Forgiveness Based on His Blood, not our Mood

Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. We asked God to help us show them the same tolerance, pity, and patience that we would cheerfully grant a sick friend. When a person offended we said to ourselves, "This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. Thy will be done."

We avoid retaliation or argument. We wouldn't treat sick people that way. If we do, we destroy our chance of being helpful. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. (AA, pg 67)

 

An attitude adjustment is simply not enough to overcome the hurts and pains that we have endured in our lives.

 

I remember one guy, Jack, who was still so bitter toward his dad after many years, fuming because his father had beaten his baby brother, while the little baby was still sleeping in his crib!

 

Another person very close to me, my mother, was still afflicted with intermittent rage against an abusive mother that she had endured for many years during her childhood. This woman's hurt still hit her conscience for many years, even after she had written her off in a note two years before she passed away, and many years after she was dead and buried.

 

Time does not heal all wounds, nor does taking one's inventory -- the blood of Jesus Christ alone shed for the remission of sins, of all sins, gives our conscience peace, not just for the sins that we have committed, but also for the wrongdoing that we have endured, for the bitter thoughts which the Enemy would like to tempt us with.

 

To just brush aside the hurts of other people does not satisfy a person's inner man. We need to know that our sins have been forgiven, and any upset in our lives afterward cannot break our fellowship with God, for He has given us an everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9: 24), the same righteousness as Jesus Christ, and this witness we receive at all times through the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of this righteousness!

 

Yet a man, a woman, a believer in the Body of Christ who believes that he has to confess his sins in order to maintain fellowhsip with God, well, that mars a man's mission on this earth. That creates a sin-conscience, a sense of never quite  measuring up, and our lives end up being about barely getting by, instead of enjoying life and that more abundantly!

 

A man who does not feel forgiven, who does not have a sense within himself that all of his sins are paid for, that all things are taken care of through the grace of God, will in turn feel bitter, demand revenge, and know no peace in his life. The parable of the unjust -- unmerciful -- steward best illustrates this. The king captured the steward who owed him an astronomically amount, but just before he sold him and all he had into slavery, he declared:

 

"The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." (Matthew 18: 26)

 

The King forgave his debt, but the steward walked away with the sense that he had to pay the debt, or that he could pay it in his own effort. This man had no awareness that his sins were forgiven, so he hit up another steward, who owed him far less!

 

We have to have a conscience perfected, the knowledge and belief within us that all our sins are forgiven. When we have this expansive knowledge of God's grace, that He moves in our lives, that His grace is our life, we find that the harms that we have endured not only no longer have any power over us -- because our own sins no longer keep us in bondage -- but we find that His love overtakes any hurt that others would perpetrate against us.

 

We then no longer define ourselves by our feelings, nor by our thoughts, but we take God at His Word that we are a new Creation in Him, when we see Him greater than our past, present, and future, we find that His righteousness and grace explode in our lives, and we reign in Him!

 

However, we cannot enjoy a perfect conscience if we believe that we have to take our inventory every time that we sin, or at the end of every day. If we have to take our inventory, then we never have a sense of rest, and the hurts of others become magnified in our lives, as well!

 

For many years, I could  never understand why my mother could not let go of the upset in her lives. She would often complain that she was having bitter memories of people whom she had let go of many years ago. She would explode about people whom she had let go of, or of people whom she had reconciled with.

 

She even reminded me of things that I had done, and for a long time, I was in bondage to the wrongs that I had done. I also found myself giving a lot of credence to the things that other people were saying. More and more, I grew more sensitive and easily hurt because I was convinced that every time that I got angry or hurt, I had to do something about it.

 

But in Christ, I am not in bondage to sin or under law, but under grace, and so I reckon myself dead when I grow upset. I have no reason to hold a grudge, for His life and His glory fall on my life!

 

Forgiveness is based on His blood, not on my thoughts, not on my words, not on my feelings. It has nothing to do with me, and therefore I am free in Him, forever!