Forgive as the Lord forgave you
Christians know that they are meant to forgive other people. After all, we believe in forgiveness, and we rejoice in God’s forgiveness. It is only reasonable that, as forgiven people, we should extend that same forgiveness to others. But what does it mean to “forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13, NIV)? In what way did Christ forgive us? Four aspects of his forgiveness occur to me:
It was fast. Actually, it was better than fast; it was immediate. He didn’t ask us to wait, he didn’t have to think about it. He just did it. He forgave us the moment we asked.
It was free. He didn’t ask us to pay anything, or to earn it. He had already paid the price in his own blood, and he didn’t ask us to contribute anything, to pay a ‘top up’ fee.
It was full. He forgave all our sins. He didn’t hold any back, unforgiven, waiting to see how we performed before he would forgive the rest.
It was ‘forgetful’. He ‘forgot’ our sins in the sense that he chose never to take action against us because of them; he refused to keep them in reserve ‘just in case’.