Have You Felt the Freedom of Forgiveness?

Last week, Rev. Beckingham helped us through the brokenness of conflict.  To clean up the mess, we often have to forgive someone…easier said than done.  How do we untangle the large knot standing in the way of that forgiveness?

This week, we welcome a new speaker to CVC:  Noah Collins, a 2024 M. Div Graduate from Regent College.  Noah is going to speak to us about 2 Corinthians 5:6-19, a passage that is all about New Beginnings!  You may recall that Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth during a time of conflict.

One of the wonderful things about our new beginning in Christ is forgiveness.  Here’s what our letter to the Corinthians says about this (and other things).

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 MSG

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

…the Messiah forgives…new life emerges…

All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.

What did Jesus, the Messiah, say about forgiveness? 

He taught us to pray,  "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

And in Matthew 18:

21 At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”

22 Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.

Wow, that’s a lot of forgiveness.

Sometimes we forget that when we forgive someone, we are the ones who benefit more than the person we are forgiving.  To let go of the grudge that drags us down is such freedom!

I invite you to read all of 2 Corinthians 5 before Sunday to get more context and enjoy all that is said about new life.

Image:  maisie lo on Flickr