthew 6:12, 14-15,
Matthew 9:2, 5,
Matthew 12:31-32
Mark 2:5, 9,
Mark 3:28-30,
Mark 4:11-12,
Luke 5:20, 23,
Luke 6:37,
Luke 7:47-50,
Luke 12:10,
John 6:37,
John 20:23
Acts 5:30-31,
Acts 8:22-23,
Acts 13:38-39,
Acts 26:17-18,
Romans 12:18,
Romans 13:7-8,
2 Corinthians 2:10-11,
Ephesians 1:7,
Colossians 1:13-14,
Colossians 2:13-14,
Hebrews 9:22,
James 5:15,
1 John 2:12,
1 John 4:20
| sermons | devotionals |
|---|---|
| The High Cost of Mercy |
The Gift of Forgiveness |
pages to read
- Five Points to Remember About Forgiveness
- Prayers for forgiving others
- Termites in the Foundation [Part 1, Part 2]
- What does the Bible say about anger
When we think now of saying something out of the flesh to one of our brothers or sisters, it's not just going to the prayer room and say "Well, Lord forgive me" and thinking it is just between two people.
When we give someone a cold shoulder and when we just back away from somebody and we isolate them and then we think that is just between individuals. Well, that's just between me and her. It's between me and him. No, no, no. Lord show us. It's not between individuals and we can't just go to a prayer room and say 'forgive me, Jesus' without realizing that we've got to go back to the body, to that person, that one we wounded. We wounded Jesus. -David Wilkerson, The High Cost of Mercy-
Writer: Betty Miller | bibleresources.org/forgiveness/
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15
The Bible speaks about every person needing forgiveness and every person needing to forgive. Why? Because we are all sinners in need of God's forgiveness. None of us is perfect. (Five Points to Remember About Forgiveness) We need God's grace and we need to extend that same mercy to others. This subject is the very essence of true Christianity. Until we understand it, we will not really understand God Himself.
Likely, if you are reading this page, you want to receive God's forgiveness, and you want to forgive. You want your slate to be clean. The problem is how? If we do not receive this grace from God, and extend it to others, the Scriptures make it clear that we will die in our sins. God has made forgiveness so important, that all our happiness and fulfillment depend on it--in this life and in the next.
If we say we have love and cannot walk in forgiveness, we deceive ourselves, and our "love" is only a parody of the real thing.
He knew that all of us, without exception will be wronged. Furthermore, all of us will treat others wrongly. All of us will sin against God and others. These sins block and hinder our relationship with Him. Jesus spoke more of forgiveness than possibly any other topic. This is a lesson we must learn on deeper and deeper levels until the very core of our being is changed into Love.
There is no life apart from God's love. Therefore, there is no life apart from forgiveness, for forgiveness is the seal, the mark, and the proof of Love.
We All Need Forgiveness
The psychologist, Freud, accurately determined that the main source of all humanity's woes are feelings of guilt. He came to this profound truth, but didn't know what to do with it. Today, we are encouraged by pop psychologists to "feel good about ourselves," and to do away with the troubling guilt that we all have. The Bible teaches the opposite. It says we must face our sin and deal with it--and only then can we have the peace that the world craves so badly. It can be a frightening and painful thing to face our sin, yet we will never receive healing unless we do. Our guilt will continue to torment us and wreak havoc on our lives until we receive forgiveness for our sins. The key is not to ignore our guilt or try to gloss over it, but to face it and seek God for forgiveness, through the blood of Jesus.
When Jesus died on the cross, He took our punishment upon Himself. He took the guilt of our sins and bore them in our place. He received all the emotional pain of the abuse, betrayal, injustice, and scorn that we ourselves have given and received. In a prophetic portrait of the future Christ, Isaiah wrote, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed"
(Isaiah 53:5
But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.Isaiah 53 verse 5).
In fact, under the Law, almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.
The weight of sin is so great that only shed blood can atone for it. We treat it so lightly, yet all the world is reeling and stunted and dying under the consequences of it. In the days of the Old Covenant (before Jesus came), God made laws requiring specific animals to be sacrificed to atone for certain sins. The one who committed the sin, was to slay the animal himself. We look at the Old Testament and wonder why God would be so strict, so seemingly cruel, and so specific. In confusion, many of us have said "Well, that is how God was back then..." and we try to put it out of our heads. There is something we must understand about God though. He does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. What He hated 2,000 years ago He hates today, and will hate 2,000 years from now. He hates what destroys His creation, and He will be merciless against all forms of sin and injustice until every last bit is purged from us. (Please note that He is merciless with the sin, but not the repentant sinner!!)