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Forgiveness and the Gospel · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to another deep dive with reformed thinking.
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It's great to be here. Good to have you with us.
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We've got a stack of notes, articles, research, and we're
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going to dive into it. That's.
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The plan? And today's topic is well, it's
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deeply real, very personal for pretty much everyone.
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We're talking about forgiveness. And we've got source material
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from a listener, actually, which is great.
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Excellent. Yeah.
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And it really centers on understanding forgiveness, but
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specifically through the lens of the gospel.
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OK. So our goal today really is to
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unpack the core ideas from this material, give you a clear
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framework, hopefully a better handle on what biblical
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forgiveness actually looks like. It feels like such a a live
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topic, doesn't it? It really does.
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I mean you don't have to think very hard to recall times you've
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suffered because of someone elses sin against you.
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No, it connects almost immediately.
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Hits home the fact that we even need forgiveness means someone
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got wronged, someone sinned. And someone else is hurting
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because of it. And the material we're looking
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at, it makes it clear right from the start this isn't about
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treating forgiveness like some, you know, simple moral rule.
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You just try harder. At right like just let it go.
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Or yeah, just letting go. It's presented as something
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really fundamental, tied directly to the gospel and
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specifically applying the gospel to your own suffering.
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That's where these sources say you have to begin.
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All right, let's start there then, because the material puts
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a lot of weight on this idea that before you even jump into
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the how to of forgiving others, you need to spend real time
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thinking about what Christ did on the cross for you.
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Yes, that understanding, that focus, it's positioned as the
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absolute first step. It's essential.
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OK, the documents keep pointing to this idea of gazing at the
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cross. Gazing at the cross.
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Yeah, focusing on Christ's work, what he did for you, that's the
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foundation you need. So it's not about willpower,
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just trying harder. No, not at all.
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The idea is you're meant to be moved, you know, at a heart
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level, OK to forgive because of what you see Christ doing for
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you there. And that leads right into this
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core theme that runs through all the material, doesn't it?
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It does that forgiveness involves applying the gospel to
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your suffering. Right, because when we get hurt,
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our default is usually to just zero in on the wrong itself.
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Oh. Totally.
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The unfairness, the pain they cause.
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Exactly. We fixate on that.
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But this gospel centered view, it redirects that focus.
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The first it points you to what Christ has done, and then you
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take that truth and apply it to the pain, the stuff when you're
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actually feeling right now. OK, that makes sense, shifting
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the initial focus. And something that's quite
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striking in the material is how it talks about forgiveness being
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costly. Costly.
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How do they mean? Well, it doesn't come cheap.
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The idea is when you choose to forgive someone, you actually
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absorb the liability, the debt that the other person deserve to
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pay because of their sin against you.
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Wow. OK.
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So you're releasing them from that debt?
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Yes, you release them from the debt of punishment they
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incurred. And this is presented as
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directly mirroring what Christ did on Calvary Ah.
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OK. He absorbed the debt we owed.
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God, precisely our debt for our sins.
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And the material is really clear here.
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The debt doesn't just vanish. Poof, gone.
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Right. It doesn't cost you nothing.
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No, it costs you absorb that cost yourself when you forgive.
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So it's like a transfer then? Almost, in a sense.
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They had this debt, maybe justice, consequences,
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relational, yeah, whatever. And in forgiving you take that
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on, you carry it. That's the idea presented, and
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the sources use a very moving illustration of this, the story
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of John Perkins. He's a well known civil rights
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activist. Yes, I've heard of him.
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His life is used as this really powerful concrete example of
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living about this kind of gospel rooted forgiveness.
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Tell us about him. Well, he grew up in a small
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Mississippi town, had a tough start.
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His mother died young, his father left soon after.
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Wow. He ended up being raised by his
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grandmother in a house that was already full of kids.
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A lot of hardship early on. And then something major
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happened. Yes, a really pivotal, traumatic
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event in the late 1940s. His oldest brother, Clyde, who
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was kind of like a second father to him, you know, after his own
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dad left. Yeah, Clyde got into an
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altercation with a white town Marshall and the Marshall shot
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him twice. Clyde died on the way to the
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hospital. And and John was there.
