GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS TOTAL

There are times in our lives when we have done something that we, on after-thought, ask ourselves how could have done such a thing that we wonder how God could ever forgive us. We knew better before we did what we did. We knew it was wrong. We knew someone would be hurt. What made it worse was the ones we hurt were the ones we loved the most and yet we still did it.

How could God forgive us? How could those we hurt forgive us? How could we forgive ourselves? How can we live with ourselves after doing what we did? What we did was not a crime for which we would be prosecuted and jailed. It was simply a very selfish act that hurt someone we loved. And that made it so hard for us to not only live with ourselves but to wonder if forgiveness was possible.

It has to be because God’s forgiveness is not only possible, it always is and it is always total. And it has to be, God has to forgive us totally, without and punishment or revenge or repayment demanded before it is given. Why? Because if God’s forgiveness is not total, if God demands some kind of punishment before forgiveness, then the same could be demanded of us and we could demand it from those who hurt us.

Forgiveness has to come with no strings attached. Why? Several reasons. First, we cannot undo what we did. It was done and it is over with and we cannot go back in time to make it not happen. A done deed is done. If forgiveness demands that we undo what has been done, forgiveness is impossible. We know that. Thus, we must be open to forgiving and being forgiven.

Second, if forgiveness somehow demands payment of some sort be extracted before it is given, no kind of payment can erase what has been done that needs forgiveness. An eye-for-and-eye does not give the one who lost the eye that person’s sight back. Retribution cannot be a demand for forgiveness because retribution is impossible.

Third, and most importantly, love demands it. God’s forgiveness is total because God loves us totally and unconditionally. Does that mean that God doesn’t care what we do, the sins we commit, the hurt we have caused by our deliberate selfishness? Of course not. But God knows we cannot undo what we have done. And the only way we can move on after we have come to our senses and realized the hurt we have done is to be forgiven and forgiven totally with no strings attached.

As God loves so must we. Our love does not give others permission to hurt us nor does the love of others for us give us permission to hurt them. It does mean that when we have been hurt or we have done the hurting, knowing that God forgives us totally is the first step in allowing us to move on. Forgiving others and being forgiven out of love is the next step in allowing us to move. May we so love and so forgive as God loves.