Why We Forgive

When we realize the magnitude of God’s forgiveness towards us, it motivates us to forgive others. 

We were born with a sinful nature, lost, disobedient, and our sin was offensive to a holy God whose standard is perfection. We deserve nothing from Him; yet He has given us everything. God not only forgave us, which would have been more than we could ever ask for, but He has made us His children and given us a Heavenly inheritance. 

His forgiveness is so wide-reaching that none of us can ever comprehend it. We still sin. We forget the God who puts breath in our lungs and snatched us from eternal punishment, playing around with lesser things while we neglect an eternal perspective and ignore what is truly important. But He loves us anyway. He still forgives us. 

Colossians 2:13-14 highlights just how much God has forgiven us. It says, “you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

We were spiritually dead and had a large record of debt in the form of sin that we owed God. However, because of what Christ did on the cross, that record of debt has been canceled, and we are now alive and forgiven of all our trespasses.  

Since we, who were God’s very enemies, have been forgiven, what right do we have not to forgive someone for what they have done to us? An awareness of our own sinfulness and the debt we had that needed forgiving, a healthy understanding of the gospel, reminds and motivates us to forgive others. 

May God give us this humble mindset that we need to obey His command to forgive others. When we do, we shine as lights for Him, and His grace is shown to the world in a way that just doesn’t make sense apart from a marvelous, forgiving God.