Christ's Forgiveness

Sometimes I feel incredibly redundant. Today's one of those days. I'm going to stand up here and I hope to teach and admonish you on the forgiveness you've received and the forgiveness you're called to give. That's exactly what you've been telling one another. As we sang to one another in song of Christ's great forgiveness, as we heard God's word read to us, he has nailed our debt to the cross. We are called to forgive as we are forgiven. We've already been admonishing one another with these sacred words. As we begin to think about forgiveness more, I want to ask you to participate with me in thinking about how you would respond to this. Pretend you're apologizing. So I'm going to say, I'm sorry. And then I want you to hear the response to that apology, the reaction to that apology. How would you respond to it? So here we go. I'm sorry. Someone says, that's OK. What do you do at that moment? What kind of response is that's OK? Another one. I'm sorry. Don't worry about it. Is there something wrong there? Is there something confusing with that language? It gets a little more interesting. I'm sorry. Yeah, you should be. That was rude. You laugh. That's been an answer. I'm sorry. I would be too. You should be ashamed. These demonstrate complete failures at understanding what forgiveness is. Those reactions, which are real, demonstrate that we do not get that very sacred language. I'm sorry. I forgive you. confessing sin and forgiving sin. These are two of the most sacred aspects of who we are as Christians. This is the foundation of the church. We're continuing a series on the church and here we're thinking about forgiving one another. Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's the main focus. Those simple words, memorize them. Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Forgiveness may be the most malpracticed command among all Christians. It's sacred. It's what we're given. It's what we're called to. This may be the most uncomfortable sermon in the entire church series. I think that's the case because this is the most uncomfortable week I've had in preparing that I can recall for a long time. It's uncomfortable because our sin and our sinful resentment of other sin can be sacred to us. We love our sin. We even love the resentment of our sin. We all like the concept of forgiveness. We think it's a grand idea, this hypothetical, oh, the world would be great if everybody would just forgive everyone. We all think that's a grand ideal, but what happens when somebody really sins against you? What happens when real sin really affects you? Murder, rape, lies, theft, slander, betrayal. We have a hard time when what we truly love is threatened, taken. and tarnished. We have to get forgiveness. We've been forgiven. We are called to forgive. If you're looking for a thesis, I've got a shorter one and a longer one. We are forgiven in Christ and called to forgive. That's short, simple. Let me put a little more meat on that. God has forgiven us of the greatest sin and now calls us to forgive lesser sins. God has forgiven us of the greatest sin and now calls us to forgive lesser sins. Here are texts this morning. Ephesians 4, 31. You can find this on page 978 of your Pew Bible. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another. tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. God commands forgiveness because God grants forgiveness. I want you to turn back one page. I want us to begin at Ephesians chapter four. We started the church series in Ephesians chapter four. And to highlight something, in case you've missed what this series has really been about, almost every sermon, I'm pretty sure every sermon, has started with what God has done for you, therefore we are to do it. Christ loved us, we're to love one another. Christ was humble and thought more of others than himself, we are to have the same mind as Christ. It all starts with what Christ's work does, and then it's supposed to penetrate down into what we do. Ephesians 4 gives us this perfect model. Chapters 1 through 3 is all about what Christ has done, what God has done for us. And then he says, therefore, walk in a worthy manner of that calling. You've been called out of death into life. You've been called out of slavery into freedom. You've been called from being alienated into being the household of God, being adopted as children. Walk worthy. And what's pretty amazing in this passage is that it requires the church. The very first command that he gives us in how to walk worthy is bearing with one another. Because we're all sinners. Maintaining the unity of the spirit. Something we are supposed to protect. We don't produce it, we protect it. Look at verse 15 of chapter four. Beginning in verse 15, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint which is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Here's a beautiful vision of the church. If we go back, we can see Paul said, this is where the glory and wisdom of God is supposed to be, among the body, where the head is ruling Christ. We're committed to. If we follow along the rest of chapter four, chapter five, and chapter six, these are