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He was right there in the car with him when it happened.
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Can you imagine? That's unbelievable trauma.
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Absolutely. And that event, it changed
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everything. His uncles knew immediately John
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was in danger. Danger how?
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The desire for revenge. They knew it could consume him,
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so they sent him away. Away from Mississippi.
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Yeah, to stop him from trying a retribution for Clyde's murder.
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He ended up making his way out to California.
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OK. And his life changed there.
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Completely different turn. He surrendered his life to
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Christ out in California and then later on he felt this
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distinct call from God a real prompting to do what?
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To go back back to Mississippi. Wow, back to where all that
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happened. Exactly.
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And it wasn't just for social justice, although that became
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part of his work. The sources highlight that his
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main drive was to preach the gospel to bring peace.
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What kind of peace? He specifically described it as
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the peace that surpasses all the hate found only in a
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relationship with Jesus Christ. That's powerful.
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So not just societal peace, but something deeper.
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Right rooted in Christ. So he went back.
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To Mississippi, knowing the history.
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Knowing the history back to the place he'd been sent away from
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after his brother's murder, and when he returned, well, he faced
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intense persecution. I can imagine what happened.
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He was wrongfully arrested, thrown in prison and just
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brutally beaten along with some other preachers and civil rights
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workers. How bad were the beating?
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The sources say he was beaten to a bloody pulp within inches of
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his life. Just horrific.
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Unbelievable. And what's even more chilling,
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the guards were apparently afraid the FBI might
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investigate, so they made him, while he had this awful open
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head wound, clean up his own blood from the floor to hide
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what they done. That's just evil.
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It's hard to fathom, and the accounts add another specific
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terrible detail. What was that?
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One of the guards jammed a fork first up his nose, then down his
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throat. Caused lasting damage.
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My goodness, adds torture. It really is.
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So he ends up in the hospital physically fighting for his
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life. But the sources say the internal
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battle, the spiritual 1, was just as fierce.
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He was just consumed by hatred, intense hatred in his heart for
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the white men in Mississippi who had done this to him.
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Understandably so. Absolutely.
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But this is where his story really shows that framework.
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We talked about applying the gospel to suffering.
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OK, what happened in the hospital?
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As he was lying there near death, wrestling with all that
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hate, he said the Spirit of God started working on him.
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An image of Christ on the cross just came into his mind, kind of
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blotting everything else out. Wow.
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And he started meditating on Christ's suffering.
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Seen Parallels. Exactly.
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The arrest, the false accusations, the unfair trial,
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the beating, the crucifixion. It mirrored his own experience
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in many ways. But then his focus shifted to
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Christ's response in the middle of all that suffering.
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What? Specific.
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Jesus's words from the cross. Father, forgive these people,
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for they do not know what they are doing.
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OK, the forgiveness aspect. Yes, he fixed his mind on that
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truth. Jesus's enemies hated him,
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abused him, killed him. But Jesus chose to forgive them,
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right? And as he meditated on that, the
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Spirit kept working in him, He said, Until I could say with
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Jesus, I forgive them too you. Forgave them after.
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All that yeah, it's his testimony and the result, he
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said. God washed my hatred away and
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replaced it with a love for the white man in rural Mississippi.
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That's incredible, a complete change of heart.
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A radical change. And he also mentioned feeling
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this renewed strength, physically and emotionally.
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Yeah, he said he felt strong again, stronger than ever, and
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even added what doesn't destroy me will make me stronger.
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What a testimony. It really is.
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His story is just such a vivid real life picture of applying
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the gospel to suffering as the way to forgiveness.
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It shows it's not just a concept.
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Right. Exactly.
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It shows the gospel can genuinely move someone from
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totally justified hatred to gospel empowered love and
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strength even after enduring the most awful wrongs.
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It wasn't just activism for him, it was fundamentally about that
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peace found only in Christ. Amazing story.
