Supernatural VS Natural Forgiveness
There is something about stories of forgiveness that strike a chord in our hearts. Didier's story is one like this.
Didier, from Columbia, was eleven years old when his mother was shot dead in a hail of bullets as he watched helplessly. He grew up full of hatred, turning to a life of crime, drugs and alcohol to mask his pain. For years, Didier plotted his revenge, stockpiling weapons so he could confront his mother’s killer. Until one day, when a Christian befriended him. Didier soon found forgiveness for himself and realised that the hatred and desire for revenge he had held in his heart all those years had been destroying him.
Didier searched for the man who killed his mother because he had heard that he was facing hardship. In Didier’s words, “I wanted to give him my forgiveness and try to help him.” When Didier eventually found his mother’s murderer, he said: “I know you killed my mother, but I forgive you.” The man broke down in tears.
“I know you killed my mother, but I forgive you.”
Jesus also illustrated the way God forgives, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, directly contrasting God's approach with legalistic religion. In this beautiful parable, we see God’s true nature and his feeling towards us. We also learn how we are to treat those who have hurt us. There is a big difference between the way God forgives and the way the world and self-righteous religion does. Natural self-righteousness looks for opportunities to be offended. The ‘other’ brother, who had remained at home never rejoiced at his lost brother’s return. Instead, he became angry. In spite of the father’s pleadings, he carried on in self-righteous indignation about how he’d been badly done by in comparison to his brother.
‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ Luke 15:29-30 ESV
People operating in natural human forgiveness will want to weigh up how they have been treated and will consider whether the other person ‘deserves’ forgiveness. The God-kind of divine forgiveness, on the other hand, will seek out opportunities to forgive, regardless of how deserving the offender is. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the father saw his son from a distance and ran to him’. Not only that, the father ‘pleaded’ with his older son. (Luke 15:20, 28)
Self-righteousness will demand some payment or justice before it offers any forgiveness. You will often hear people say things along the lines of, “I’ll forgive them if they ….” or “I won’t forgive them until they … “ This is not real forgiveness but works pretending to be grace. Supernatural forgiveness is given when the offender cannot repay, emotionally or financially (Matt 18:27).
The God-kind of divine forgiveness looks for an opportunity to show mercy. The prodigal’s father placed no conditions on his forgiveness. In fact, he didn’t even say, “I forgive you”, he simply restored his son. Imagine if, instead of saying “I forgive you”, which can highlight the offence, we exuberantly demonstrated forgiveness.
Self-righteous forgiveness is all about the giver. The older son’s issues were all about how it impacted him: “I have served you,… I have never neglected you,… I have never had a goat,… I haven’t celebrated!’ On the other hand, the God kind of forgiveness is about the need of the offender. The prodigal’s father saw him, felt compassion for him, ran and embraced him, kissed him, clothed him, gave him a ring and fed him. True supernatural forgiveness is about releasing the offender from their offence. It doesn’t measure their worth or their ability to give back. It looks for the opportunity to show mercy.
This is how God loves us and this is how we are to love others.