all instructions for what's supposed to happen within the church. And what we're gonna see, especially today, are two very important commands. They're two parallel imperatives, right? Something else you can easily memorize. Put off the old self, put on the new self. Put off the old self, put on the new self. I thought about making an analogy with wax off, wax on, but it doesn't work quite right. Wasn't a Christian movie. Put off, that which is old, that former manner, put on what Christ has done for you. See, the church is supposed to be made up of believers who are growing in godliness. Repentance, confession, forgiveness, put off sin, put on Christ. Now, here's the important thing that I want you to see as we're about to read this section, so I pray it just jumps off of the page for you. If you're a believer, you need to recognize something about yourself and you need to recognize something about everybody else in this room. There are two of you. There's two of you. There's that old self. There's the new self. This isn't the angel on this shoulder and the devil on this shoulder. No. There's the sinful desires that reside here and come bubbling forth, given the opportunity. There's the new desires the Holy Spirit has put there and is trying to change and create something new inside of you to give you life, and they come forth when given the opportunity. There are two of you. The question is, which one is dominant? Which one's growing? Which one's dying? The old self, it's futile, I'm just thinking. The old self is darkened. It's ignorant because it's hardened. It's callous to the things of God because of sensuality and impurity. It's controlled by corruption and deceitful desires. Read with me, verses 17 through 19. Now this I say in testifying the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They're darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. but this is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. Listen, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. It's a hard look in a mirror there. That's who we are apart from the grace of God. Don't look at me, look in the mirror. God's word tells us who we are apart from the grace of God. Feudal, darkened, ignorant, callous, impure, corrupt, self-deceived. Praise God for His grace. That is who we are apart from grace, rebellious and guilty. The issue here is, yes, Christ, He died for these sins. He died to set us free from those sins. We are free from the penalty. We're no longer guilty. We're no longer condemned. He freed us from the power. We're no longer overwhelmed by these sins, but these sins are still present. and they're seeking to take over again. They're looking for the opportunity to well up and control you again. The penalty's been paid, the power's been broken, but they're present and they feel natural. That's why they're so dangerous. They feel natural. Let's look at the new self. The new self. Look at verse 22. Sorry, let's begin in verse 23. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Now, there's something interesting here. Adam was made in the image of God. He had an identity, a relationship, and a responsibility. That's what that likeness of God language means. What Christ came to do is renew our identity children of God, our relationship reconciling what we broke, and our responsibility. Here's what's interesting. Let's compare and contrast with Adam and his imageness, his likeness, and our being made new after the likeness of God. First, Adam could lose part of this imageness. He lost that relationship. He failed at that responsibility. He was cast out of the garden. Here's the beauty of the way you've been made new in the likeness of God, you can't lose it. Because it's not secure in what you do, secure in what Christ has done. He holds us fast. As we heard last week, he is faithful, he will surely do it. He's made us new and he's given us a new identity, which means we have a new way of thinking and living it. We're not just servants in the kingdom, we're now adopted sons. We don't just have a special privileged position in creation, we have a special privileged position in heaven, the table of the king. It's something we have to put on. Friends, this is why that old motto, let go and let God, it doesn't work. Because it's something we have to intentionally put off and put on. We don't let go and let God, we intentionally take off and then we trust by the grace of God, he will carry us as we seek to put on. Now that's less catchy. But it's more true. The language put off and put on, it's clothing language. It's as clear as the fact that you took off what you slept in, I think, and you put on something else. It's that clear, only it's so much more personal. Because what feels natural, what feels like it's part of who we are, we're supposed to put it away so we can put on a new identity. We have to realize there's two sources of desires within us. That old corrupt deceptive heart is ruled by sin, it's impure. That new righteous and holy heart is ruled by the spirit and it's pure. We are called to put off the impure and put on the pure. It's a constant, regular decision. We are supposed to