Christmas Is a Time for Forgiving

Photo by Pure Julia

“‘And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God’” (Luke 1:76–78 NIV).

Following the birth of John the Baptizer, his father Zechariah proclaimed the above words concerning his son. In Luke’s gospel, as with the other three in the New Testament, John is portrayed as a prophetic forerunner of Israel’s promised messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, born shortly after John, will be the agent through whom God would mercifully forgive Israel’s sins and, ultimately, those of the rest of the world, providing salvation for all people.

Christmas is a time to reflect on the significance of Jesus Christ’s coming. As the apostle Paul puts it, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). As both Luke and Paul point out, God is in the forgiveness business. That is what God does and that is an integral part of why Jesus was born into the world.

I wish to draw attention in this article to a crucial implication here that we dare not miss. A clear teaching that we see throughout the Bible is that God expects—even demands—his people to reflect his own character. Indeed, Jesus says in Luke’s gospel, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36 NIV).

Thus, if the person of Jesus represents God’s desire to forgive the world of its sins, then, especially in celebrating his birth, God’s people must not harbor unforgiveness in their hearts. Jesus himself could hardly have been any blunter: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sin” (Matthew 6:15 NIV).

Likewise, in response to the apostle Peter, who asked him how many times he should forgive a sinning brother or sister and proposed a seemingly generous seven times, Jesus said, “not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22 NIV). For Jesus, there are to be no limits on our offer of forgiveness for those who sin against us. Said another way, when forgiveness is sought, we have no right not to give it.

As God’s forgiveness of us leads to our salvation, our extension of forgiveness to those who ask us for it provides a form of liberation to them. Forgiveness doesn’t overlook the seriousness of an offense. It doesn’t remove accountability or necessarily mean that we should continue to relate in every respect to the offender as we might have before the offense occurred. However, it does mean that we release him or her from any resentment or threat of reprisal. That is, we, like God, determine not to hold whatever wrong committed against us against that person.    

But moreover, when we choose to forgive, we too can experience freedom—freedom from the destructive consequences of an unforgiving heart. In a 2015 report by Lorie Johnson of CBN News, Dr. Steven Standiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, asserted that “refusing to forgive makes people sick and keeps them that way.” The same report referenced research conducted by Dr. Michael Barry that revealed: “Of all cancer patients, 61 percent have forgiveness issues, and of those, more than half are severe.” According to Barry, harboring anger and hatred has devastating effects on one’s health that can quite literally kill.

Of course, forgiveness can be very difficult. Yet we have a God who is willing and able to provide us with the power we need to give it. I am reminded of the story told by Corrie ten Boom in her book, “The Hiding Place.” Ten Boom survived imprisonment at the Ravensbrück concentration camp during the second World War. A Christian missionary and speaker, many years later, following a church service, she was approached by a man she recognized as a former Nazi prison guard from the very same camp where she was imprisoned. Acknowledging his appreciation for her message, he expressed his utter thankfulness that God had forgiven him for his sins, and then presented his hand for her to shake. She writes:

“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I prayed, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His.”