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And this story serves as a great bridge into the next big section
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of the source material, which draws heavily from a pastor and
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author named Milton Vincent. He wrote Gospel Primer.
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Yes, part of it. The sources outline 7 specific
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biblical truths, 7 concepts that you're meant to actively
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meditate on. Or, as Vincent puts it, you
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preach to yourself. Preach to yourself, I like that.
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Yeah, it's presented as the crucial internal work, you know,
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rooted in gospel truth that builds the foundation you need
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to actually forgive outwardly. Right.
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It's that internal process of letting truth change your mind
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so your heart and actions can follow.
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That's it exactly. So the first concept you're
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called to preach to yourself is this.
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Remember that Christ has suffered as I am suffering right
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now and infinitely more so, which means I am never alone in
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any pain I feel. And this.
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Comes from passages like Isaiah 53 and Hebrews 4, correct?
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Isaiah 53.3 to 4 says Jesus bore our griefs and carried our
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sorrows. He didn't just bear our sins, He
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bore our sadness, our pain. He was a man of sorrows,
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acquainted with grief, familiar with.
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Deep pain and the source. Of stress.
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This wasn't some vague abstract suffering for him, no, no, he
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experienced personal painfully. Think about Mark 15.23.
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They offer him wine mixed with myrrh on the cross, which was a.
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Painkiller, yeah. A common one back then, but he
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refused it. The sources suggest he refused
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it because he wanted to feel everything, to experience the
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Father's wrath against sin and all the effects of suffering to
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the absolute fullest extent. Nothing numbed.
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Wow. OK, So what does that mean for
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for you when you're the one hurting?
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It means. Because he went through it
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fully, he knows exactly what you're going through, not just.
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In theory, no. Personally, like Hebrews 4.15
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says, we have a high priest you can sympathize with our
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weaknesses. He suffered with us, tempted in
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every way we are, yet He didn't sin so our.
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Pain. It resonates with him.
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He gets it. He.
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Absolutely gets it. The speaker in the notes uses
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this analogy from his own life. OK, he talks about having severe
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sciatica after a motorcycle accident.
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Before that he could, you know, feel sorry for people with back
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pain he saw at church. Sure.
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Offer sympathy, right? He could say the right words,
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but after he experienced that debilitating, burning sciatic
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pain himself for a year, his understanding completely
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changed. He knew what it felt like.
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He could genuinely sympathize, truly empathize.
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I see it's different when you've been there totally.
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Different. And Christ has been there in our
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suffering perfectly. So when you gaze at the cross,
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yeah, you're not just seeing Jesus dying for sin, you're
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seeing him grieving, bearing your specific griefs, carrying
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your specific sorrows. It makes it personal, reminds
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you you're not alone in it. That's a.
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Powerful perspective shift. OK, what's the second concept?
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The second. One to preach to yourself is
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Remember that sometimes God purposes that those whom He
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loves deeply be painfully sinned against, OK?
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That one sounds tricky, counterintuitive maybe.
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Yeah, it. Can feel that way, but the
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source is written scripture like Acts 2.23 and Acts 4.2728.
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How so? Think.
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About Jesus himself, God's beloved Son.
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Yet Peter in Acts 2 says Jesus was delivered up according to
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the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, so it.
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Wasn't an accident. It wasn't God reacting, no.
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The material makes the point strongly.
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It wasn't God just making the best of a bad situation after
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humans messed up. It was planned.
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It was on his calendar so to speak, that his beloved son
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would suffer like this. OK.
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How does knowing that help when I'm suffering because someone
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sinned against me well. It guards against a couple of
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wrong ideas we often fall into. Like what?
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The idea that if God really loved you, he wouldn't let you
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suffer like this, right? Or the flip side, exactly.
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The idea that if you're suffering and the person who
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wronged you seems fine, then God must not love you as much as he
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loves them. Yeah, those.
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Thoughts can creep in, but the. Cross just blows those ideas up,
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doesn't it? God deeply loved Jesus, his
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perfect Son, and yet Jesus suffered horribly, precisely
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according to God's plan and purpose.