becoming more and more like the new self and less and less like the old self. In Colossians, he actually uses even stronger language. Put. your old self to death. I find that language helpful because it actually does feel like you're dying when you do it. It feels like you're dying when you do it. The old man must die. I wanna read from you a very short devotional chapter. These are available in the foyer. If you don't have one, please get one. This is a meditation on the gospel, and I want to read from you the Gospel Primer, page 39. The gospel is not simply the story of Christ and him crucified. It is also the story of my own crucifixion. For the Bible tells me that I too was crucified on Christ's cross. My old self was slain there, and my love affair with the world was crucified thereto. The cross is also the place where I crucify my flesh and all its sinful desires. Truly, Christ's death and my death are so intertwined as to be inseparable. God is committed to my dying every day, and he calls me to that same commitment. He insists that every hour be my dying hour, and he wants my death on the cross to be as central to my own life story as is Christ's death to the gospel story. Let this same attitude be in you, he says, which was also in Christ Jesus, who became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Crucifixion hurts. In fact, It's heart-wrenching. Brutality can numb the senses. It is a gasping and bloody affair, and there's nothing nice, pretty, or easy about it. It is not merely death, but excruciating death. Nevertheless, I must see my face, set my face like a flint toward the cross and embrace its crucifixion in everything I do. I should expect every day to encounter circumstantial evidence of God's commitment to my dying, and I must seize upon every God-given opportunity to be conformed more fully to Christ's death, no matter the pain involved. When my flesh yearns for some prohibited thing, I must die. When called to do something I don't want to do, I must die. When I wish to be selfish and serve no one, I must die. When shattered by hardship that I despise, I must die. When wanting to cling to wrongs done against me, I must die. When enticed by allurements of the world, I must die. When wishing to keep besetting sins secret, I must die. When wants that are borderline needs are left unmet, I must die. When dreams that are good seem shoved aside, I must die. Not my will, but yours be done. Christ trustingly prayed on the eve of his crucifixion. In preaching his story to myself each day, puts me in a firm of mind to trust God and embrace the cross of my dying awesome. It's a radical vision for the Christian life. By God's grace, we can die to ourself. We must first trust God that he has put to death that old man and he has given us new life. We must intentionally put off that deadly old man. We must intentionally pray to pursue the new life of Christ. As you think about put off and put on, I want you to see a bigger framework. Jesus said the same thing in different words. Deny yourself and follow me. Putting off is denying yourself. Putting on is following Christ. This is simply Christian discipleship. Let's look at some examples of what Paul gives for what this means. Look at verse 25. Look at verse 28. but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Stop taking, work so you can give. Notice the opposite of stealing isn't stop stealing, the opposite of stealing is giving. That's putting on the new man. Finally, verse 29, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only as such is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Put off the potty mouth and seek to encourage. Seek to use words that edify. I want you to see here that the high calling we receive is a high calling to give. You put away the line to tell the truth so that The other members are built up. Now notice that verse 25, you stop lying to tell the truth for we are members of one another. We're in battle. We shouldn't be in battle against one another, we should be in battle with one another. We are in a battle and whenever you're in a battle, the platoon doesn't start shooting at one another. That's what happens when we lie to one another. We're working with one another when we're seeking to speak the truth in love. You stop stealing so that you have something to give. You stop speaking with corrupt words so that you build up, giving grace to those who hear. Now let's get to the put away for today. