Forgiveness and Hope

There is a debilitating condition that is more widespread than some might think. It is a condition that can lead to alcoholism or drug use. It can result in child abuse and spouse abuse. It may lead to either obesity or anorexia and the chronic health problems that accompany them. It can ruin marriages, destroy homes and make the workplace a living nightmare. If left unchecked over the long term, it can even lead to suicide.

This devastating condition is hopelessness; and it is far too rampant in our community for us to neglect it.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no more hopelessness here than in other communities. However, hopelessness is increasingly common throughout our entire culture, and we are not exempt from it here.

The point, however, is what can be done about it.

To grasp that, it’s important to understand how hopelessness arises. People who are hopeless generally have become convinced that their future contains no possibility for improving their situations or solving their problems.

When people feel that way, they may resort to angry and desperate measures. The end result is further unhappiness, and an ever-tightening spiral of hopeless despair.

The irony of the whole dilemma is that the cure for hopelessness is exceedingly simple and universally available. That cure is forgiveness.

Let me explain.

Hopelessness is a primary by-product of unforgiveness. This is because unforgiveness binds us to bad things (i.e. sins) in the past, and keeps us trapped by the pains and wounds those sins caused. Thus, unforgiveness makes us turn from the possibilities God offers for the future by keeping us preoccupied with past wounds and present problems.

Or, to put it another way, when you fail to forgive those who have wounded you, you give their sin power to keep drawing you back into the past and closing the door on God’s plans for your future. You end up dragging the past around with you everywhere you go, and it cripples your ability to pursue the promises of God with hope and expectation.

Forgiveness, by contrast, is God’s supernatural way of delivering us from these past sins. The word “forgive” in the New Testament is a translation of two different terms in the original language: one means “to release” and the other, “to send away.” Thus, when someone who believes that Jesus died to forgive sins takes a step of faith to forgive others, it simple means releasing that person’s sins to Jesus, allowing them to be sent away from one’s own heart and placed on the cross of Jesus.

The blessed result is this: when you are convinced that Jesus’ death was full payment for other people’s sins and you let go of their sins against you, you find that those sins have let go of you. Untrapped by the past, you are now free to enter a future determined by God’s promises rather than by someone’s sins.

And that, my friends, will give you hope.

YOU ARE PARDONED!

Imagine a pair of whimsical scenarios. In the first, you find in your mailbox a letter bearing the Colorado state seal and the Governor’s return address. Tempted to pitch it with the rest of the junk mail, your curiosity gets the best of you, so you open it and read these words: “By the power vested in me by the State of Colorado, I, Governor Bill Ritter, do hereby exonerate and absolve you from your crimes against the state, which crimes rightly resulted in your just and proper punishment, and from which you are now permanently released.”

What a surprise! You’ve never been tried for “crimes against the state,” never been convicted, never even been arrested. The letter must be a huge mistake, or else somebody has pulled a colossal practical joke on you. You decide to show the letter to some friends, knowing they’ll get a big laugh out of it. “You,” somebody will say, “pardoned?! Shoot, I didn’t even know you were condemned.”

The second scenario is different. An inmate awaiting execution on Colorado’s death row receives a letter bearing the same seal and return address, containing the same message: “By the power vested in me by the State of Colorado, I, Governor Bill Ritter, do hereby exonerate and absolve you from your crimes against the state, which crimes rightly resulted in your just and proper punishment, and from which you are now permanently released.”

While this man’s surprise is as great as yours, his response is quite different. He jumps and shouts. His wildest dreams have been realized. His life is saved, his future is restored, and his freedom is granted; and all because he received an unearned pardon. Had he done anything to deserve it, or even to merit any notice from the Governor? Of course not. It’s a gift, plain and simple.

The first scenario shows how people react to the Gospel when they don’t know that their sins have placed them under the righteous wrath of a holy God: “God is willing to forgive me? So what. I don’t need forgiveness. I’m really not all that bad.” But when folks realize how desperately in danger of eternal condemnation they are, then the offer of an unconditional pardon from the Judge of the universe is good news indeed. It is something no sane person would refuse.

That’s why any presentation of the Good News must also include the bad news: pardon makes sense only to those who acknowledge their condemnation. As C. H. Spurgeon put it, “Sin deserved God's wrath; that wrath has spent itself on Christ.” The pardon is not without cause, nor is it an impulse of heaven’s whimsy. Forgiveness is offered to you because God, in His mercy, depleted His wrath on His only-begotten Son.

Christians then, may say, with all the redeemed, “Forgiven? Really? But, I deserved to be in hell forever! Oh, thank You, God! Thank You for pardoning me!”

Can you say that?