13 Jul Radical Forgiveness

Jesus is often described as a radical. There is no doubt that He was considered a radical by many during His time on earth, especially by the Jewish ruling class. His radical unconditional love, His radical acceptance of Gentiles (non-Jews), His radical challenging of the Pharisees and Sadducees (the above-mentioned Jewish ruling class), and His radical acceptance of sinners who were shunned by the rest of “polite” Jewish society. What we don’t talk much about is what may be the most radical moment of Jesus’ ministry. It came as He was crucified: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. Luke 23:34 (NLT)

Jesus asked God the Father to forgive those who were subjecting Him to a brutal, excruciating, vicious death. In my time in ministry, I’ve discovered that unforgiveness is a far more common struggle than I realized. In Matthew 6, when Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray with what we call “The Lord’s Prayer, He told them: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” Jesus on the cross set for us an example of the forgiveness we are to give when we have received radical forgiveness from Him. Remember, we were as guilty as those who crucified Him before we accepted Him as Lord and Savior (if you have). So, His forgiveness of us is just as radical as it was for them. Can we really forgive others as radically as Jesus forgives us?

We are tempted to give ourselves an out by saying, “Well, Jesus was fully man, but He’s also fully God. We can’t be expected to forgive the way God does.” Ah, that’s when we need to look at Acts 7 and the story of Stephen. It starts in Acts 6, where Stephen and six other men are chosen to deal with an issue regarding the unfair treatment of widows. Stephen is described as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit…and…full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” This led him to be called before a council, falsely accused of being a blasphemer.

There, Stephen defends himself by recounting how the Scriptures (The Old Testament) all point to Jesus. He then says: 51 You stiff-necked people, and of uncircumcised hearts and ears! You have always resisted the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who told before of the coming of the Just One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. 53 And you also have received a law by the ordinance of angels, and have not kept it. Acts 7:51-53 (NLT). With that, Stephen saw the heavens open, saw the Son of man standing at the right hand of God, and then said: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!”

That sounds a lot like “forgive them father, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And Stephen was fully man, and…fully man. He wasn’t God. But..he was filled with something, remember? “full of faith and the Spirit…full of faith and power (of the Spirit). So the answer is no, we can’t forgive like Jesus…not on our own. We can forgive radically empowered by the Holy Spirit. To do that, we need to receive the Spirit and His power.

I once spoke with someone who was holding unforgiveness for an offense that happened 14 years ago. To them, it is as fresh as yesterday. And it is a toxin coursing through their spiritual veins. What about you?

Ask God to search your heart and see if there is unforgiveness you are harboring that you’re not aware of. I did recently, and I was. If the answer is yes for you too, pray that the power of the Holy Spirit will free you from the chains of unforgiveness. You won’t truly know how heavy a weight unforgiveness is until you give it away. If you need it, I pray you receive the power of radical forgiveness soon!

Pastor Jerry Bader