"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
–Colossians 3:13
The gospel is a promise of forgiveness.
Have you ever been hurt by someone and found it hard to forgive them? It can be hard to let go of anger and resentment towards someone who has wronged us.
Imagine a friend riding your bike and wrecking it so it was no longer ridable. Who is going to pay to have the bicycle fixed? If your friend pays it, they have "made amends." But if they don't, they owe you a debt that equals the cost of the bike.
But if you decide not to make your friend pay and instead you pay to have th bike fixed, you've canceled your friend's debt.
In other words, the debt has been forgiven. What was owed has been paid in full.
One of the most well-known stories about forgiveness is the parable of the unforgiving servant. In this story, a servant owed a massive debt to a king, but the king forgave him by absorbing the cost of the debt himself, thus canceling the debt.
As if it never existed!
However, the recently forgiven servant then went and demanded someone else who owed him a much smaller debt to pay him back immediately.
When the king found out, he punished the forgiven servant for not showing mercy towards the person who owed him a much smaller debt than the one he'd been forgiven.
This story points to Jesus forgiving us by canceling our sin debt on the cross—as if it never existed.
The cross shows us that forgiveness is costly. It's not as easy as saying, "I forgive you."
It is a promise to pay a debt someone else owes by not bringing the offense up again, as if it is buried deep underground.
As if it never existed.
Again, this doesn't make forgiveness easy. It's not pretending the hurt didn't happen or that the debt didn't exist.
So, what enables us to genuinely forgive others as if the offense never existed? Having been forgiven ourselves by Jesus. As if our offenses never happened.
Forgiveness is a decision to pay the debt yourself, just as Jesus paid yours.
Colossians 3:13 says,
"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you."
Now, the same forgiveness we've received, we get to give to others.
You see, ultimately, forgiveness is grace.
When we receive God's forgiveness of our greater sins and forgive others of their lesser sins, we reflect the love and mercy that God has shown to us through the cross of Jesus.
So, in many ways, forgiving others is a way to preach the gospel.
Because the gospel is a promise of forgiveness.
Discussion Questions
How does the idea of canceling a debt help you understand forgiveness better?
What does it mean to owe a debt to God because of our sins?
How does Jesus' death on the cross cancel our debt?
How does forgiveness free us from guilt and shame?
How does forgiving others help us to live in the freedom God has given us through canceling our debt?
Can you think of someone you need to forgive? How can you extend grace to them as God has extended grace to you?
A Suggested Prayer
Dear Father in heaven,
Thank you for canceling our debt through Jesus' death on the cross. Help us to understand forgiveness as canceling a debt, and as your children, we get to extend that same grace to others. Give us the grace of your Spirit to forgive as we've been forgiven.
In Jesus' name, Amen.