The Grace of Forgiveness

Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"  Matt 18:21

 

In the last installment of our “Model Citizen” series we talked about dealing with the person that sins against us, and how we handle that situation personally, and as a church.  But there is one mroe very important aspect of our handling of that situation:  For the relationship to be fully restored not only does the offending party need to confess and ask forgiveness, but the offended party must actually extend forgiveness!  What a novel concept!

 

I have found that it is one thing to accept an apology, and quite another to extend true forgiveness to that person.  See for me to extend true forgiveness requires me to put myself out there and become vulnerable once again.  It requires me to move beyond tolerating that person, but actually embracing them once again.  It requires that I extend to that person something called “grace.”  See, the grace of forgiveness is to care more about the person than what they have done.

 

Join us Sunday for our conclusion of “The Model Citizen”.

 

 

Till the whole world hears...

 

Pastor Clay