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So. Suffering isn't necessarily a
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sign of God's displeasure or lack of love.
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Not at all. At all the sources mention other
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examples too. Joseph.
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Loved by God, sold into slavery by his brothers, suffered
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unjustly. Daniel.
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In the lion's den, Stephen. The first martyr Peter
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imprisoned, eventually martyred, all loved by God, all suffered
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greatly because of others sin so.
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Looking at the cross, even when I'm suffering, how does that
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change things? The source.
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Puts it beautifully. The black backdrop of your
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suffering leads to the beautiful shining diamond of your
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salvation purchased for you at the cross.
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When you look at the cross, you see God directing things for a
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glorious purpose, not just people acting out of hate.
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It helps you see your suffering not as random or as God
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abandoning you, but possibly as part of his loving plan that
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leads to something good like. Salvation or drawing closer to
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him Exactly. OK, the third concept to preach
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to yourself. Let's hear it.
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Remember. That God the Father can be
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trusted completely when you're on the receiving end of
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wrongdoing, okay. Trusting God with the injustice,
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yes. And Jesus is the ultimate
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example here. Look at first Peter 2, Luke 23.
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What do they show? Despite suffering unjustly,
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bearing unimaginable pain, Jesus continued entrusting himself to
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him who judges justly. He kept.
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Trusting the Father even as things got worse constantly.
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Were as betrayal by Judas, agony in the garden, sham trials,
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mocking, scourging, crucifixion, and finally being forsaken by
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God as He bore our sin. Yet through every single step
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down into that suffering, Jesus kept entrusting Himself and His
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cause to the Father and His. Last words his very.
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Last Words on the Cross Luke 23.46 Father, into your hands I
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commit my spirit, the ultimate. Act of trust, even then, even in
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that. Darkest most forsaken moment.
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So the question is, was the Father worthy of that trust?
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I'm the. Answer Jesus.
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'S entire experience shouts yes, he went through it all died, and
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now he's glorified at the father's right hand.
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He's basically saying to us, I trusted him all the way, even to
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death. You can trust him too, so that.
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Empowers me to trust God when I've been wronged.
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Absolutely. You can entrust the situation,
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the injustice, the pain fully to God, knowing He judges justly
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and knowing. That vengeance belongs to him,
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like Romans 12 says vengeance. Is mine, I will repay, says the
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Lord. Exactly.
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It lifts that heavy burden off your shoulders.
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You don't have to seek personal revenge.
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You can leave it with God. OK, that's.
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Freeing. Now, you mentioned one point
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that might be uncomfortable, yes.
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This is the fourth concept. It's critical, according to the
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sources, but yeah, it can be hard to swallow.
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What is it? Remember that I have committed
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greater sins against God than any person has ever committed
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against me. OK, that one, that one, his
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heart. Especially when you're feeling
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the pain someone else caused it. Really.
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Does, but the sources present this as absolutely crucial for
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understanding forgiveness. I think Matthew 7, Isaiah 53,
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the log in. Your own eye, exactly.
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Jesus, picture your sins against a perfectly holy God are
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presented as this massive, undeniable log compared to.
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The spec in the other persons eye, right?
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Even if that speck caused you real pain.
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We're often really good at listing how others have sinned
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against us, but we desperately need to see the size of our own
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log first. Our own sin before God and
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thinking. About substitutionary atonement
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makes this even clearer. It does.
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It means realizing that I'm the one who deserved the wrath, the
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death that Christ took on the cross.
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My sin put him there like. Peter told the crowds in Acts 2
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their sins crucified Jesus exactly.
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And the sources go D here talking about sin's essence
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being like the murder of Emmanuel, God with us.
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Wow. They quote Spurgeon saying sin
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is basically wanting God gone, wishing he didn't exist,
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rejecting him. So the.
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Cross shows not just Jesus dying, but our own.
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Our own deep seated rebellion against God.
