Time travelers…

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” Matt 6:14-15.

When I come across verses in scripture like this one… they make me think.  In my flesh and what I know of people, there is a tendency to look at verses like this as though our Father in heaven is a harsh judge… as though there is something we have to do in order to be redeemed.  But redemption and forgiveness are not the same thing.

One is being bought back the other is being brought back.

When Christ took upon Himself the debt of our sins when He died on the cross, the price was paid.  We were bought back by the Father who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The work of the cross is a finished work.  He said so Himself when He spoke the words, “It is finished.”(John 19:30)

So then, after the cross, how can it be that the Father, if we forgive not men, will not forgive us? In order to understand the answer to this question we must first truly understand what “to forgive” means.

I believe that forgiveness is a three fold cord.  It contains within it the strands of release, reposition, and restoration.

First, let us look at the word itself.  Forgive.  I eluded to the definition above… that of being brought back. 

Fore (for) – forward, former, earlier, before in time

Give – to yield to

When we forgive someone we consciously determine to act as though it never happened.  To go back to the point in time before the offense, hurt, pain, trespass was given to us.   We reposition ourselves.

But in order to do that, we must first release what we have, that which we have received, that which was “given” to us.  Why, because it is a paradox.  How can we return to a point, ever, where something was not in our possession if we still have it within our possession?  Wherever, or whenever, we go it is there.  We must release it.  Then we can reposition ourselves to that point before…

Only then can the relationship be restored; Only if both parties have determined to act as though it never happened; Only if both parties have released what they were holding on to.

When we think of forgiving being an act of release, repositioning, and restoration as seen above it makes sense that if we do not forgive men, then our Father will not forgive us.  How could He?  How could He bring us to a point in time where we no longer possess what had been given to us if we continued to hold on to it?

The verses we started this discussion with are not harsh words from and even harsher judge.  Not at all.  They are words of practical instruction from a Father Who loves us and wants to bring us back… back to before the original transgression… back to when He walked freely and communed with man as He had designed.  He wants us back.

The price has already been paid on Calvary… we have been bought back.

Now He wants to us make time travelers of us all… He wants us to be brought back.

Lord, that You would help us to release all of what others have given us… pain, insults, offenses, gossip, cold shoulders,… so that we can be repositioned to the time before, and so those relationships can be restored.  In the Name of Jesus.  Amen.

SDG