Today during my quiet time with the Lord, I read Psalm 65. It is a wonderful Psalm that praises God for His abundant blessings and provision! It is full of His tender mercies not only to mankind, but to the earth itself: "The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness" (v. 12).
Verse 3 in particular, however, stood out to me. King David wrote, "When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions." A footnote next to the word "forgave" directed me to the bottom of the page where I was shown that the verse may also have read, "When we were overwhelmed by sins, you made atonement for our transgressions." It struck me that the word "forgave" could also have been the phrase "made atonement for." To make atonement for something means to make reparation, or payment, for something, and usually that something is a wrong that has been committed.
Jesus made atonement for our sins when He paid the penalty our sins demanded: death. He died in our place on the cross that, through faith in His sacrifice and resurrection, our sins might be forgiven and we might have eternal life with Him!
I have known since I was a little girl that Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and that when I repent of my sins and believe in His Name, He will forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Today, however, I was struck with a deeper understanding of forgiveness than I had ever considered before. Hebrews 9:22 says, "[The] law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."
Being God, Jesus had, and has, the authority to forgive sins, but by the law He Himself set forth centuries ago, it was necessary that blood be shed in order for our sins to be forgiven. Forgiveness came with a price: our lives. But, in His unfathomable love and mercy, God chose to pay the price forgiveness demanded Himself, and He offered His life instead. Oh, Abba...how amazing is Your love for us who are so unworthy!
Dwelling on the awesome, necessary price Jesus paid in order that our sins might be forgiven, I began to consider how this new revelation about forgiveness should be applied to my life. If the greatest act of forgiveness demanded the greatest sacrifice this world will ever know, then I must expect to pay a price as well when I choose to forgive another.
Forgiveness is far more than my saying, "I forgive you," whether directly to someone's face or indirectly in my heart. Forgiveness will also demand that I pay a price as Christ did, and that price is a denial of myself. I must deny myself any desire, when I am in the midst of my pain and hurt, to punish that person for hurting me, to hurt them back, to act as judge over them, to deny them forgiveness when it is sought, or to bring up their sin again in the future.
If Jesus chose not to condemn, not to retaliate, to offer forgiveness without hesitation to us who could never deserve it, to remove our sins as far as the east is from the west and to remember them no more...then when I choose to forgive, I too must pay the price of denying myself and must offer forgiveness as freely as He did, no matter how I might feel. I may have to forgive many times, because the hurt will not automatically disappear when I forgive and I must lay the pain at His feet, but by the strength and grace He provides, I know it is possible to pay the price forgiveness requires.
Only then will I truly be forgiving others as Christ has forgiven me.
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