Forgiveness in the Age of Rage

It is obvious that we live in a world where

forgiveness

is desperately needed. We know from the Scriptures, and we know from experience, that the hearts of all sinners are filled with hostility. By nature we are prone to anger, resentment, bitterness, hatred and even murder. The massacres that have occurred in world history are truly beyond comprehension, beyond comprehension. I always think of the extermination camps between Russia and Germany, a period of about ten years, when between Russians and Germans they massacred thirteen million people; None of them in the army, just slaughtering people. This is just a brief moment in human history that marks the depth of anger, resentment, bitterness, hatred and murderous intent in the human heart.

This is not difficult to understand, because the world is populated by people who are children of Satan. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, the most moral of all men: "You are of your father the devil, and he was a murderer from the beginning. And that is why you seek to kill me." There is so much hostility in the human heart that it is literally bursting; and if left unchecked, it will totally destroy the world. It is a conflagration like no other. Hate, anger and resentment have erupted over the edges of the human volcano in our day, even today and in our culture, with a deadly type of violence that threatens to bury the earth in an avalanche of revenge and violence.

We are beginning to see violence simply as a way of life. It is not just religious hatred, such as we see in the extremes of Islam, it is simply the hatred of the human heart that seems to be constantly reaching its eruption point and pouring out its vicious lava to consume all who find themselves in its flow. The world is characterized by anger. I don't think I've ever seen so many people angry about so many things in my life. And all of this has been justified by psychology for many, many years: you have the right to be angry, your anger is justified, you were mistreated, everyone was abused, everyone is a victim.

You need to be angry; Anger is the way you deal with how you were mistreated. Anger has been fueled in this society for years by psychology. It is further driven by narcissistic egocentrism, where everyone thinks they are the most important person in the world; and anyone who offends them deserves the severest repercussions, perhaps even violence. In James chapter 4, we get a little idea of ​​this. "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You covet, but do not have; therefore you commit murder. You are envious, you cannot obtain; therefore you fight and you quarrel, you don't have it because you don't ask, you ask and you don't receive, because you ask for the wrong reasons, to spend it on your pleasures, your desires, your possessions, your pleasures and as a result of that, you hurt the people around you; to get what you want." This is not surprising.

Ecclesiastes 7:9, wisdom says this, the wisdom of Solomon: "Wrath resides in the hearts of fools." Lives in the hearts of fools; and all those who are without God are fools. Anger is a universal human emotion and driving motivation. If there is one corrupt attitude that defines our culture, it is anger. There is anger in our music, there is anger in our movies, there is anger in our television shows, there is anger in our schools, there is anger in our universities, there is anger in our families, there is anger everywhere in this society; and the virtue absent in all this is

forgiveness

.

The absence of forgiveness destroys relationships. It is, in the end, the destroyer of relationships. It is impossible to live in the world and not offend someone; and that then demands forgiveness. And where there is no forgiveness, there are only marks, an accumulation of offenses that continues to increase anger. Never is a person more like Satan than when he hates. Never is a person more like Satan than when he is angry, angry to the point of wanting to kill. Not all anger leads to killing, because we are restricted. We are limited by consequences. But you know as well as I do that if there were no threat of arrest, trial, imprisonment and the death penalty, if people were truly free to do whatever they wanted without repercussions, humanity would have been slaughtered long ago.

Never is a person more like Satan than when he is angry, when he hates, and when his desire is to eliminate a life. On the other hand, never is a person more like God than when he loves and forgives. That's how it is. The world belongs to Satan. They belong to his father, the devil, that's why they hate, they get angry, they are violent, they hurt, they kill. But on the other hand, those of us who name the name of Jesus Christ, those of us who are believers, must be marked by our love; and our love is manifested in forgiveness.

The angry, hateful heart of the sinner is applauded by contemporary psychology, which says it is unhealthy to forgive. "It is not healthy to forgive. You have been a victim, you should be angry. It is not your fault. You are not responsible. Revenge is justified; get all the revenge you need to satisfy yourself." But the price of that anger, the price of that hatred, the price of that unforgiveness, the price of that revenge is extremely high. It devastates all relationships; and eventually, as it accumulates, it literally destroys an entire society. We know it on a personal level and we are starting to see it escalate in a way that we have not seen in this country in the past: hostility, hatred, anger, spillover and justification.

