Forgiveness

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

Of course, the question that ought to follow that is, "How did the Lord
forgive me/us?"

What Jesus did was to take the judgment against our sin upon himself. He did
this on his own. It wasn't put on him. He wasn't forced. It wasn't even
with a sense of heavy obligation. Although he certainly struggled as he
closer to it as the reality of what it would cost him became ever clearer
and more imminent, he still chose to take that judgment upon himself.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

So I need to take the judgment of my offender's offense upon myself. Just
as Jesus chose to bear what should have been my consequences for my offenses
against him, I need to bear the consequences of what my offender would
otherwise suffer for his offenses against me.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

First, this obviously means that retaliation is out of the question.

Second, it means that even thoughts of retaliation must be eliminated.

Third, it means that I should not even desire that something "bad" should
happen to my offender.

Fourth, it means that this is going to take something more than what I am
capable of in myself.

Forgiveness isn't just saying, "Oh, that's okay." God never does that with
sin. That means I should not, either. And forgiveness can't mean that I
simply accept the way the offender acts (offensively) because God had
something to say about that, too. (I do not condemn you. Now, go and sin no
more.)

That's what Jesus did! He took on himself the condemnation that was mine.
That's what forgiveness is - taking the condemnation of my offender's sin
into myself.

But if I've been wounded through someone else's offense, doesn't it mean
that taking the condemnation of his offense into myself will wound me more?

Probably - but I think what we see in Jesus is that he understood that, even
though he would be terribly wounded - mortally so!! - it was not the end.
Indeed, even though taking that condemnation into himself ultimately killed
him, death did not have the last word.

That's what we, who claim the name of Christ for ourselves, need to realize.
Even though the cross brought death (which was the rightful consequence to
our sin) to Jesus, death was not the winner. Death was not the end. Death
lost.

When we forgive someone their sin, we, in essence, take into ourselves the
condemnation they deserve. In other words, we die. And dying always feels
terrible. But we must remember that, because of Christ and because of the
faith God has given us in him, death is not the winner, Death is not the
end. Death loses.