Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness
- Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God. We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway. We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway. As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others. In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Today we
get the opportunity to complete what we began yesterday. Yesterday we spoke about Solomon’s wife and
her desire to be forgiven. Today we get
to see that forgiveness enacted.
Here’s
the cool thing. You’ll notice that when
Solomon gets a chance to describe his love for his wife that his love is
largely unchanged from his wedding day.
That might not sound like a big deal, but think about it. His wife has created an emotional barrier
between herself and him. His wife has
emotionally turned him aside. The
natural response to this would be for Solomon to build a barrier of his own and
shut out his wife. But that is not his
response. His response is to say that
his love for her is unchanged. She may
have put up a barrier, but he will not retaliate in kind.
That’s forgiveness. In fact, I find it a brilliant example of the
forgiveness that God gives to us. We put
up all kinds of barriers against God as we seek to do our will and not His
will. How does God respond to us? He loves us all the same. He sends His Son to us to die for our
sake. He sends His Spirit to dwell
within us. That’s forgiveness.
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