So I want you to understand what the Bible says about the importance of forgiveness; and we're going to look at that wonderful little letter from the apostle Paul called Philemon, but not tonight. That's for next time, because I want you to understand the big picture of forgiveness as it is presented in the Bible, and we will take the bird's eye view, and then we will go down and look at the worm's eye view in Philemon, which gives us a wonderful illustration. of forgiveness. In fact, it is an entire book written on the topic of forgiveness. But first of all, I want to remind you that Proverbs 19:11 says, "A man's discretion retards wrath, and a man's glory is in overlooking transgression.

A man's discretion retards wrath." discretion is wisdom: "and the glory of man is to overlook a transgression." Man reaches no higher than when he overlooks a transgression. That is the glory of him. That is the pinnacle of being human when you rise above your anger and your hatred, your hostility, your bitterness. Proverbs 10, verse 12 says, "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions, love covers all transgressions." And Peter referred to that in 1 Peter 4:8 where he says, "Love covers a multitude of sins." It is the glory of man to overlook a transgression. Of all human qualities, of all human virtues, none is more divine than forgiveness.

None is more divine than forgiveness. None of us would have a relationship with God that would be considered positive if God were not a forgiving God. We who know God, we who have been redeemed by God, we who have received salvation have received it because God forgives. You are never more like Satan than when you are angry, hateful, and want to kill. You are never more like God than when you forgive; that is the glory of a man. That should be manifested in the church of Jesus Christ in every relationship and collectively in the community of believers.

And I'll just tell you this: I've lived long enough to know that you can go to many, many churches and you will find hostility, if not burning beneath the surface, you will find open hostility. And it all comes down to the fact, not that people felt offended, but that when they felt offended they refused to forgive. Divide churches. It damages the testimony of the gospel. "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Love forgives. The price of not forgiving is very high. Let me address it negatively for at least a minute.

The problem with unforgiveness is that unforgiveness imprisons people in their past. Unforgiveness imprisons people in their past. As long as you refuse to forgive offenses and offenders, you will be chained to their offenses. As long as you refuse to forgive, you will keep the pain alive. You actually pour gas on the wound. As long as you refuse to forgive, it is like touching an open sore; you constantly prevent it from healing. You are sentencing yourself to go through your life feeling just as bad as you do now, and probably worse, because you feed that lack of forgiveness.

You choose to love hate and love anger, and you sentence yourself to slavery to that horrible reality. Only a fool would imprison himself in a past offense by refusing to lovingly forgive and move on. Second, unforgiveness not only imprisons you in your past, but cumulatively produces deep-seated bitterness. It is an infectious cancer of the heart and metastasizes. Wherever that first problem was, wherever that first offense was, it begins to grow, and it begins to grow and expand and take over more and more of your life; and bitterness becomes evil. Thoughts become evil. Memories become haunting memories that distort the way we see life.

Anger becomes out of control, and people around you become victims of that metastasizing out-of-control anger that arises as a result of not having forgiven some offense some time ago. You constantly have thoughts of revenge. You despair at the fact that you wish the worst for the person you will not forgive. Each conversation becomes another forum for your ugliness, for your hostility, for your criticism, for your defamation, for your slander; and eventually it transforms into all kinds of exaggerations and lies about that person's reality; and you have passed on your own life a death sentence of bitterness and anger that will follow you to the grave.

One of our pastors told me last week that he was counseling a couple and the woman said, "I would rather go to hell than forgive my husband." That is incredible. What a horrendous death sentence! Now the Scriptures talk about the topic of forgiveness. There are at least seventy-five words that represent forgiveness in the Bible. I won't give them all to you; but there are at least seventy-five. Let me give you some. Forgiveness are metaphors. Forgiveness is turning the key, opening the cell door and letting the prisoner walk free. Forgiveness is writing in large letters on a debt “nothing is owed.” Forgiveness is hitting the gavel in a courtroom and declaring oneself "not guilty." Forgiveness is shooting an arrow so high, so far, that it can never be found again.

