In June, nine church members were ruthlessly gunned down during a Wednesday night Bible study at a historic African American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Following the shooting, the victim’s family members made national headlines when they faced alleged killer, Dylann Roof, in the courtroom. Instead of hurling justifiable insults on the young man responsible for the hate crime that took the lives of their loved ones, they took a different approach. They forgave him.
In the courtroom, the daughter of 70-year-old victim Ethel Lance said to her mother’s killer, “I will never be able to hold her again. But I forgive you and have mercy on your soul. It hurts me, it hurts a lot of people, but God forgives you and I forgive you.”
Why did the family members’ responses make headline news? Forgiveness of that magnitude is rare. It might even seem inappropriate. Most of us struggle with some degree of unforgiveness. We want mercy for ourselves, and justice for everyone else. But receiving and granting forgiveness is at the core of the gospel message. Jesus taught that there is a direct correlation between having been forgiven by God and extending forgiveness to others.
Matthew 6:14-15 says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Ouch. Well, that’s inconvenient. In this passage, Jesus isn’t referring to initial justification, since Christ followers are forever justified from the moment of salvation (Romans 5:1; 10:10). Instead, this passage refers to the restoration of fellowship with God after it has been hindered by sin. The inconvenient truth is that someone can sin against us and a poor response on our part can hinder our own fellowship with God.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:30-32, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander by put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
It’s unfortunate when someone sins against us. But it’s tragic when our response hinders our relationship with God. I’m not willing to let that happen. I need Jesus too much to forfeit His fellowship over a grudge I’m holding against someone else. When I’m struggling with forgiving someone, I have to remind myself there is a good chance I will never feel like forgiving. Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. I have to rely on the fact that when God calls me to forgive, He will give me the grace to do so.
Jesus chose to go to the cross. He chose to forgive me. I didn’t deserve it, but He did it anyway. That’s the radical nature of the gospel.
