I was once watching WGN news, when they had a segment on self forgiveness. They were offering all kinds of tips to help us forgive ourselves: Read a book. Get sleep. Listen to your body. Be aware of your self talk. Don’t dwell on the past. And they directed viewers to check a website entitled Radical Forgiveness.
Even those who are not Christians recognize a need for forgiveness. We sometimes find ourselves suffocating in clouds of guilt. It drives us to do strange things sometimes, either to atone for or hide our guilt (as the above advice exemplifies). It can even cause us to use guilt like a prod to motivate others.
Forgiveness is a legitimate need, whether or not you sense your guilt. Your biggest problem is not job loss, not sickness, not loneliness, not even the impending doom of 2013’s potential “fiscal cliff.” I don’t want to minimize the real pain of all these things, but I also don’t want the biggest problem in the universe to be ignored or unrealized, especially when so many dear people’s lives are at stake. Someone once put it this way: The biggest problem is that God is against me in his holiness because I am against him in my sin.
The Bible puts it best. Regarding all humanity it says (this is Romans 1:18-21 ESV)…
…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God…
This problem is not something you can just sleep off. You can’t just pretend it isn’t there. Not dwelling on the past will not make it go away. In fact, there’s really nothing we can do to fix this. (Read Ephesians, chapter 2, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.) None of our works can save us. So even the best advice from the people with the best intentions won’t help. Only God can help.
And the good news is that he has! God has done what no one else could (see Romans 8). He sent his Son to live the life we should’ve lived and to die the death we should’ve died for the ways we have snubbed, spurned, belittled, and ignored him.
There is now no condemnation for those who cherish Jesus by faith! God forgives sinners and justifies the ungodly at the cost of his own precious Son’s lifeblood. Now that is radical forgiveness.
If we really realized that, just think of the free and loving people we would become. Just think of all the ways we would be freed up to really want to glorify God, no matter the cost.