All of us struggle when other people show us their “humanity”. When someone messes up or does something to hurt us, we can be quick to judge, move into condemnation, and cancel them. But as Christ followers, we are called to a different way. Tucked in the middle of Colossians 3, Paul gives us a series of commands that run counter to our old “go to” in relating to people who blow it.

In every movie about forgiveness that I have seen, at some point in the storyline, the main character struggling with forgiving reaches a crisis point. Standing at the end of a dock or in the woods or alone in a room, they scream in desperation, “I don’t know how to forgive!”, or something to that effect. The scene shifts to one in which the character, having forgiven, is now at peace. What we don’t see is HOW he forgave. Specifically, what did he do? The how is important. Wanting to forgive is not the same as choosing to forgive.

What moved me that day was the reminder that the fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins is true for everyone, not just me and you. “Lose all THEIR guilty stains.” Could it be that if we, as the redeemed, celebrated the power of the Gospel to cleanse sin in other people’s lives as much as we do our own, the world would change?

When we embrace the goodness of God combined with the Sovereignty of God, we will never be undone by anything God permits. This belief is especially important when we are wounded. So often when someone does something that offends us, the hurt steals our focus and dominates our thoughts. The more we dwell on it, the bigger the issue becomes until it becomes all consuming.

In one night, we found complete and total healing of our marriage through forgiveness. I was able to not only forgive my husband, but also my friend, as well as several other things that had left me a wounded person. My husband was able to forgive himself as well as several things from his past which had led him to that behavior. In just a few hours we felt like we were given the other half of our salvation! We learned that forgiveness was not just something to accept, but something to allow to flow through us to others, even the ones who hurt us the deepest.

There are certain abiding principles that we must continually reaffirm in our daily lives, particularly at the dawn of a new year. One of those key principles is Abiding: staying constantly connected and desperately dependent on Jesus. Abiding in Christ is recognizing that we bring nothing to the table except our nothing and our faith.

Jesus came to us, sent by His Father, because we couldn’t get to Him. Unredeemed mankind is incapable of living righteous enough to settle their sin debt or conquer their sin nature. We could never defeat sin... ever! So, He came to live among us so that, through His death and resurrection, He might come to live in us. The way He lived among us is how we live His Life in us… constantly connected to and desperately dependent on Him as we wait for Him to come again.

One of the primary misconceptions about forgiveness is that we need to wait for the offending party to repent before we forgive. Conventional wisdom says, “The person who hurt me will have to admit that what they did was wrong before I will consider whether or not to forgive them.” In other words, I don’t have to decide to forgive until they choose to repent. Yet, the way of Jesus was never conventional. Jesus predetermined that He would forgive us.

Jesus never let the offense determine whether or not He would forgive someone. No one ever comes to Jesus in repentance and is told, “I don’t think we covered that!” Why? Because Jesus loves people more than He hates their sin and He hates sin so much that He died on the Cross to pay for their sin. There is no sin so great, so bad, or so heinous that Jesus’ blood does not cover it.

We met Marike Veldman in Jerusalem in March 2017! Her story is a powerful one of choosing to believe God's promises and forgive in the midst of a crisis!

I love the fact that the Bible is alive, that you can know a passage well and still continually learn deep truths from it. That happened to me recently with Isaiah 55. I was reading Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund. In this intriguing book, the author helps us consider more deeply what Scripture reveals to us about Jesus’ heart, who really is at His core the Son of God, based on what Jesus said about Himself in Matthew 11:28-30.

Victor Marx hosts Bruce Wayne Hebel, author of Forgiving Forward: Unleashing the Forgiveness Revolution. Bruce shares his deliverance from torment due to unforgiveness over “horrific wounds” suffered at a church he pastored. He and his wife now help others get free through his book and “Forgiving Forward” course. If you’re experiencing issues with anxiety, depression, addiction or anger — or know someone who is — unforgiveness may be at the root, so be sure to tune in!

Brad and Molly came to us in crisis. Three weeks earlier Molly had discovered Brad’s pornography addiction and his multiple affairs, including Molly’s best friend, Brad’s best friend’s wife and prostitutes. She was shocked. A couple of days after the initial confrontation, Brad picked up his Bible. As he began to read something inside him broke. For two hours he tearfully read the Bible and, for the first time, understood the grace of God and the forgiveness provided for him through the blood of the cross. He was dramatically transformed. Heart cleansed. Desires changed.

The blood of Jesus covers all sins including the ones committed against me and true forgiveness is applying the blood of Jesus as payment in full for every wound I ever have or will suffer. Oftentimes we get confused because we categorize offenses. It's a business offense. It's a personal offense. It's a family offense. It's a neighborhood offense. So we've got clusters of categories of offenses, but really offenses are offenses!

The key is not our activity, the key is our focus. Andrew Murray said, “When Christ becomes our focus, everything changes.” By focusing on the presence of Jesus, our lives begin to reflect our new and true identity as He lives out in us what He had made us to be. We no longer work for God, God works through us. (Philippians 2:13) This may or may not change our activity level, but it will, however, change our effectiveness and stress level. Taylor later wrote to his sister, “As to work – mine was never so plentiful, so responsible or so difficult, but the weight and strain are all gone.”

When we are faced with sorrow, grief, uncertainty, suffering, and pain, the way to respond that is most fitting for a disciple of Jesus is to surrender to His will and to die to ours. Jesus is showing us how to agree to His plan and give up ours. When I yield and pray, “Father, glorify Your name in and through me in this situation. Reveal Yourself. Lord let me see You.” I experience peace amidst the sorrow. I find myself filled with strength and hope knowing that God will glorify Himself in my life.

God is constantly challenging me in my areas of unbelief. That’s how we grow: by faith we grow in faith! “…for in it (the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith the faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous man shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17). When we put our trust in Jesus by believing that His death and resurrection covered our sin and restored us to life with God, we are secure in Him. As we walk with Him, our faith is constantly growing as we learn to know Him more intimately. Our faith deepens as He transforms our minds, sometimes with a Gibbs Slap, to conform us into His mind and His image.

The good news of Easter is this: Jesus died when His blood flowed out of Him on the Cross. When we put our faith in Him, His blood pours out over us, washing away our sin. As His blood flows through us, we are empowered to live His life. There truly is transforming power in the blood of Jesus!