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Notice he doesn't say if you have these things. If you have any of these things, put them away. They're there. They're there. The Bible's a mirror. If we see ourselves rightly in the Bible, we have to recognize these things are there and they have to be put off. We are inclined to these sins. Bitterness. takes place when we put all our attention on what we think we deserve and we don't get it. Wrath is we want someone to feel the weight of our pain because they hurt us. Anger is when something is taken from us that we believe is our right. Clamor, that's kind of a, it's like pitching a fit. We clamor, we don't get our way. We all know what this looks like in other people. We may want to think about what we do when we clamor. We slander when someone doesn't give us the respect we think we deserve and therefore we do not give them the respect they deserve. I want you to notice something about that list in terms of the way I've defined bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander. Those sins all come when the attention is focused on me, my rights, what I deserve, my way, to call us to deny yourself and to follow Christ. We must deny ourselves. Here's the problem with anger, malice, wrath, and malice. Here's the problem with these things. Just like every sin, they promise to comfort you. They promise to do something for you. They promise this is right, this is gonna feel good, and it never does. It never satisfied. Instead, it actually makes us feel worse. It says your anger will comfort you, especially if your anger makes them feel uncomfortable. It's a lie. You see, it feels good to get angry, but it poisons us. It feels good because it feels like a bomb, but it's a prison. It puts a barricade up against our relationship with God and our relationship with other people. If we focus on all the wrong done to us, we will never see the grace God gives to us and enjoy it. If we are focused on all the wrong done to us, we will never see the grace God gives to us and enjoy it. See, anger and malice, it's kind of like a weed in the garden. The worst kind of weeds are the re-rooting weeds. That means it's not just yanking one root up. As it grows, it roots, and it roots, and it roots. And it begins, it starts to choke out the other fruit. It's taking the nutrients. If you have a vegetable garden, you don't want that kind of weed in there because it's going to choke out the fruit. It's taking the nutrients for the fruit. Anybody walking by a garden could see you have a weed problem. Let's get in there and get it out. Here's a problem with those corrupt, deceiving desires in our heart. When that weed problem's in here, our weed has flowers on it. And we think, okay, that doesn't belong here, but I like the flowers. They smell nice, they're pretty. I'll let that weed continue so I can enjoy the flowers. Meanwhile, he's rerouting. It's re-rooting. It's growing bigger and bigger and choking out the fruit. And the anger that's in our hearts, it has a special kind of root, because it has poison in that root, and it's killing the fruit. And then we finally realize what it's doing, and we go to grab it, and it's got thorns, so we come back bloody. That's what our anger is like. It destroys anything good in us. It is the treason we sung about. It is the poison. It is only by God's grace that we can get it out. It's only by God's grace that it doesn't spread and take over the entire garden, our entire hearts. Jesus is saying, get that out of the garden, because it's going to destroy you. It's poison. It's not good for you. We have to deny ourselves the right to be angry, because our assumed right to be angry will keep us from reconciliation. You really have two choices. You can be right, or you can be reconciled. You can't have both. God appeals to what is right and good. He says we are to forgive 70 times 70. He says we are to put off this dangerous sin. And here's where I think we should say, how? How do we get rid of this? And this is the beauty of the Bible is that it's completely sufficient. What God says is sufficient and necessary because up to this point, if all we talked about was putting off, Christian counseling would be great and easy. It would consist of this. Stop it. I think it's more effective in a German accent. Stop it. That would be so effective if that was all Christian counseling was. The church would be holy, because we can just walk around and say, stop it. I want to be clear, Christian discipleship requires stop it. But it's also something more. It isn't just stop sinning. It's put on Christ and his grace and his life. Let's look to what God's word says because it is sufficient and necessary. Do not just put away bitterness. Look at verse 32. This is the antidote. Stop it, put off so that you can put on. You can't put on until you put off. Put off, put on. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. These three commands are the antidote. You've gotten the poison, quit drinking the poison, and now here's the antidote. And I want you to notice something about this. The command is to be something. You're supposed to change who you are. That should feel kind of daunting. You're supposed to be something. Be kind-hearted, be tender-hearted. I wanna challenge you here that you can actually change who you are. You can change who you are and it takes little, small, intentional choices, trusting by faith the grace of God will use those choices to form a new you. That's more in the likeness of Christ. It's not just you. It's not just letting go and letting God. It's you making those little small choices so that your choices become habit and that habit forms a character so that you are kind. You are tenderhearted. Be kind. The word here is simply loving. And I gotta point out what's not here. There's no qualifier. Be kind