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And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over all the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “E’lo-i, E’lo-i, la’ma sabachtha’ni?” which means, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Mark 15:33,34
In the last issue of Christis the nature of the process of forgiveness with respect to human beings was investigated. It was explained how the process of forgiveness can often be very difficult — as much for the forgiver as for the one being forgiven. The importance to forgive others was stressed, along with the need to be honest when forgiving, and not to pretend to forgive in order to gain some control over the one being forgiven. The question about our right to forgive others for sins committed against a third party was posed. Put simply; do we have the right to forgive others when they haven’t actually sinned against us? I hope to give an answer to this and other questions in this article, where forgiveness in relation to God will be investigated. I will repeat here the claim made in the last article; this is not a detailed examination of the atonement. Certain aspects of it will be touched upon in this article, however, as it is completely impossible to understand forgiveness in relation to God without delving into the meaning of the Cross, and that is where our story continues …
The journey of discovery into the state of the offender has been explored in the preceding article. In the life and death of Jesus Christ we can see a similar pattern and journey. Through Jesus God entered into the full human condition, sympathising with his creation and standing under the judgement against sin. Drawing a parallel with the parable of the prodigal son, it is as if God, rather than just accepting the son back, actually went out and helped him out of the pigsty.
We can see God’s forgiveness of sinners offered by Jesus throughout his life. He entered into the life of sinners’ such as prostitutes, tax collectors and other people shunned by the religious establishment and freely offered them forgiveness. The acceptance of this forgiveness was unconditional, being purely faith in Him.
At the cross, on Calvary, Jesus experienced the full consequences of human sin. The cry, “Father, forgive them …” is fully consistent with the cry, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”. God’s judgement on sinners is to allow them to take their sin on to its logical conclusion — death. In voyaging into the depths of the human predicament, Jesus stands with the guilty and suffers the full weight of God’s wrath against mankind. Never, since the world began, was a man so aware of the consequences of sin, and yet, so consenting to God’s judgement against it. The prophet Isaiah states:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried away our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah53:4–6
Of paramount importance here is the way in which Calvary can bring about repentance in human beings today. On the cross we can see the full consequences of human sin. This is the image of death, a man divorced from the source of his life — God. It is here that the offender is brought to awareness of his transgressions and of his ultimate destiny, unless he turns away from them.
One of the main problems of accepting God’s forgiveness is guilt. As Christians it is important to understand that we are forgiven and that we can start afresh with God. St. John emphasises the importance of knowing that we are forgiven in his first epistle:
I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life.
1John5:13
As mentioned before, the process of forgiveness is a two-way process. Not only does the forgiver offer his forgiveness, but the offender must bring the offence back to mind and accept the forgiveness. This does bring an interesting question to mind, however; do we have to bring to mind every single sin we have ever committed ? Further to this; where does our responsibility end ? Because we have a bank account with a bank which exploits the Third World, are we responsible for the deaths of children from starvation? If we have an argument with someone and they later die in a car-crash due to loss of concentration, are we responsible ? Human lives are so interwoven like a mesh of finely connecting gears. Our actions today might affect people we have never even heard of tomorrow. Put simply, no-one is an isolated entity. Our actions expand outwards like ripples in a pond. So where does our responsibility end?
A further problem in accepting forgiveness is acknowledging our own shortcomings. As St. Paul echoes in his epistle to the Romans:
None is righteous, no, not one.
Rom 3:10
Yet we are all products of our own pasts and events which have moulded us to what we are now. Can we be responsible for the way society has affected us and made us what we are ? Where did we all go wrong ?
To complicate matters further, we feel guilty when we have not lived up to others’ expectations. The student who fails his exams because he didn’t work hard enough not only lets himself down but also feels guilty for letting down his family. These are not obvious sins (certainly they are not covered in the ten commandments!), yet we still feel guilty about them.
To find an answer to these questions, we again turn to Christ. As St. Paul says so eloquently:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
2Cor6:17
We are new creations in Christ. We should no longer feel guilty for sins that we have committed, they are in the past. Our responsibility lies, not in calculating all the harmful consequences of our past actions, but in responding to God’s offer of forgiveness in the present, to become a new creation. We do not even have to bring to mind every single sin we have ever committed. Through Christ, God made the human journey. He participates at the very depth of human life and understands the problems that overrun us.
Guilt is an awareness of our shortcomings, of our inadequacy when compared to God. As St. Paul states:
… since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Rom 3:23
We must have the courage to accept God’s forgiveness of us and that we have been accepted. God understands how we fit into the complex tapestry of humanity and accepts us for what we are. As a friend of mine once said; we are all far more than the worst thing we have ever done.
Forgiving others for the harm they have done us is one thing, but do we have the right to forgive someone who has done harm to another? In the last article I brought to mind the tragedy of a thirteen year-old schoolgirl who was kicked to death. Perhaps the mother of the girl can forgive the killers for all the pain and suffering that she has endured as a result of her daughter’s death, but does she have the right to forgive them for the suffering of the daughter? Surely, it is only God who can forgive such a terrible sin.
Yet, through Christ, God offers forgiveness to all men:
… and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1John2:2
Perhaps we can offer our own, personal, forgiveness for the harm done to us and say “Through Christ, God offers that individual forgiveness, I am glad that He does and hope that the offer is accepted.” As human beings we all suffer together and, as already mentioned, the harm done to one particular human being may have far reaching consequences. In other words, we all share in the sufferings of one other. It could be argued that we can also forgive others simply on the basis of them being our fellow human beings.
To conclude this article, we will return to the point where we began, the cross and Jesus’s cry of “Father, forgive them …”. To me this is far more than just an act of the most perfectly human person ever to have lived — it is a call for us to do the same. On the cross, at Calvary, Jesus was actually able to forgive the men who were putting Him to death. Surely no other act of forgiveness can touch this? If Jesus was prepared to forgive those who were doing such a terrible thing to Him then, perhaps, we too can forgive others when they do so much less to us.
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Last modified: 25th November 2005