He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24

True forgiveness is always offered as a free gift, but it is never free to the one who offers it. Think for a minute about what it cost for you to be forgiven. Your sins carried with them a penalty, and that penalty was death. God, being totally just, could not just overlook your sins. The penalty had to be paid. So, out of the abundance of His love, Jesus went to the cross to suffer the consequences of you and I did!! 2000 years ago, on a hillside near Jerusalem, Jesus died in our place. The penalty of death that we deserved, Jesus suffered in our place. There is no question that God offers us salvation as a free gift, but He had to pay a high price to do so. Although no act of forgiveness will ever be as expensive as that one, every act of forgiveness will come with a price. Which leads me to my point for today:

If you ever forgive, it means you must choose to pay the price of the other person’s sin.

Obviously, this has limits. You cannot excuse or atone sin before a Holy God. Likewise, you would never be able to excuse them from any legal ramifications (if any) with our justice system. However, in every instance where you have been sinned against, you will have to pay a personal price for what has been done to you. Though it seems unfair, it is always true. Your only options are: You accept those consequences, forgive them anyway, and then get the Holy Spirit’s help in dealing with them… OR…you will suffer the consequences anyway, withhold forgiveness, get bitter, and live with the effects along with the Lord’s conviction. Either way, you are going to have to pay a price for what was done to you! The benefit of forgiveness is that we get the help of the Holy Spirit to move past them!!

We all need to confess that this is the stuff of life!! People will sin against us. It is unavoidable in this fallen world. When we forgive, we are agreeing to pay a personal price, and release the offender from any debt they have to us. But even if we chose to not forgive, and seek retribution, or some other form of payback…let be honest…we still pay a price! Forgiveness gives us the opportunity to be free from the hurts of life, while unforgiveness ties us to them. Since we are going to pay regardless, let’s pay the price to be free rather than to be bound!!

I know that forgiveness is difficult. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to do it. I know that we all have paid the price. I pray that you will come to a place of acceptance today, release the sin debts you have against people, and receive the Holy Spirit’s power to be healed. Jesus did this for us! He paid the price, so that we could be forgiven. He now calls upon us to share in His character and do the same!

Blessings,

Pastor Brian