How to forgive yourself and others easily

Imagine living in the days of Saul of Tarsus; his persistence in persecuting the church caused your family to become fragmented and you had to endure untold anxiety, suffering and starvation. If this man were to approach you one day saying he’s been saved, what would be your response?

If you’re like the rest of us, you’ll probably think “after all you’ve done to me, you think you’ll go scot-free?” The default response would be to demand justice for all his atrocities. But that is the exact opposite of how God sees things, and this forms the basis of the gospel. The gospel isn’t about God punishing men but it is about Him justifying even the most undeserving among men. The truth is that we are all undeserving. If we could ever deserve even half of God’s goodness, love and blessings then we would have a cause to boast and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for us would be superfluous.

Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by Grace through faith and that is independent of our self efforts but it is a gift of God. We cannot earn gifts; we just receive them. Justification in simple terms is “just- as- if- I’d -never – sinned”. Jesus came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world to provide justification for all who believe. The punishment for sin fell on Jesus and the reward for His obedience even to death on the cross fell on us.

Naturally, we like to hold people’s sins against them. We usually like them to pay to the last gram and feel all the discomfort, pain and inconvenience they caused us. To a large extent, it’s because of the lack of understanding of the message of the gospel. We think that God saves us because of how good we are and He blesses us because we are obedient and good nurtured. Blessings for good; and curses for bad isn’t anything out of the ordinary. That’s how the world runs. That cannot be the good news or better still, the nearly too good to be true news.

If we are to reckon salvation as a gift and something we could never attain even at our best, we would appreciate how freely the Lord has forgiven us in spite of us. That is what makes it easier for us to forgive others. It takes only those who have experienced the lavish free flowing Grace of God and His perfect forgiveness to forgive others wholeheartedly. The cry of the world is for vengeance but the heart of God is to forgive. When you realize that you have been forgiven much, it spills over into your forgiving others.

If you’re having a hard time forgiving others, and even yourself, this is what you need to know – the Lord has freely forgiven you in Jesus Christ in spite of you. He isn’t waiting for you to meet some criteria before He dispenses forgiveness. The best of it is that His forgiveness is perfect. Man may forgive but not forget or forget but not forgive but when the Son forgives, you’re forgiven indeed.