Introduction: Forgiveness is Important

1. The Introduction

2. A culture without forgiveness

3. Why forgiveness came to us in the form of a man.

4. Finally, why do we need to forgive?

I know I wrote this part of forgiveness prior, I've added to it, and want this to be an introduction piece to what looks like a three-part blog on this topic.

When it comes to forgiving someone, it's important to remember that forgiveness is not a natural inclination for our flesh. You might find this hard to believe, but that’s why it often feels so unnatural. Forgiveness is a complex topic. Initially, I thought it would be simple, but I quickly learned that it is anything but that. It became clear to me that God was laughing at my assumption. As I guide you through the Bible, you will understand why.

I would be remiss if I didn’t explain why we struggle with forgiveness. Our true nature tends to lean toward revenge rather than forgiveness. It takes a sincere desire for God to ask the difficult questions about this, and I commend those who are willing to explore this topic.

I want to illustrate the point where forgiveness was meant to begin, as outlined in the teachings of the Bible, but unfortunately, that intention did not materialize. Instead of moving toward forgiveness, we often encounter reactions and consequences that may shock you. Understanding this divergence is crucial, as it reveals deeper insights into human nature and the struggles, we face in truly extending and receiving grace.

Genesis 4:3-8

In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,  and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.  The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?  if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

Cain spoke to Abel, his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

See here, God was showing what envy does to a person if they do not see it for what it is and repent of it, then ask for forgiveness. See, this jealous act was shown to Cain, but he paid no attention to it. This gave root to sin, and now the sin is born.

Let us go to Genesis 4:13

Genesis 4:13

Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Where forgiveness should have taken root, pride and self-preservation took over. Cain’s tragedy is not just that he committed the first murder, but that when confronted by a merciful Creator, he chose to mourn his lost comfort rather than his lost brother. This is where we are as a people, and it is truly sad.

Romans 5:10

 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Jesus stands as the supreme embodiment of divine forgiveness, illustrating to us the profound depths of mercy and grace. By sharing this fundamental truth, I could indeed conclude my message right here, as it encapsulates the essence of understanding forgiveness and the compelling reason behind it. The crux of this reason lies in the fact that God first extended His forgiveness to each one of us, despite our shortcomings and offenses against Him. It is through this act of unconditional love that He was able to offer us the promise of eternal life. This was made possible only through the sacrificial gift of His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. In such an act, we see both the cost of forgiveness and the boundless love that fuels it.

Mark 11:25

"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."

Matthew 6:14-15

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I want to begin by posing a crucial question to everyone reading this blog. Do you genuinely believe that you can be forgiven if you, yourself, cannot see it right to forgive others? This journey of forgiveness must begin from within. We must cultivate a deep love for ourselves that allows us to let go of the burdens we carry, like offenses against, resentment, envy, and pride; these are things we must release ourselves from. When we seek forgiveness from others, it is equally important that we extend that grace to others as well. Only then can we embark on a path of healing and transformation.

Acts 3:19

19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 

To have a forgiving heart, you must repent daily of all your transgressions to our Lord and Savior. See, without a repentant heart, you cannot easily forgive others for the bad they’ve done to you. 

Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, overlooking the sin of the few remaining for his inheritance? He doesn't hold on to his anger forever; he delights in faithful love. 19 He will once again have compassion on us; he will tread down our iniquities. You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Wow, how awesome is our God! This is where I believe the song comes from. Though we deserved death, He forgives us and casts our sins into the depths of the sea, where He remembers them no more. What a powerful picture of God’s mercy, grace, and unconditional love toward us.

One of the first problems with the way we forgive is that we often think forgiveness means saying the words while still holding on to the memory, the pain, and the offense. But here, God’s Word challenges that way of thinking. It shows us that true forgiveness is not just about what we say with our mouths, but about what we release from our hearts. If we continue to cling to what someone did, constantly replaying it in our minds and allowing it to shape how we see that person, then we have not fully forgiven.

God gives us the perfect example. He does not hold our sins over our heads once He has forgiven us. He removes them, covers us with grace, and no longer deals with us according to our failures. In the same way, complete forgiveness requires us to let go of the offenses that have contributed to brokenness in our walk with our Lord and Savior. It is not always easy, and it often takes prayer, humility, and the help of the Holy Spirit, but it is necessary for healing, freedom, and restoration.

To completely forgive, we must surrender the hurt, release the bitterness, and trust God with the justice we cannot carry ourselves. Only then can our hearts be made whole, and only then can we walk in the same mercy that God has so freely shown to us.

Isaiah 43:25

"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

Think of it this way: depending on the type of wrongdoing a person has committed against you, forgiveness can be very difficult. Sometimes the pain runs so deep that it feels impossible to let it go. You may want to forgive, but the hurt keeps resurfacing in your heart and mind. That is why, to forgive completely, you have to release that pain and give it to God, because you cannot do it on your own. Human strength is limited, but God is able to help you let go of what has wounded you so deeply. 

But most importantly, look at what God says in Isaiah 43:25: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” That is key. If God sees it as important to completely blot out the offenses committed against Him, how much more should we understand the importance of true forgiveness in our own lives? God, in His mercy, chooses not to hold our sins against us. He gives us the perfect example of what it means to forgive fully and not continue revisiting the offense.

