Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 24, 1995
Article and Journal Entries |
Christianity Today, January 7, 1983 #2979
"Forgiveness: The Power to Change the Past" by Lewis B. Smedes
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I. Anxiety and relief.
A. Two anxieties face us.
1) Our unchangeable past.
2) Our unpredictable futures.
B. God's two answers.
1) God forgives our past.
2) God controls our future by keeping his promises.
C. We can share in this divine power by forgiving and promising.
1) Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt concludes there is only
one remedy for the inevitability of history: forgiveness.
2) We are stuck with our past and its effects on us.
History cannot be escaped from, undone or changed.
II. What do we do when we forgive?
A. There are three stages in every act of forgiving.
1) Suffering.
a) Hurts that don't need to be forgiven:
1> Annoyances, defeats, and slights.
b) Hurts that do need forgiveness:
1> Acts of disloyalty.
A> Treats you as a stranger when you are a friend.
1: This assaults our identity.
B> Examples are adultery, reneging on promises, etc.
2> Acts of betrayal.
A> Treats you as an enemy when you are a friend.
B> Comparison of Peter and Judas.
2) Spiritual surgery.
a) When you forgive someone, you slice away the wrong from
the person who did it.
1> He is remade in your memory.
2> You think of him not as the person who hurt you,
but as the person who needs you.
3> He himself is not changed, but you are.
b) This stage may be our limit.
1> Some we need to forgive are dead and gone.
2> Others do not want our forgiveness.
3) Starting over.
a) Reconciliation is the final act of forgiveness.
b) What is not forgiveness:
1> Forgiving is not forgetting.
2> Forgiving is not excusing.
3> Forgiving is not smoothing things over.
B. Only forgiveness can undo the hurt of history.
1) The grace to do it is from God.
2) The decision to do it is our own.
III. Why forgive?
A. Simon Wiesenthal's story of unforgiveness.
1) "Let the SS trooper go to hell," said one respondent.
2) Getting even, having contempt, seems like our only weapon.
B. Forgiveness is superhuman.
1) Forgiveness is a better way to fairness.
a) It creates a new possibility of fairness by releasing us
from the unfair past.
b) It brings fairness to the forgiver.
1> Refusing to forgive only condemns us to more unfairness.
2) Vengeance is having a videotape planted in your soul that
cannot be turned off.
a) Forgiveness is the ONLY way back to fairness.
IV. How do we forgive?
A. We forgive slowly.
1) C.S. Lewis took years to forgive a cruel teacher.
B. We forgive communally.
1) Fellowship with those of similar pain can help.
C. We forgive as we are forgiven.
1) Anyone who forgives can hardly tell the difference between
feeling forgiven and doing the forgiving.
2) Example of Corrie ten Boom.
She was stuck for the war years in a concentration camp,
humiliated and degraded.
This was especially true in the delousing shower where the
women were ogled by the leering guards.
But she made it through that hell.
And eventually she felt she had, by grace, forgiven even
those fiends who guarded the shower stalls.
So she preached forgiveness, for individuals, for all of
Europe.
She preached it in Bloemendaal, in the United States, and,
one Sunday, in Munich.
After the sermon, greeting people, she saw a man come
toward her, hand outstretched:
"Ja, Fraulein, it is wonderful that Jesus forgives all our
sins, just as you say."
She remembered his face; it was the leering, lecherous,
mocking face of an SS guard of the shower stall.
Her hand froze at her side.
She could not forgive.
She thought she had forgiven all.
But she could not forgive when she met a guard, standing
in the solid flesh in front of her.
Ashamed, horrified at herself, she prayed:
"Lord, forgive me, I cannot forgive."
And as she prayed she felt forgiven, accepted, in spite
of her shabby performance as a famous forgiver.
Her hand was suddenly unfrozen.
The ice of hate melted.
Her hand went out.
She forgave as she felt forgiven.
And she was probably not able to sort out the difference.
D. Our only escape from history's cruel unfairness, our only
passage to the future's creative possibilities, is the
miracle of forgiving.
Christianity Today, October 4, 1985
"Forgive God?" by V. Gilbert Beers, p. 17.
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I. Does God need to be forgiven?
A. Forgiveness presupposes wrongdoing, which God is incapable of.
1) Bible teaches that God is sinless.
B. Yet we often find God guilty of "lapsing" when we face tragedies.
II. Forgiveness is totally against human nature.
A. We seek revenge.
B. God encourages, indeed requires, us to forgive. Eph 4:32
1) He also calls on us to forget. Jer 31:34
2) Required for full forgiveness.
