Relationship Remix - Forgiveness Of Others

Tuesday, November 11th

Having a discussion on forgiveness, in this setting, means I have no idea the degree of hurt or pain that has been done to you or that you have done. I have no idea, what your story is and how it has impacted you.

But hear me on this, my focus of this discussion isn’t on the specific hurt, it’s on the cross, the cross is where all those hurts are nailed.

Forgiveness starts with eyes on the power of the cross.

Read Colossians 2:10, 13-15- “In Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority….13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Read, reread this passage. Highlight, underline, star certain words or phrases.

Then reflect on these thoughts for a moment.

Sin separates us from God. Paul says, the wages of sin is death. Every sin I commit is an offense done to God, I owe God, I should pay for my sin. It would be as though, every sin I commit, I put a penny in a giant jar. Those pennies would account for a bill of $500 Trillion. I could never pay for that.

What do you see in the power of this passage? Christ has all power. He has power of sin, over evil, over death. He canceled my “legal indebtedness” what I owed, by nailing my sin to the cross.

He has power over your sin, which also means he has power of the sin done to you. He has power to disarm evil, in the Message version, it says, “He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.”

I love the audacity of that phrase. Jesus stripped evil of all it’s fake power and made a mockery of them.

Jesus’ supernatural life, death, and resurrection defies natural logic and understanding. That’s why, people can argue with me all day about the challenges of Christianity or the Bible or the poor representation of Christians in the world. But much of that doesn’t matter if Jesus doesn’t do what he says he is going to do. If Jesus doesn’t die on the cross and rise again, forgiving me of my sin, I am eternally separated from God, his love, grace, and mercy. If Jesus doesn’t die on the cross and rise again, evil wins and you thought things were dark now. You ain’t seen nothing yet, if Jesus didn’t do what he said he was going to do.

The power and the mystery of the cross have done that.

Today, sit in the power of the cross for your own life. See that he canceled your debt and invites you into a right relationship with him.

Sit also, with this song- Give Me Faith