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Yes. Our own self killing through
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sin, our hostility. So why is this hard truth so
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vital for forgiveness? Why the material states it
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bluntly. It's impossible to genuinely
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forgive someone from the heart if you think you're morally
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superior to them. Oh so.
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Minimum minimizing my sin. Minimizes what Jesus died for,
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and it keeps you on a pedestal, looking down, seeing your own
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log, your own desperate need for grace.
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Fosters humility. It levels the playing field.
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OK. I see the connection now.
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It removes that sense of superior which.
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Leads perfectly into the 5th concept.
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This is the glorious flip side after.
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Seeing my sin remember. And rejoice that Christ has
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purchased my forgiveness and justification at the cross.
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This is. The good news meeting, the bad
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news. Ephesians 1.
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Romans 5 exactly. At the cross, Christ did
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everything necessary to secure your total forgiveness and make
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you right with God. Justification and.
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Justification is like a legal declaration, yes.
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That's how the sources a legal declaration by God about your
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standing. It has two parts.
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The negative part, your sins are gone, taken away, forgiven,
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covered by his blood. And the positive Christ's
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perfect righteousness is put onto your account, credited to
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you, imputed so. God sees me not just as not
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guilty, but as. Positively righteous because of
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Christ's righteousness, now counted as yours, if you're in
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Christ by faith, so God. 'S whole disposition towards me
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changes completely. From hostility because of sin to
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the loving acceptance of a Father, all because of Christ's
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work and knowing. That really grasping that what
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does that do the? Sources say it melts our heart
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to a place of delighted obedience.
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Melts. Our heart.
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Yeah, it. Changes forgiveness.
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It's no longer this cold, hard thing you have to do.
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It becomes something you actually want to do.
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Something you see you need to do and you ask God to help you do
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it because. You've received so much
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forgiveness yourself. Precisely.
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They used the story of Cindy here OK her husband Jeremy
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committed adultery caused terrible pain.
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She found the strengths to forgive him not by downplaying
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his sin, but by first grappling with her own sinfulness before
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God seeing. Her own need for grace, yes.
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She realized how vast God's forgiveness towards her was
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through Christ, and she saw that in light of the gospel should
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Jeremy were actually more like than different.
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Both desperately needed Christ's sacrifice, so her.
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Forgiveness flowed from that shared need, not from a place of
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being better than him. Exactly.
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It came from her understanding of justification.
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OK #6 Concept 6. Remember that I am purchased and
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owned by God and therefore I now live to serve His purposes, not
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my own. OK.
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Bought by Christ's blood, First Corinthians 6, Romans 12, right?
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You're not your own, you belong to God.
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And the sources make this interesting point that ownership
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includes debts owed to me. Debts.
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Owed to me how does that work well when someone.
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Wrongs you. It's essentially your boss, God,
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who gets to say how you respond. You're his property, so to
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speak. And God explicitly says
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vengeance is mine. I will repay, so I don't.
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Have the right to take vengeance myself because I belong to him
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and he claims that right that's the.
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Idea It's incredibly fraying, actually.
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You don't have to carry that burden of seeking revenge or
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making things even God says. Leave it to me, I'll handle.
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It the speaker uses a quick anecdote here.
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I got a previous job where his boss just absorbed a big
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financial loss. Someone else caused the feeling
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of relief, you know, being off the hook because the boss took
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responsibility. Ah, OK, a small picture of that
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relief, right? When God takes the burden of
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vengeance for you and this frees you up to live for His glory
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right first. Corinthians 6 says glorify God
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in your body in Romans. 12 Present yourself as a living
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sacrifice your whole life, including how you respond when
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wronged. Is now about his will, his
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purposes, OK. That makes sense.
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One more concept, yes. Number 7 and it brings us back
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to the costliness we started with.
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All right, Remember that fellowship with Christ in his
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suffering brings resurrection life and power, OK?
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Unpack that fellowship and suffering forgiveness.
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Is costly, right? We said.
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You absorb the debt, the liability the other person
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deserves mirroring. Christ absorbing our debt
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exactly. But this costly act, this
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choosing to suffer the loss, this dying to yourself, giving
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up your right to anger, revenge, payment, it's not a dead end.
