Relationship Remix - Forgiveness Of Others

Wednesday, November 12th

Yesterday we introduced the power of the cross and what Christ did on the cross. Which means we have vertical forgiveness from God and offer horizontal forgiveness of others. Notice what the prophet Micah said,
 Micah 7:18-19- "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. 19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea."

This is the vertical relationship between us and God, our sin, our iniquities, our debt and how God, through Jesus cancelled our legal indebtedness. We need to receive his vertical forgiveness first.

Then we extend the vertical forgiveness, horizontally, to one another. Jesus’ words on the cross are a powerful example of that.
Luke 23:34 "Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

It didn’t matter if it was the religious leaders who, unlawfully put Jesus there, the soldiers who beat him, or the crowd who jeered at him, or the fact that he was an innocent man who took on all the world’s sin. Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”

What enables God to forgive us so radically? What enables us to forgive others so radically? The cross. That’s why forgiveness starts with eyes on the power of the cross.

Let me ask you a random question to drill this point home. What happens when you take your eyes off the road? You begin to drift, you are distracted, focused on something else, then what should have your attention.

Have you heard the phrase, “keep your eye on the ball.” That can be any ball sport. For me, it was primarily football, because I was a WR. I practiced long and hard, looking the ball in. I would coach, look the ball in. The number of times, coaching or watching a game, announcing, “he took his eye off the ball, he peaked at the defender.” And the result of the play is an incomplete pass.

We miss forgiveness when we take our eyes off the cross. We miss forgiveness when we place our eyes on the person who sinned against us or the gravity of the sin. We will always drive off course when we don’t keep our eyes on the cross, and we put it on someone or something else.

How do you need to see the cross in relation to the sin done to you or the person who committed the sin?
How do you shift your focus onto the cross and not them or it?
 
Take a moment and journal to God.