“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
~C.S. Lewis
Reflection:
Contrary to what some wish to believe, to be a Christian is not to believe oneself to be a good, upstanding, moral person who lives an impeccable, sinless life beyond reproach. Rather, to be a Christian is to know and accept the depth and undeniability of one’s own depravity and corruption. It is to concede to one’s innermost self that, outside of God’s grace, I am capable of every evil, perverse, and reprehensible thought, word, or act imaginable, and that, through Christ, not only has God forgiven me for all of the ways I have turned away from his grace and goodness in the past, but that he as also forgiven me for all of my future shortcomings as well.
To be a Christian does not mean that I am worthy of God’s love and forgiveness, but that at my most unworthy, at my most unlovable and unforgivable, I am loved and forgiven anyway. It is to be like the penitent thief on the cross in Luke 23:39-43 saying, “I know what I have done wrong and I fear God enough to accept that, if it were not for his mercy lived out through the death and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ, I would be punished justly for my sins, and I would get what I deserve, which is death.” And then, knowing that I have been saved from death through grace alone, to be a Christian is to see no sin in others that I cannot forgive because God has seen my sin and has forgiven me, to hold no grudges because God holds no grudge against me, and to love even the most vile, hateful, and despicable other because, but for the grace of God, that other is me.
Of course, none of us will live this out perfectly, and that, too, is what it means to be a Christian. At times, we are all the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:21-35, sometimes toward others and sometimes toward ourselves. If we are honest with ourselves, however, which is likely also a product of grace, not goodness, we will often find, in spite of our best efforts, and no matter how hard we try or how good we imagine ourselves to be, saying, like Paul, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15-20). And yet, God continues to forgive us, to call us back to him, and to say, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34-35).
~Robert Van Valkenburgh
Question for meditation: Where in my life am I still withholding forgiveness, forgetting how deeply I have been forgiven?
Related Scripture: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
For Further Reading: If you enjoyed this reflection, you may also like Lectio: Imperative Forgiveness
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