when someone's kind to you. When they're nice, be nice. When they're like you, you should be nice to them. No, it's kind to one another. You choose to love that which is unlovely when you're a Christian because you want other people to love you too. I want you to think about what I just said. You want to choose to love that which is unlovely because you want people to love you too. If you only choose to love that which you think is lovely, you think you're lovely. And the Bible says we're not. To love is a choice that begins with me recognizing I am not worthy. We have to be the chief of sinners in order to truly love. The second word is really interesting. Be tenderhearted. The root word of this is actually upright. Tender heart and upright, those don't seem to go together until you see that it actually takes strength to forgive. If someone says something to you, your old self that wants to throw it back, your old self gets thrown over, the new self, it's steady. Like a ship. If a huge wave comes and hits a ship, it's not going to be knocked over if it has a deep ballast. Tenderhearted means you're strong enough in the gospel to withstand the waves that toss you to and fro. The deeper you are in the gospel, the deeper you are in standing firm in Christ, your identity, the harder the waves are to knock you over. Being tenderhearted means you're so strong in Christ, you're able to absorb a hit without getting knocked over. Being tenderhearted is a strength that only comes from God. So I ask you, what does it take to get you angry? How small of a thing does it take to get you agitated? That shows how deep your ballast goes. Forgive one another. Everybody write down a definition of forgiveness. Please. I said please. Arguably one of the most important words we have in our vocabulary, we should have a definition. What does it mean to forgive? So finish your definitions and hopefully wrestle with what this word means. Here's two definitions I got off the internet. One's from the Mayo Clinic. Forgiveness is a decision to let go of resentment and thoughts of revenge. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you deny the other person's responsibility for hurting you, and it doesn't minimize or justify the wrong. That's a pretty good definition. Another psychologist, forgiveness is an intrapersonal process that unburdens the victim from the negative emotions they might be harboring toward the transgressor. I like the Mayo Clinic definition better. We'll come back to the definition. But I wanted you to wrestle with that definition because our most important identity is that we're forgiven. One of the clearest commands in scripture is that we're called to forgive. Jesus says forgive 70 times seven. On the summit of the mount, he says, if you do not forgive others, your father will not forgive you. This is one of the most terrifying lessons in all of scripture. As we seek a definition of what it means to forgive, thankfully God has defined it for us. Forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. Our definition of what it means to forgive one another has to start with what God's forgiveness is like. So let's start there. God has forgiven us in Christ. We must see our own sin in order to get forgiveness. Here's a glimpse of how we sin. We told God we didn't want him. We told God we didn't need him. We told God we're better off without him. We rejected, we refused him. We hated his words. We hated him with our words. We have taken for granted every kindness and only responded with disinterest in taking what he's given us as good and destroying. We must see that we have committed the greatest sin and that we as a creature said, creator, no thank you. We're guilty of idolatry. We worship everything but God. We're guilty of murder. We said, God, we'd rather you be dead. And it is our sin that nailed Christ to the cross. We're guilty of adultery. We love other gods and seek to be satisfied by them. We're guilty of lying. We don't trust his truth. We create our own. We're guilty of stealing. We took away the praise that he deserves and tried to bring it on ourselves. We deserve God's righteous wrath for our sin. What's amazing about the gospel? He puts it off of us. Just as those commands, put off, put on, God put his wrath off of us. Now we have to ask, where did it go? Is he just? Sin must be punished? Is he a just God? He put his wrath off of us who deserve it and he put it on his own son who did not deserve it. The perfect righteous lamb was crushed for our iniquity. He became a curse so that we might receive every blessing. He was abandoned so that we might be adopted. He was forsaken so that we will be forgiven. Brothers and sisters, know that we must know that we have committed the greatest sin and we have been forgiven. Jesus paid it all. We sing that. Do we believe it? Every debt, every transgression nailed to the cross, we're forgiven. This is the first and foremost good news we must believe and let sink in. Because if we battle with guilt, if we're overwhelmed with our own sin, here's what's happening. You're listening to Satan's accusations more than you're hearing what God said, because