Articles
Forgiving as God Forgave Us
If someone told you could experience a home robbery sometime before you die, would you take them seriously? On the average, 1.65 million home robberies occur in the U.S. each year at the rate of 1 home burglary for every 19 seconds. You don’t know if you’ll experience it in your lifetime, or how it would occur, but are you willing to take the risk of being ill prepared?
For an unexpected thief, a person in modern times gets a security system to protect the valuables inside their home. However, as a child of God, protecting the everlasting soul inside our body can only be done by Him. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV) says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.“ God’s saving grace is a gift to mankind for two reasons: 1) the price for forgiveness was paid by God, and 2) humans did nothing to deserve such forgiveness. Hebrews 10:1-4 explains that if salvation could be found through sacrifice alone, then the act of shedding animal blood for sins wouldn’t have stopped. The wage of sin is death and mankind’s debt of sin is beyond our ability to bear. Thus, to save us from death, Jesus’ divine blood had to be shed.
God’s grace is sufficient enough for mankind to be saved and His compassionate nature is bigger than human minds can comprehend. On top of giving us the gift of grace, He let us have the choice of whether, or not we want to accept it. When children of God accept His gift, they will get baptized and put their trust in Him. After baptism, their faith in Him is demonstrated by imitating His son, Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:32 instruct believers to forgive each other and ourselves as God would. This does not mean people have an excuse to sin or that sin acceptable, because sin is the reason why Jesus died on our behalf. Each person has their limitations and temptations for wickedness. As followers of Christ, forgiveness is seeing the soul that God created above all else. What do you still have to forgive yourself and others for?
