Why Forgive?

Why Forgive? With a minimum of research, the answers are obvious. If you are a Christian:

We forgive because Christ forgave us. Acts 10:43.
"All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

We forgive because Christ told us to forgive. Luke 17:3.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him."


There are consequences of not forgiving. Matthew 6:14-15. This is Christ speaking:

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

If you are not a Christian, I have no idea why you would forgive anyone. Of course, you would be bitter and friendless if you never forgave, so maybe that's a good enough reason for you. Then again, there is something so freeing about not just letting go of an offense, but letting someone else carry it for you, knowing He will handle it properly. It will be dealt with in His time.

When I was considering the whys of forgiveness, an object lesson, of sorts, came to mind.

I do almost all of the grocery shopping and I usually shop alone. When I get home, I have this bad habit of trying to hook every grocery bag onto my person and haul the entire load into the house by myself. Recently, my husband ran out of the house when he saw me doing this and told me to give him the bags to carry. True to character, I told him I was fine and carried all the groceries into the house by myself. I ended up with red stripes all up my arm, a sore shoulder and my thumb hurt until I went to bed. It was a dumb, stubborn, thing to do. Someone was willing to take that load on themselves for my benefit and I said no. I was too proud to accept help when it was offered.

That is exactly what we do when we don't forgive. We are hurting, carrying a terrible burden, and Jesus runs to us. He tells us to give the bags to Him and He will carry them. But we tell him we're fine. We can handle this on our own. NO. We WANT to handle this burden on our own. We wear the burden proudly, as though we are going to receive an olympic gold medal as we cross the finish line with all of our packages of offense strapped to us, causing us pain and possible injury along the way.

There are a couple of problems with that attitude.

1. We damage our testimony when we hold onto offenses. Who is going to believe us when we say Christians show God's love when we can't show love to our brothers and sisters in Christ?

2. We were not made to bear the weight of unforgiveness. If we could handle offenses against us on our own, then Jesus would have died for no reason.

Matthew 26:28:

"This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

Hebrews 9:15:

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Those whom Christ set free are free, indeed. - John 8:36 (SAV)

We will never live a life of freedom in Christ if we won't break that first link in the chain - unforgiveness. It has got to go!

Next, I look at the "How." That's the tough one...