God said, if you believe in me, if you confess your sin, I forgive you. Do you trust God? He says, I forgive you. How does God forgive? Six things. First, God forgave us while we were sinners. I'm gonna put these in the website. You don't have to rush to write them all down. God forgave us while we were sinners. Second, God forgave us without us realizing the full gravity of our sin. God forgave us without us realizing how much our sin hurt him. God forgave us so that we might be reconciled. God forgave us and works against our sin for our well-being God forgave us and will one day make us sinless. We've sung all those truths. Let's meditate very briefly on each of these. God forgave us while we were still sinners. Had nothing to do with us. We were condemned. Because of Christ, there is no condemnation. No longer guilty. Our debt, our transgression has been paid. God forgave us without us recognizing the full gravity of our sin. God doesn't let us recognize the full weight of our sin. If he let us recognize the full weight of our sin, that's actually called hell. He died so we will not. Jesus says, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. We don't have to recognize how great of a sinner we are to be forgiven by God. He forgives us without us recognize how much our sin hurt him. Again, this would be hell. He protects us from that excruciating pain that the son experienced for us. Fourth, He forgave us so that we might be reconciled. We have to realize He didn't just forgive us to have a clean slate. No, it had another step, reconciliation. And those two things are different. It's extremely important. Forgiveness and reconciliation, two different things. God forgave us and works with us against our sin. He doesn't forget that we're sinners. He forgets our sin debt, but He doesn't forget we're sinners. He's working with us to complete it, the work He began in us. And then finally, he will one day make us sinless. We look forward to that day. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly. He has paid the penalty. Now to him all we owe. We must trust that he forgives us. There are two kinds of Christians. Those who are underwhelmed by their sin and those who are overwhelmed by it. Both of them wrestle in two different ways, and here's the basic problem. We think too much of ourselves. We're sinners. Christ forgives us. Trust Christ to forgive you. Now let me turn, and I'm gonna take that same list, and I wanna say just as God forgave, let's forgive that way. The first way we're called to forgive, we're called to forgive sinners. We're called to forgive sinners. We're called to forgive those who do sin against us because we've been forgiven. This is the most important thing you can remember as you're thinking about, can I forgive that kind of sinner? We have to recognize we are all capable of every corrupt sin. I recommend that when you have been sinned against, first seek to identify with the sin that has offended you. Then seek Christ and his forgiveness so that you may extend it. The second way in which we're supposed to forgive one another, we are called to forgive sinners without making them feel the full weight of their sin. That one needs to be read again. We are called to forgive sinners without making them feel the full weight of their sin. This correlates, God does not make us feel the full weight of our sin. Now, our desire is gonna say, do you know what you've done? Our desire is to put as much hurt on them as possible because they've hurt us. This is hard. Your right as a victim is to make them feel hurt. Your right as a victim is to keep them from reconciling. Your call is to deny yourself of these felt rights. We are not called to tell them how bad they've sinned. We trust God. Third, we are called to forgive sinners without making them feel how much they hurt us. It means we don't throw it back at them. If you've forgiven somebody, you don't throw it back at them. If you throw something back at someone that you think you forgave, you didn't forgive them. You kept it stored away for ammunition. That is not forgiveness. We are called to forgive sinners to reconcile. This is important. Forgiveness is not reconciliation. The hurt continues, the forgiveness will continue, the reconciliation's a process. There's confession of sin, there's forgiveness of sin, that equals reconciliation. Confession and forgiveness with mercy, that's reconciliation. Let's not confuse those very important steps. Fifthly, we are called to forgive sinners, seeking to see them grow as Christ. This is getting harder. And sometimes it's all you can do not to say that what you want to say. Eventually, we have to get to the point where we are actually saying things that are going to help them grow in Christ. We're seeking their well-being. We're seeking to forgive them, to remind them of the forgiveness they received, also being watchful because we know their sinful tendencies. Six, we are called to forgive sinners, trusting God to be effective. When we're sinned against, The only one you can truly trust is Christ to change them, to heal you, and to reconcile. Now time for that long-awaited