III. Our forgiveness can be like God's.
A. It's evidence that we're made in his image.
B. Our forgiveness is not God's.
1) God not only forgives, he cleanses.
2) We cannot.
C. Forgiving cleanses us.
1) It erases memories that eat at us.
2) Perceived wrongs against us are as pernicious at the
real thing.
IV. Forgiving God.
A. We sometimes perceive wrongs done by God to us.
1) "Why?"
B. We can forgive God for these "perceived" wrongs.
C. It is for our benefit, not God's.
Christianity Today, April 8, 1991
"Unnatural Act" by Philip Yancey, p. 36.
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I. Forgiveness is difficult.
A. Memories linger.
B. Forgiveness is UNNATURAL.
1) It is blantantly unfair.
C. Story of Joseph and his brothers. Genesis 42-45
1) Joseph swings from harshness to blubbering sorrow.
2) He finally forgives them.
a) The sounds of his grief and love mingle together.
II. Forgiveness is against all instincts.
A. Animals don't forgive predators.(sharks and dolphins)
1) Dogs eat dogs.
2) Nations and economies operate on this principle.
3) Freud:"One must forgive one's enemies, but not before
they've been hanged."
B. Christianity is suffused with forgiveness.
1) Lord's prayer.
2) Best-known saying of Jesus:"Forgive your enemies."
a) Seems suicidal.
b) Hard enough to forgive rotten brothers.
III. Why forgiveness is so central to our faith.
A. It is the only way to break the cycle of blame - and pain -
in relationships.
1) "Karma" provides a more satisfying sense of fairness.
a) (6,800,000 incarnations are required.)
b) Example of marriage ruined by a bar of soap.
2) Forgiveness doesn't settle all questions of blame.
a) It often evades those questions.
b) But it allows relationships to start over.
c) Only humans can forgive, and develop relationships that
transcend the law of nature.
3) Forgiveness is tit-for-tat.
a) Blame is this way, and so is forgiveness.
b) We would not want to get caught up in such a cycle with
God.
B. Loosening the stranglehold of guilt.
1) First official act of free parliament in East Germany was
to ask for forgiveness of Jews.
a) It did not bring any Jews back to life.
b) But it helped to loosen the stranglehold of guilt.
2) "Les Miserables."
a) Double-edged - Valjean learns forgiveness, detective
does not.
3) Forgiveness transforms individuals, both forgivers and
forgiven.
a) Joseph's tears were a sign of liberation.
b) Jesus led Peter through a ritual of forgiveness.Jn 21:15f
C. Bridging the gap.
1) Forgiveness puts both parties on the same side.
a) Through it we realize we are not that much different.
2) In Incarnation, God put himself on our side. Heb 4:15; 2 Cor 5:21
a) Forgiveness is not easy for God, either.
b) Words from the cross: "They know not what they do."
IV. Resolving the unfairness.
A. At its core, forgiveness remains unfair.
1) It is unjust to let dastardly deeds go unpunished.
B. In the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith.Rom 12:19
1) We trust that God is a better justice maker than us.
2) We defer to him.
C. Wrong does not disappear when we forgive.
1) But it loses its grip on us, and is taken over by God.
2) He knows what to do.
Christianity Today, August 16, 1993
"Holocaust & Ethnic Cleansing" by Philip Yancey, p. 24.
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I. "The Sunflower" by Simon Wiesenthal.
A. SS soldier Karl asks for forgiveness.
B. 30 troops had been killed by booby traps in Dnyepropetrovsk,
Ukraine, and so 300 Jews where herded into a three-story
building and set ablaze.
"I am left here with my guilt," Karl concluded at last." In the
last hours of my life you are with me. I do not know who you are,
I know only that you are a Jew and that is enough. I know that
what I have told you is terrible. In the long nights while I have
been waiting for death, time and time again I have longed to talk
about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him. Only I didn't know
whether there were any Jews left.... I know what I am asking is
almost too much for you, but without your answer I cannot die in
peace." Simon Wiesenthal, an architect in his early twenties, now
a prisoner dressed in a shabby uniform marked with the yellow Star
of David, felt the entire weight of his race bearing down on him.
He stared out the window at the sunlit courtyard. He looked at
the eyeless heap of bandages lying in the bed." At last I made up
my mind," he writes, "and without a word I left the room."
A. Haunted by the hospital scene, he asked 32 people of various
faiths and backgrounds to comment.
"What would you have done in my place?" he asked.
"Did I do right?"
1) Out of 32 writers, only 6 said he had done wrong.
2) He had no authority to forgive on behalf of others.
3) The crimes were too enormous to be forgiven.
a) "Let the SS man die unshriven. Let him go to hell."
