Pay Back.

Your neighbour comes over and asks to borrow your lawn mower, because his, is not working. You do the neighbourly thing and gladly let him borrow your lawn mower. The neighbour is mowing his lawn and since it is self propelled, it self propelled itself over a large bank at the edge of his property. The neighbour brings back the lawn mower in pieces and says he is sorry. He is not offering to pay to have the lawn mower replaced, he just says he is sorry.

It would be reasonable to ask him to pay to have the lawn mower replaced. However, if he refuses to pay, then you will have to pay. It is going to cost someone. If you truly forgive this person you will have to pay. If you don’t forgive this person, you will want pay back. Somehow you want pay back. Maybe that means slandering his name in the neighbourhood, ignoring him and not acknowledging him or going over and poisoning his hedges in the night.

What did God say about pay back? “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:13). How did the Lord forgive us. We owed a debt because of our sin that we could not pay. Someone had to pay and God himself in Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin and sinful disposition, for those who receive him as Lord and Savior. The debt was that sin brought spiritual death, separation from God and ultimately hell, the place of the total absence of all good. We are to forgive based on his beautiful act of love and forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. Somebody has to pay and certainly those who forgive have to bear the cost of forgiving.

What is the cost of not forgiving? It is great. It effects our relationship to God, others and ourselves. Jesus said, “but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15). What does this mean? Jesus is stating the rules of being human and divine justice. If you condemn others, you will also end up condemning yourself. If you cannot forgive others, you will have a hard time of actually finding true forgiveness for yourself. If you are hard on others, you will also be very hard on yourself, and this is true even if you are totally unaware and deny the effect on yourself. You may push it down to sub-conscious, but it is still there. This effect on yourself will hinder your relationships with others. These are the rules of human nature and of the universe God created. A universe of goodness, justice and love.

Who is going to pay. You might say it is not right that I have to pay for the lawn mower. I didn’t break it. If the person is not responsible, you might not lend your new lawn mower to them again, since doesn’t help them to practise irresponsibility. Maybe they just couldn’t pay? Like us we just couldn’t pay the cost of our own redemption. The cost was unachievable and to great. The cost was borne by God himself.

If we condemn others we will also end up condemning ourselves and if we run from our condemnation of self, we will condemn others all the more. The political religious leaders of Jesus day could no face their own sin, so they wanted to get rid of Jesus who exposed their sin. People will at times attack others or attack their importance if they talk to them being sinners in need of redemption. Evangelism is hard work, but it is also glorious and a joy filled work.

We must run to Jesus for grace to truly forgive. He will bear the hurt with us and help us respond wisely and graciously. Condemnation is the tool of the devil and by it he gets you to feel bad and thus do worse. The Apostle Paul states in the context of calling some to account for their sin and then restoring them. “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:10-11) Are we ignorant of Satan’s devices and designs? Are we trapped in his ways and do we want to be free and follow Jesus’ ways? The way his forgiveness and his love.

None of us could be God and let our own creation nail us to a cross to pay a debt we did not owe to an ungrateful and condemning people. There could be no greater sin than this. No wonder Jesus told parables like the unforgiving servant. (Matthew 18:21-35)

We have lost the art of truly forgiving and accountability in love rather than condemnation. We can learn and re-learn until it becomes a habit and a seemingly auto response. This is how a character shaped to be Christlike.

Jesus paid it all. We can walk now in love, gratitude and the forgiveness of him and the sharing of the gospel lived out and declared to others. Otherwise, God’s grace is in vain. Divine justice requires that sin be paid. Afterall as God says in his word, “The soul that sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4) That is what God told Adam and Eve. (Genesis 2:17) All people are in a state of spiritual death, until they are brought to life in God, and receive abundant and eternal life in him. Who is going to pay for your sin. If you refuse the remedy in Christ you will pay. The gift of life however, is available in Christ Jesus to all when you repent of sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ. It is faith in the one and only Savior for the debt of your sin and your surrender to the highest authority in life, Jesus Christ who is Lord. Being Lord means He is God. God does a work the root is our sin nature which must be converted by the living God. “

Pray that you would come through in saving faith to salvation and conversion. Seek the Lord until he finds you. Today is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2).