definition of forgiveness. The intentional choice not only to release the offender from the debt to you, but your intentional choice to absorb the debt yourself. The intentional choice not only to release the offender from the debt they owe to you, but the intentional choice to absorb the debt yourself. Deciding I will not hold this offense against you, I will suffer the pain from it for you. You release it because Christ died to forgive it, you absorb it because Christ calls you to suffer with him and not to retaliate. This is not hide it away and store it away and wait for it to come back as ammunition. This is saying, I'm going to take this with me to the cross and seek to die to what I think is my right. I will suffer for the sake of my brother so that I might forgive him. This is what's unique about the Christian definition. Now, what I liked about the other definitions, especially the Mayo, it's an intentional decision. That is something that's true. Forgiveness isn't natural. We often times don't feel like forgiving. What's unique about the Christian is that we don't just put it off, we put it on somewhere. Let me give you some examples. You forgive somebody for slandering, you choose to let your reputation be tarnished and not to go out and defend yourself and not to retaliate. You suffer so that you might forgive them. Someone who hurts you, you don't go back and hurt them. If someone steals $100 from you, you don't get the money back if you forgive them. In my high school days, I ran with a pretty rough crowd. There was a freshman, he invited a bunch of juniors over. These were my pals, I wasn't there, thankfully. The freshman owned a big estate, had a lot of fancy cars, he was trying to impress upperclassmen, invited the wrong guys. My friends took the cars out of the garage, a Lexus, a Mercedes, and decided they would do donuts in the field. They destroyed the cars. Cops got involved. Mr. Runyon, at court, He said, I dropped the charges. To the boys, he said, I'm not gonna make you pay for anything. He said, I wanna take this opportunity to tell you that you need to believe Jesus Christ died for these sins and every other sin. You need to believe in him. That's forgiveness. He took all of us. hurt and debt and transgression done to him, he said, I will take the debt, I will take the consequences so that I can glorify Christ. That always stuck with me. Forgiveness sacrifices. I lose my right to what I think I had a right to. Forgiveness suffers. It seeks reconciliation. If a non-Christian sins against you, you trust the God who vindicates. It's simple. If a Christian sins against you, you trust Christ has forgiven that sinner. If he's confessed, you trust Christ has forgiven that sinner and will discipline that sinner. See, Christ died and absorbed the wrath of God for that sin. You have to remember that. If another brother sins against you, Christ died and absorbed that sin. We are called to absorb our own wrath against that sinner. Friends, this feels like death. This is that crucifixion that Milton Vincent was just talking about that I read to you earlier. Denying yourself is painful. It feels like death. When we are hurt, we must meditate on the cross and Christ's death. We must find forgiveness to extend. It goes against everything that feels right. Let me be clear. You putting away your wrath and your anger is a way that you're going to participate in the death of Christ. The way you participate, a way in which you will participate in the death of Christ is by denying yourself your anger. When you participate in the death of Christ, you see his glory. As we conclude, I want us to remind one another, this is a high calling. to receive the forgiveness of Christ, to extend the forgiveness of Christ. We must learn how to truly say, I'm sorry, because we're sinners. We must truly learn how to say, I forgive you. I'm sorry is not this, I'm sorry you were offended. I'm sorry is, I'm sorry I offended you when. There's a difference. When someone says they're sorry, don't blow it off by saying no big deal. That's a vulnerable moment for the gospel. Say, I'm sorry, I forgive you. As God in Christ forgives you, I forgive you. Give them that affirmation. I wanna challenge us to think about how often we apologize and extend forgiveness. Is it as often as we sin? These words should be echoing in our conversation. Otherwise, we're not sinners. we must see ourselves as the chief sinner. As David prayed, I have sinned against you and you alone. Purge me so I shall be clean. Wash me so I'll be whiter than snow. We must first approach God as the sinner who needs forgiveness so that we can give forgiveness. It is only then we will truly forgive in a way that will glorify Christ. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you that you are the God of forgiveness. Even though we have sinned against you, we've spat upon you, we've mocked you, we've nailed you to a cross and said, death to you so that we can keep our reign. You loved us. You forgave us. It would help us to see our sin that is forgiven, that were renewed so that we might be the body of Christ we're called to be, forgiving one another.