4) The whole concept of forgiveness is wrong.
a) It is merely an act of sensual pleasure.
II. Unforgiveness has a terrible, crystalline logic.
A. In a world of unspeakable atrocity, forgiveness seems
unjust, unfair, irrational.
1) Philosopher Herbert Marcuse said, "One cannot, and should
not, go around happily killing and torturing and then,
when the moment has come, simply ask, and receive,
forgiveness."
B. There is conflict between justice and forgiveness in Christianity.
1) Some, like Luther, assign justice to Caesar and forgiveness
to the church (and individuals).
2) Is it too much to expect high ethical ideas to be transferred
to the brutal world of politics and diplomacy?
III. Comparisons with Bosnia.
A. Forgiveness has one thing going for it - it is the alternative.
1) Where unforgiveness reigns, essayist Lance Morrow has pointed
out, a Newtonian law comes into play:For every atrocity
there must be an equal and opposite atrocity.
2) Serbs are following the terrible logic of unforgiveness.
a) The Nazis tried to "cleanse" the Serbs in WWII.
b) Serbs kill tens of thousands; Croats killed hundreds of
thousands.
3) One major flaw in the inexorable law of revenge: it never
settles the score.
a) The Turks got revenge in 1389, at the Battle of Kesovo;
the Croats got it in the 1940s, now it's our turn, say
the Serbs.
b) If everyone were to follow the "eye for an eye" principle
of justice, said Gandhi, the whole world would go
blind.
c) "As long as you cling to 'justice' you will never be
guiltless of injustice... In reality, insistence on
justice is servitude. Only forgiveness frees us from
the injustice of others." Theologian Romano Guardini
B. Examples of law of unforgiveness in history:
1) "Godfather" trilogy.
2) IRA bombings because of atrocities committed by Cromwell.
3) Republics of Soviet Union.(Chechnya)
4) Iran's plea for apology from President Carter.
IV. Forgiveness in the arena of nations.
A. Germany and reparations to Israel. East Germany followed.
B. 1983 mass by Pope John Paul II in Warsaw, with throngs of
worshippers passing the Communist party's Central Committee
Building and chanting in unison, "We forgive you! We forgive
you!"
C. Civil War in America. Tecumseh Sherman and "scorched earth."
D. Racism in America shows that forgiveness in itself does not
undo injustice.Yet blacks voted for George Wallace.
V. Forgiveness focuses on individual, personal acts.
A. The cure, like a vaccine, must be applied one person at a time.
1) Martin Luther King, Jr., in Birmingham jail.
2) Corrie Ten Boom.
3) John Paul II went into the bowels of Rome's Rebibbia prison
to visit Mehmet Ali Agca, a hired assassin who had tried
to kill him and nearly succeeded."I forgive you," said
the Pope, as video cameras whirred.
4) There will be no escape until our hearts are changed.
B. The Pope is an image of one who did not survive an
assassination - Jesus.
1) Pilate, soldiers, etc, were "just doing their job,"
similar to excuse of Nazis.
2) The Cross put an end to the law of eternal consequences.
3) The leap from personal forgiveness to corporate forgiveness
crosses a deep chasm.We need only to look at Christian
history after the Cross.
C. Forgiveness can be a powerful weapon in the making of peace.
Discipleship Journal #67, January-February 1992
"Forgiven, but not Forgiving?" Gloria Chisholm, p. 59
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I. Forgiving opens us up to being hurt again and again.
A. Jesus put no limits on forgiving.
B. He made it a lifestyle.
II. Four basic attitudes associated with forgiveness.
A. "I won't."
1) The unmerciful servant refused to forgive. Matt 18:30
2) If we won't, God won't.
3) The resulting isolation can drive us to forgive.
B. "I can't."
1) Some feel they have been too hurt to forgive.
2) An unforgiving spirit cannot grow spiritually.
3) It takes much energy to maintain a bitter heart.
C. "I don't want to."
1) This may be the most honest response, and is usually conscious.
2) We cannot love if we cannot forgive.
D. "I'm willing."
1) God does not condemn an unforgiving heart. (?)
2) Anything is possible for him who believes. Mark 9:22f
III. Moving through the process of healing.
A. God forgives us, so we should forgive others.
B. Chuck Swindoll:"The extent to which you can envision God's
forgiveness of you, to that same measure you will be given
the capacity to forgive others."
Discipleship Journal #70, July-August 1992, p. 19.
"Forgive and Forget, and Other Myths of Forgiveness," by Dan Allender
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I. Forgiveness and vengeance.
