York Alliance Church Message Podcast

Forgiveness is our personal act to release the one who sinned against us from our personal right to collect on the moral debt for their offense, with or without their participation in the process. Reconciliation, however, is when we move toward another and work to restore a broken relationship. We must work beyond guilt and shame as a community to embrace the life and freedom Jesus offers.

Forgiveness is releasing the personal right to pay back the one who has hurt me and absorbing the pain with God’s help. The process of forgiving someone can be laced with deep and powerful emotions. The memory of the wound and the offender has the ability to influence my behavior--relationally, emotionally, and spiritually. One of the hopes in the journey of forgiveness is to move from anger and hatred to love and compassion.

Receiving and granting forgiveness are some of the central actions of every disciple of Jesus. Forgiveness is not just releasing the personal right to payback the one who has hurt me, it is also personally absorbing the pain with God’s help. But it doesn’t stop there – God wants to take the wounds and pain of our lives and turn them for good. When forgiveness happens, we act in grace. When it doesn't, we transfer our pain to others.

Forgiveness is one of the most counter-cultural practices in the life of Jesus. When we forgive, we choose to release those who have sinned against us from our right to collect on the moral debt of their sin. A community practicing the way of Jesus not only practices this with one another, but lives this way in the world around us. If we are to engage it in a healthy way, we must understand what forgiveness is and what it isn't.

On Friday, God died. On Sunday, a very real human resurrected and will now live eternally. The incredible story of the death and life of God becomes the cornerstone for the message of hope that goes out to all people. This singular event creates a chain reaction that continues to impact every part of the world to this day. The invitation is for us: Where do we fit in the story?

In an incredible twist of irony, the One who is life Himself experiences death. The wage for sin is death, which was the judgment pronounced after the first Adam sinned. However, Jesus as the second Adam bears the punishment as the perfect sacrifice. At the cross, every shadow found in the law is brought to reality, justice is fulfilled, and in His death can know that death itself is conquered forever.

The Proverbs make a profound and heavy statement: That the way that seems right to man always leads to death. This is true for the individual, and it's true for the crowd. The call of Jesus is to live counter-culturally, as exiles and foreigners in a culture of death, so that we might be people who instead bring life.

Who is this man? Two trials, one publicly held under the cover of darkness, and one privately held in the corner by a fire, show us the weight and power of the question. Our willingness to acknowledge Jesus or stand for Him does nothing to impact His Lordship, but it dramatically impacts our lives and the lives of those around us. We are invited to live in the recognition that Jesus is Lord.

Our will to act, while strong at any given moment, is never enough for us to live in the way of Jesus. When left to our human strength, we will always fail. Jesus shows us another way. In His humanity, Jesus relies on the Father for strength. It was in His moment of greatest weakness that Jesus gives us the pathway to strength.