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It's presented as a pathway to new life.
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Like. Jesus said a grain of wheat has
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to Saul and die to bear much fruit.
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John 12 when you. Lose your life for God's sake by
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forgiving, even when it feels like death, the sources say.
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Fruit arises from places that you've never experienced before.
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So dying to self and forgiveness actually leads to life.
21:27
That's the. Promise, Milton Vincent is
21:29
quoted saying the more you conform to Christ's death by
21:32
dying to self and forgiving, the more you experience freedom from
21:36
sin and taste the very life and the very resurrection power of
21:40
Jesus himself. Wow.
21:42
So it connects you more deeply to Christ's resurrection, Yes.
21:45
And the material assures you God won't leave you just wallowing
21:49
in that debt you absorbed. He won't leave you miserable and
21:52
fruitless. No, He promises to raise you to
21:55
abundant life, suffering for righteousness, dying to self
21:58
through forgiveness. It becomes an entry point into
22:01
union with Christ and life at its fullest.
22:03
That's a. Powerful hope, let's.
22:05
Look back at Cindy's story again.
22:06
Forgiving. Her husband's adultery.
22:08
Incredibly costly for her, absorbing immense pain.
22:12
But that act of dying to self, it led to increased compassion
22:15
in her. It led to real relational
22:17
renewal, like holding. Hands again, yeah.
22:20
Which might seem small to an outsider, but knowing the
22:23
history you see that's real fruit life coming from that
22:27
costly act of forgiveness that dying.
22:30
So these. 7 concepts. Yeah, they form the internal
22:33
gospel groundwork for forgiveness, that's how.
22:36
The material presents it the preaching to yourself that has
22:38
to happen, but the. Sources also mentioned some
22:40
cautions right about the phrase getting to the place of
22:43
forgiveness. Yes.
22:44
Exactly because that phrase, while common, can be misused or
22:48
misunderstood if you disconnect it from these gospel truths.
22:52
OK. So what are the cautions?
22:54
What is in this process about first?
22:56
Caution thinking you need to get to the place is not permission
22:59
to delay forgiving someone until you feel you know good and
23:03
ready. It's not an excuse to put it
23:05
off, no. It shouldn't be used to postpone
23:07
forgiveness until you feel like it or feel you've processed
23:10
enough. The sources point to Mark 11.25.
23:13
Whenever you stand praying, forgive.
23:16
It's presented as a command for immediacy, so doing.
23:19
That gospel thinking, preaching those truths to yourself, that's
23:22
not a waiting game, no. That is the first step of
23:24
forgiveness. It's the first fruits.
23:27
It's actively doing the work that enables the choice.
23:30
It's not a reason to wait, and definitely not a way to, you
23:33
know, hold unforgiveness over someone's head, right?
23:36
OK. Second caution getting.
23:38
To the place is not dictated by your feelings or emotions.
23:42
This seems huge. Our feelings can be so strong
23:45
when we're hurt. They really.
23:46
Can, but the source uses that analogy.
23:50
Emotions are the caboose. They are not the engine, the
23:52
caboose. Not the engine forgiveness.
23:54
Isn't primarily about how you feel right now you're called to
23:58
act based on what your renewed mind knows is true from
24:01
scripture these gospel truths we've talked about, even if
24:04
your. Feelings are screaming the
24:05
opposite even then. Actually acting in obedience
24:08
despite your feelings gives you a chance to see your own
24:11
remaining sinfulness. Those misaligned emotions is.
24:14
God for forgiveness for those. Exactly.
24:16
You choose to forgive based on truth and God's command, not on
24:20
whether you feel like it. Yet that's part of being renewed
24:23
in the spirit of your mind. Like Ephesians 4 talks about
24:26
acting on truth even when feelings lag behind.
24:29
OK. Truth leads, feelings follow.
24:32
Eventually, maybe, hopefully. And the third caution, Yes,
24:36
getting to the place of forgiveness doesn't mean
24:38
forgiveness itself is this slow, gradual process.