A. Thoughts of enemies inhaling excrement. Isa 25:10-12
B. Does forgiving open us up to further abuse?
C. "Forgiveness is too often seen as merely an exercise in releasing
bad feelings and ignoring past harm, pretending all is well."
II. The myth of forgetting the harm.
A. Does God forget our sin?
1) Ps 25:7 and Jer 31:34 say he does.
2) Judgment Day assumes he does not.2 Cor 5:10
3) Taken away and buried sin are metaphors.Ps 103:12; Mic 7:19
B. Emphasizing forgetting fuels a spirit of denial.
1) It warps the perspective.
III. The myth of releasing anger.
A. Forgiveness is usually not a sudden deliverance from anger.
1) It is an on-going work of God.
B. Anger or hurt is not necessarily contrary to forgiveness.
1) God feels anger and hurt at our sin.
2) An absence of strong feelings implies a lack of heart
involvement.
3) Anger can be a loving response.
IV. The myth of not desiring revenge.
A. Many see revenge as incompatible with forgiveness.
1) Revenge involves a desire for justice.
2) A true hunger for vengeance is our commitment to destroy sin.
B. Vengeance belongs to God.
1) We should not seek it on our own.
2) We anticipate the Day of the Lord.
V. The myth of peace at any price.
A. Offenders are not always won over by unconditional love.
1) Turning the other cheek is the not same as fear-based service
offered to avoid guilt or attack.
2) Overlooking harm in order to achieve a sentimental but not
substantive peace actually encourages sin.
3) Forgiveness is a weapon of wisdom that is designed to
disrupt and entice.
B. Shrewd sacrifice exposes the ehart of the one doing harm.
1) This generosity has a redemptive bite.
VI. What does it mean to forgive?
A. A central image is the master who mercifully cancels an
incomprehensible debt. Matt 6:9-15; 18:21-35
B. The only debt that remains is to offer others a taste of
redemptive love.
C. Working definition of forgiveness:
"To forgive another means to cancel a debt in order to provide:
1) Opportunity for repentance, and
2) Restoration of the broken relationship.
Discipleship Journal #71, September-October 1992, p. 25.
"Feeding your Enemy" by Dan Allender
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I. True forgiveness not only cancels debt, it challenges to repent
and be reconciled.
A. There is much confusion about forgiveness.
B. God's command to forgive, turn other cheek, is costly.
II. What is forgiveness?
A. God's forgiveness is a passionate movement of strength and
mercy toward us, the offenders.
B. He cancels our debt, which provides an opportunity for:
1) Repentance.
2) Restoration of the broken relationship.
III. A forgiving heart knows how much it has been forgiven.
A. A forgiving heart reveals God's character. Luke 7:47
B. The kind of faith that allows forgiveness:
1) A true view of ourselves.
2) A true view of God.
IV. A forgiving heart yearns for reconciliation.
A. Reconciliation is costly for both sides.
1) The offended has to cancel the debt.
2) The offender has to repent.
a) Reconciliation is never one-sided.
B. Conditions for forgiveness?
1) Contradicts Jesus' other teachings.
2) We are to forgive, irrespective of other's response.
3) Restoration and peace, however, depend on their repentance.
a) Cheap forgiveness is not true forgiveness.
V. A forgiving heart works to destroy sin.
A. Offer food and drink to an enemy.
B. The enemy will always respond - one way or the other.
VI. Offer the gift of forgiveness.
A. Forgiveness involves deep questions.
B. Often, both see their sin, and renew the relationship.
Discipleship Journal #34, July 1986, p. 45.
"The Freedom of Forgiveness," by Ruth Collins Server
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I. Confession is imperative to receiving forgiveness.
A. Young girl Jean felt unforgiven by God, was withdrawn.
B. God forgives and forgets our sin.
C. New thought patterns bring transformation.
II. The flip side of forgiveness.
A. We are commanded to forgive others.
B. The unforgiving servant.
C. When we forgive we are conformed to the image of Christ.
III. The cost of forgiving.
A. Forgiving is not easy, but costly.
1) Forgiving cost God his only Son.
2) (Author's husband fired, forgiveness cost her emotionally)
B. The cost of not forgiving.
1) Unforgiving ones go to hell.
2) Unforgiveness leads to emotional torment.
a) (examples of molested women)
IV. Barriers to forgiveness.
A. Those with a poor self-image use wrongs to get attention.
B. Some need to control others to feel significant.
C. Others feel some sins are beyond forgiveness.
1) (Joseph forgave his hateful family)
D. Forgiving, but not forgetting.
1) Remember past offenses so you don't commit same acts.
2) Only God can forget sin.
3) Christ can heal the pain. Isa 61:1-3
E. The choice is ours.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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