Forgiveness is taking out the trash and getting rid of it, leaving the house full of cleanliness and fresh, scented air. Forgiveness is letting go of the anchor that holds the boat and leaving it free to sail. To forgive is to grant complete forgiveness to a convicted and sentenced criminal. To forgive is to loosen control over a fighting opponent. Forgiveness is cleaning a wall of graffiti with sand, leaving it like new. Forgiveness is breaking a clay pot into a thousand pieces so that it can never be put back together. Those are biblical metaphors for forgiveness. Forgiveness is a wonderful, virtuous, liberating and loving attitude and act.

The attitude of forgiveness is behind Proverbs 24:17: "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls or stumbles." Forgiveness is an attitude and a virtuous, liberating and loving act. It makes sense to forgive. It is healthy; It is healthy; It's sensible. It frees you from tension and anxiety. It brings you peace. Request love. A philosopher said this: "Only the brave know how to forgive. It is the most refined and generous element of human virtue. Cowards have done good deeds and performed kind acts. Cowards have even fought and conquered. But a coward never forgives; no It is neither in his nature nor in his heart.

The power to forgive flows only from a strengthened greatness of soul, conscious of its own humility and security, and able to rise above all the petty temptations to resent every fruitless attempt to steal its happiness. .End of quote. There is some truth in that philosophical prose. But we are forced into a much deeper discussion. I think it is brave to forgive, and I think there are people, unconverted people, who understand the benefit of being enough. brave to forgive so as not to sentence oneself to a life of bitterness. But I want us to think about it much more deeply than simply philosophizing;

I want us to come to the Word of God. Although forgiveness can be a virtue in the lives of some unbelievers, because they want to nullify the death sentence of unforgiveness, and while unbelieving people can take advantage of divine providence, they can take advantage of common grace, they can learn some things about life that make it better. and make life easier, Christians should be forgiving as a normal part of our lives. Some non-believers learn the benefit of forgiving: some, some of the brave ones. Every Christian must be marked by forgiveness. All of us should be forgiving.

And there are some compelling biblical, theological, and spiritual reasons why we should forgive. Now, tonight get ready, I'm going to give you ten. There could be more; I want to give you ten. I'm going to move the clock over here so I can sort them while I watch. Number one, and we've already made this statement, but let me repeat it: forgiveness is the most divine act a person can perform. Forgiveness is the most divine act a person can perform. And if we are children of God, children of God; if God has established his residence in us; if God is our Father and19. refers to grace, sometimes translated as "favor," and to a person who endures hardship when he suffers unjustly.

This means that an offense has come against you, that you are suffering unjustly. That's a very popular thing: "They are suffering." me. They are abusing me. They are doing things against me, saying things against me. Everything is unfair; everything is unjust." Here is the correct answer: "What credit is there" - verse 20 - "if when you sin and are treated harshly, you endure it patiently?" - no credit there - "But when you do what you It's okay and you suffer, you endure it patiently, it finds favor with God." And that is essentially what we just said. Your suffering, the accusations, the abuses are the tests that bring the grace that makes you strong in your weakness.

But Here is the model, verse 21: "For this purpose you have been called." What is the purpose? You have been called to patiently endure unjust suffering - “because Christ also suffered for you. leaving you an example so that you follow in his footsteps, who committed no sin, nor did any deceit come into his mouth; and while he was reviled, he did not return the insult; while he suffered, he made no threats, he continued to entrust himself to Him who judges justly. ; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by his stripes you were healed.” Christ accomplished more when he suffered unjustly, right?

That sums it up. And in suffering, he said, “Father, forgive them; "They don't know what they're doing." Forgiveness is everything. It is the only thing that will sustain love in marriage, family, friendships and the church of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that we have been able to meet again tonight. What a wonderful day we have had. Our hearts rejoice in all that You have brought to us through Your precious Word today and the communion with the saints. We thank you for the truth. not just beyond us, it is in us; It is alive and given life by the Holy Spirit, so that what we hear and believe becomes the very force by which we live our lives. forgiveness for all the reasons we have discussed, culminating in the fact that we are following our Savior, who set the example for us when he was treated most unfairly.

With that, he accomplished the greatest work of his life. See also in our suffering Your perfected strength. This is our prayer, in the name of Christ. Amen. Amen.