24:43
How so? I thought it might take time
24:45
the. Sources caution against thinking
24:47
you just sort of ooze your way into forgiveness over weeks or
24:49
months. Forgiveness itself is described
24:52
as a transaction. A transaction, a specific choice
24:55
made in a moment of time. OK.
24:57
Not a drawn out process, they. Reference Nancy Lee Demos, who
25:02
apparently says if you view forgiveness mainly as a long
25:05
work in progress, yeah, it seldom becomes a work in
25:09
practice. Ouch.
25:11
That's convicting. It is.
25:13
Now the internal journey, you know, coming to terms with it,
25:15
applying the gospel, walking out the consequences that can be
25:18
long and hard, no doubt, right the.
25:20
Processing takes time, but the. Choice to forgive, to release
25:24
the debt, that can happen instantly right now to the level
25:27
of your understanding at that point, the source says.
25:29
And that. Choice frees you it.
25:31
Releases you from the prison of your own unforgiveness and they
25:34
make the point to just forgetting about it isn't the
25:37
same as forgiving it. No, that's.
25:38
Avoidance, not forgiveness, right?
25:40
So those cautions are important guardrails.
25:43
It's not about delay, not about feelings driving the bus.
25:46
And the choice itself is definite OK.
25:49
So let's try and wrap this up. Looking back at the core ideas
25:53
from this deep dive, we've seen that real biblical forgiveness
25:57
isn't just a rule. It's fundamentally about
26:00
applying the gospel Christ's work for you to your own
26:03
suffering. Yes.
26:05
And that involves that crucial internal work, preaching those 7
26:08
truths to yourself about Christ's suffering and sympathy
26:12
God's. Purpose and suffering is
26:14
trustworthiness your own. Sinfulness compared to God's
26:17
holiness. Christ.
26:18
'S purchased forgiveness and justification for you God.
26:21
'S ownership of you, relieving you of vengeance and the.
26:24
Resurrection life found in dying to self through forgiveness.
26:27
Exactly. Meditating on those truths and
26:30
remembering the cautions, right? Don't.
26:32
Delay the choice. Don't wait for feelings.
26:34
Recognize the choice as a transaction and while.
26:36
This path is definitely presented as hard as costly.
26:39
Absorbing that debt, Yeah, the material holds out this clear
26:43
promise of genuine internal change.
26:45
From hate to love. From bitterness to strength,
26:50
producing real spiritual fruit and life in the person who
26:53
forgives it aligns your heart more with God's heart towards
26:57
you. And you mentioned this isn't the
26:59
end of the topic from these sources.
27:01
Oh, definitely. Not.
27:02
They indicate there's more to unpack.
27:04
So what's? Next.
27:05
Well, our next deep dive will build right on this.
27:08
We'll look more closely at the specific biblical commands about
27:11
forgiveness. We'll explore some practical
27:14
summaries found in the sources and tackle some of those common
27:17
tricky questions like is forgiveness always required?
27:21
Are there conditions? Maybe look at different Greek
27:23
words used for forgiveness. See if that sheds light that
27:26
sounds. Really helpful.
27:27
Necessary follow up. Agreed.
27:29
But. For today, maybe we can leave
27:30
our listeners with this thought drawing from the material.
27:34
When you view forgiveness through the lens of Christ's
27:38
incredibly costly sacrifice for your sins, it really changes
27:42
things, doesn't it? It stops feeling like this heavy
27:44
burden, this thing you have to do, and it starts becoming more
27:48
of a response, flowing out of gratitude for God's grace,
27:51
flowing out of a deeper connection with Christ.
27:54
It's. Described as a gateway to
27:56
abundant life, not just an obligation, right?
27:59
So the question to Mull over is how might actively preaching
28:03
these specific gospel truths to yourself change your gut
28:07
reaction? The next time someone hurts you,
28:09
the next time you're sinned against?
28:11
That's a good. Question to sit with something
28:12
to. Think about thanks for joining
28:14
us for this deep dive into the source material today.