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Dealing with Guilt 3 - Does forgiveness work? ...

Wednesday, Oct 14, 2009. There is one key operation to get rid of guilt. It is called forgiveness. Forgiveness is an event. It is something which happens. I forgive someone some particular guilt. I forgive him all his guilt. That means that I regard his guilt not to be active any more. I do not consider it to be between us. It is not an obstacle any more to our relationship. If something is completely forgiven, we might even forget it. It seems to be no longer there, its importance is so small as if it had never been there.

The cross where Jesus died is the symbol which God chose to express his forgiveness. He chose the symbol for many reasons. It is a cruel symbol, it mirrors the cruelty of the guilt. It mirrors our ignorance, since this Jesus was a deeply loved and innocent human, but the people did not care. Jesus hat to bear the guilt of the people who put him to the cross - in a very practical way, they killed him. But in a miraculous way God takes this act as his centre point for universal forgiveness.

Does forgiveness work? Is the forgiveness which is expressed in the cross something which has power? Is it something which makes a difference? The cross is first between God and myself. It talks about my guilt before God and men. In his solidarity with this creation all guilt towards men is also guilt towards God. If I loose the purpose of my life, if I lack compassion and love, if I do many things which are not good … all that is guilt where God clearly sees and knows me being completely lost. But he does not want me to be lost. He wants me to be found. At the cross I can give him my guilt. At the cross I can become a new creation, someone who is connected to his love and forgiveness. The interesting thing is that this really works. It is a deep reality. It is not just words. It is power. It is fact.

You can know something, but not really believe it. Someone says that he likes you or that he admires you. But you do not really believe. His words seem to be empty words - you might have heard him saying similar things to other people. But when you believe you start to open your heart for the other person and for the facts. We can discover God's unbelievable love. He opened a door with the cross to take away all the guilt. This is a powerful reality. In Christ we can approach the unapproachable.

Forgiveness opens a door into a new future. It starts with God and me, but it will then grow and will include all relations to other humans which I have. The forgiveness of Christ will lead to forgiveness for other people. His power is just too large to stay contained just within me. His love is too large not to flow over and touch everything which is connected to it. When I become a part of his forgiveness and his love, my relation to my environment will change. Forgiveness works! [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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jn_en_2009_10_14.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1