He FORGIVES AND FORGETS as if our transgressions
had never happened. He LOVES us as if we had never transgressed.
Formerly I would ruminate over trespasses, repenting
again and again through tears of guilt and shame. Yet the Lord would shake
His head and say, “What are you talking about? I remember NO such thing.
Your earnest repentance cast this behind you and the blood of the Lamb
erased all record of it. Furthermore, I discarded it as something to be
forgotten. Why insist on digging up dead bones?”
Just as we bury the dead six feet under never
to be dug up again, so does G-d bury our offenses never to be remembered
again.
Hence, so are we to bury wrongs committed against
ourselves.
A Judaic teaching says that he who refuses to
forgive when asked for forgiveness commits a greater sin than the sinner
himself. Yeshua taught the same.
Unforgiveness is a CARDINAL sin!
How can we see the cross and His suffering for
our sins – and THEN REFUSE TO FORGIVE him/her who has wronged us
or whom we imagine has wronged us?
THAT, my friend, IS UNFORGIVABLE!
Furthermore, a mere “I forgive you” without love
is NOT enough. Love MUST follow. Fulfilling the commandment our Redeemer
and Lord gave us when He said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one
another as I HAVE LOVED YOU!” is essential.
Formerly we were to love our neighbor as we love
ourselves. But the NEW commandment is to love one another as HE loved us.
Hence, love and forgiveness are joined together – for one cannot be without
the other.
I had friends whose love and friendship I trusted
as being faithful and enduring. Yet when I erred in a time of great duress,
rather than reprimanding me lovingly they cut off all communication and
“dropped me like a hot potato”.
“We have forgiven you,” they said, “and we will
always love you.” But since then I am as good as dead to them and they
have had no further dealings with me. It is as though my imperfections
soil their perfection and our friendship has been spoiled for good. Do
we not serve the same Lord?
Were the Lord to forgive us this way, what hope
would anyone have?
Another dearly beloved friend with whom my soul
was knit together joined with her husband publicly to slander me in a local
newspaper. As a result, I was cut off from all our mutual friends except
for one. I have never heard from any of them again.
Is this the kind of love and forgiveness the Lord
shows us? Is this the love and forgiveness He requires us to show one another?
My mother – now with the Lord, may He bless her
soul – twice said to me, “You are my daughter no more!” when I came
to faith in Yeshua and when we moved to Israel. She cut off all communication
with me, returning my letters unopened and hanging up the phone on me.
Nevertheless, I continued to send her letters, flowers, birthday and holiday
greetings and presents as if she had never ever said these words and I
continued to visit her. My unconditional love persuaded her of the reality
of Yeshua and G-d’s salvation by and in Him. Through tears she asked for
my forgiveness which I said she already had and that I had never stopped
loving her, my deeds being the proof of it.
Later on she needed my love when she succumbed
to the Alzheimer's disease. Here there was no room for unforgiveness, bitterness,
or a grudge.
Who can afford not to forgive? I am careful to
practice forgiveness and unconditional love because I myself am daily in
need of G-d’s forgiveness and unfailing love.
How can any of us say, “Jesus/Yeshua, I love You!
Father in heaven, I worship and love You!” if we fail to walk in the foremost,
foundational rules of His Kingdom:
