My first publication for Word on Fire.
It can be incredibly difficult to forgive another when we feel deep inside our hearts that by offering pardon we are sacrificing a sense of justice. The truth of the matter, though, is that forgiveness does not diminish justice, but simply leaves it up to God.
As Christians, we believe that at the end times there will be retribution; the righteous will be given the gift of remunerative justice, and those who have freely chosen to remain far away from God in this life will experience God’s retributive justice. So will those who have hurt us eventually have to answer to Christ, the ultimate judge. We know that nothing will remain hidden or unknown (Matthew 10:26) because all will one day be revealed; there is nothing that God does not know.
We know the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant where the Master forgives his servant for a large debt, but then the servant in turn refuses to forgive a smaller debt of his fellow servant. The Master rebukes the first servant for his lack of mercy, and throws him in prison until his larger debt would be paid in total, which would actually be beyond his lifespan. The first servant lacked great humility when he punished his fellow servant, and acted as if he had never needed forgiveness, himself.
You can read the entire article here.
Photo: Alex Shute, Unsplash / PD-US