How many of you know that God has to, in a sense, put our sins away from His remembrance? That is why we need to go to Him with our pain, our bitterness, and our unforgiveness, and release it all into His hands. When we surrender those hurts to Him, He is able to take what is heavy in our hearts, blot it out, and cast it into the depths of the sea. What we cannot carry well, God can handle completely.

We must understand why we need to forgive completely. As I went through the biblical context of this, God showed me how painful and destructive it can be to hold on to offenses, wrongdoing, and deep hurts. When those things are not released to God, they can create openings in a person’s life for spiritual bondage, emotional brokenness, bitterness, anger, and other strongholds to take root. Unforgiveness does not stay isolated in one area of the heart; it can spread into other parts of a person’s life and influence thoughts, choices, relationships, and identity.

For example, a young woman may be deeply hurt and rejected by a man. In her pain, she may make inner vows, saying she will never trust a man again or never allow herself to be vulnerable in that way. Without realizing it, those wounded declarations can begin shaping her decisions and emotions. If that pain is not healed and surrendered to God, the enemy may try to use that broken place to lead her further away from God’s design and purpose for her life. Many people may think these kinds of outcomes are far-fetched, but the reality is that unresolved pain can lead people down paths they never expected. This is why healing, deliverance, and complete forgiveness are so important.

My young brothers and sisters, this is why we must be careful not to let hurt remain buried in our hearts. We cannot ignore it, hide it, or pretend it is not there. We must bring it before God honestly, allow Him to heal us, and ask Him to teach us to forgive as He forgives. Complete forgiveness does not mean pretending the offense did not happen, nor does it mean the pain was not real. It means choosing to surrender the right to hold on to that offense and trusting God to deal with it rightly.

This is what God modeled for us to follow, and we are called to do the same. God sent His Son to be the perfect example of how we are to live and act toward one another. Through Jesus, we see mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness on full display. If we are truly following Christ, then we must also pursue the kind of forgiveness that frees our hearts, honors God, and allows His healing power to work in us completely.

Matthew 18:21-22 21

Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? 22Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

God was making a statement here, but we should not mistake what is being said as only a direct law without also seeking spiritual understanding. This is where discernment becomes necessary. Not everything in God’s Word is meant to be understood in a merely black-and-white way, because many things are spiritual in nature. That is why we need God to guide us through the process of understanding, healing, and obedience.

To truly understand why God calls us to forgive one another, we must first recognize the depth of His forgiveness toward us. God calls us to humble ourselves, to forgive others, and even to stop condemning ourselves for what He has already covered by His grace. We must remember that He forgave us first. Because of that, we are able to extend forgiveness to our brothers and sisters. On our own, we are not naturally capable of that kind of forgiveness. In truth, without God, we struggle to forgive at all in the way He intends.

When we continue holding on to something after saying we have forgiven someone, it does not produce healing. True forgiveness cannot work fully while resentment is still being fed in the heart. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that, according to the Word of God, forgiveness is also for our own good. Holding on to what should have been released only deepens the pain, burdens the heart, and keeps the one who refuses to let go in bondage.

Please understand that when God speaks about forgiveness in the Bible, He is speaking to those who belong to Him and are willing to walk in obedience. We need to understand that the world does not fully understand biblical forgiveness or the spiritual cost that can come with it. The world often sees forgiveness as weakness, excusing wrong, or pretending pain does not exist. But God’s kind of forgiveness is deeper than that. It is an act of faith, surrender, healing, and trust in His justice.

Forgiveness does not always mean the pain disappears immediately, nor does it mean what happened was acceptable. It means we choose to release the offense to God rather than let it continue poisoning our hearts. It means we allow God to deal with what we cannot fix on our own. It is a process, and sometimes that process takes time, prayer, and continual surrender.

Even so, God is with you through every step of that journey. He is with you when you feel weak, when you feel wounded, when you feel confused, and even when you are at the lowest point in your life. He does not abandon you in the middle of your struggle. He remains near, ready to strengthen you, teach you, and carry you into the healing and freedom that only He can give.

Psalm 34:18 

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” –

While you are broken, God can use you even more deeply, because in your weakness, you are more likely to call upon Him and surrender your heart fully. It is often in those painful and fragile moments that you become open to His mercy, His healing, and His transforming grace. In that place of humility, you begin to experience the beauty of His presence and the power of His love. There, in the middle of your brokenness, you can enter into the glory of God and witness how He restores, strengthens, and draws you closer to Him.

James 5:16 16.

Be confessing to one another the trespasses, and be praying for one another, that ye may be healed; very strong is a working supplication of a righteous man; 

Colossians 3:13 

bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Rom 12:19

Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

Is Real Forgiveness Humanly Possible?

It has been said, "To err is human, to forgive divine." There is a truth in this. 

Luke 7:49 

And those reclining with Him began to say within themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

Matthew 18:21-22 21

Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? 22Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

Isaiah 43:25 25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, overlooking the sin of the few remaining for his inheritance? He doesn't hold on to his anger forever; he delights in faithful love. 19 He will once again have compassion on us; he will tread down our iniquities. You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Acts 3:19

19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Mark 11:25

"And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins

" Matthew 6:14-15

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Romans 5:10

10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

So I ended with this set of verses because we will be using these and more in the coming parts of this blog.

As always, may the Lord richly bless all the comes through my site. In Jesus name, Amen.

Peace & Shalom to all.