A question posed on Facebook "Can/will God forgive us if we can't/don't forgive others?"
My first response
"Whose Spirit is indwelling the truly born again Christian? So if you are choosing not to forgive, it calls into question what seed you have growing within you. Corrie Ten Boom forgave the Nazi torturers who saw to the death of her sister. This could only be an issue in an age where you can be a "Christian" by saying a prayer and agreeing with a set of statements. Jesus IS THE LIFE that you now live, He is the only 'not guilty' person ever to walk the earth and He forgave His executioners. "I can't forgive." is a sentence a Christian cannot say.
Her followup question
"Ok...here's something to ponder. The thief on the cross asked Jesus to remember him and Jesus told him "Today you will be with me in paradise". Yet I doubt the thief even gave thought to forgiving all those in his life, let alone his executioners. (Just digging for more conversation...)"
My response
So the thief was a gift to Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Christ, faith in who He is is all there is when it comes to getting to heaven, the gratitude of the thief for the mercy shown to him at that point would have erased any "withholding of mercy". Mercy is the glory of God, and with holding mercy is lying about the character of God. ONE LAST thought, the Bible was written to me, I cannot (except under the specific authority and leading of God) place upon you a burden of obedience of any kind. So I cannot say to you, "You have to forgive." because I have no power to give you that would enable you to forgive. I can desire that you would forgive, I can pray to God that you would forgive, but I cannot demand that you forgive. Jesus' words to Peter in John 21 are very telling, "What is that to you?" WE have to be very careful, when we are "deciding" how another person "should" act. "Should" in that context is a satanic word, placing a burden or an expectation or a yoke of bondage on a person that we cannot do one single solitary thing to help them fulfill. As an example, Jesus can say to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more." because resident within Him is the LIFE that she needs to accomplish this, and His very words contain the life and power to fulfill this sentence. If I would say to someone, "Go and sin no more." I have weighted them down with a crushing burden and there is nothing within me that can help them accomplish it..(again keeping in mind my caveat, "unless God has given specific authority to me for that situation") God sees the entire person, back the 4 generations that may have bent them in such a way that His Mercy is going to have to walk them through a very gentle and long and winding road to bring them to a point of receiving and giving His true mercy and forgiveness, and if we "crash" in with our very right and very true scriptures at the WRONG time, we are eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we are doing Satans work of accusing the brethren.
My first response
"Whose Spirit is indwelling the truly born again Christian? So if you are choosing not to forgive, it calls into question what seed you have growing within you. Corrie Ten Boom forgave the Nazi torturers who saw to the death of her sister. This could only be an issue in an age where you can be a "Christian" by saying a prayer and agreeing with a set of statements. Jesus IS THE LIFE that you now live, He is the only 'not guilty' person ever to walk the earth and He forgave His executioners. "I can't forgive." is a sentence a Christian cannot say.
Her followup question
"Ok...here's something to ponder. The thief on the cross asked Jesus to remember him and Jesus told him "Today you will be with me in paradise". Yet I doubt the thief even gave thought to forgiving all those in his life, let alone his executioners. (Just digging for more conversation...)"
My response
So the thief was a gift to Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Christ, faith in who He is is all there is when it comes to getting to heaven, the gratitude of the thief for the mercy shown to him at that point would have erased any "withholding of mercy". Mercy is the glory of God, and with holding mercy is lying about the character of God. ONE LAST thought, the Bible was written to me, I cannot (except under the specific authority and leading of God) place upon you a burden of obedience of any kind. So I cannot say to you, "You have to forgive." because I have no power to give you that would enable you to forgive. I can desire that you would forgive, I can pray to God that you would forgive, but I cannot demand that you forgive. Jesus' words to Peter in John 21 are very telling, "What is that to you?" WE have to be very careful, when we are "deciding" how another person "should" act. "Should" in that context is a satanic word, placing a burden or an expectation or a yoke of bondage on a person that we cannot do one single solitary thing to help them fulfill. As an example, Jesus can say to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more." because resident within Him is the LIFE that she needs to accomplish this, and His very words contain the life and power to fulfill this sentence. If I would say to someone, "Go and sin no more." I have weighted them down with a crushing burden and there is nothing within me that can help them accomplish it..(again keeping in mind my caveat, "unless God has given specific authority to me for that situation") God sees the entire person, back the 4 generations that may have bent them in such a way that His Mercy is going to have to walk them through a very gentle and long and winding road to bring them to a point of receiving and giving His true mercy and forgiveness, and if we "crash" in with our very right and very true scriptures at the WRONG time, we are eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we are doing Satans work of accusing the brethren.
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