Forgiveness on Clearance

"I forgive you."

I love hearing my daughters saying those words. Sometimes they have to struggle to break free through tears and gritted teeth. Sometimes they expire on the tip of the tongue. But every time those three words escape into the room, even the foulest air is drenched with the mercy and justice of Jesus.

But what does justice have to do with forgiveness? Isn't forgiveness choosing mercy over justice--choosing releasing over seething and grace over getting even? Yes and no. This is the half truth of forgiveness that is preached so earnestly in pulpits sacred and secular around the world. But it's that missing half of forgiveness--the justice half--that makes the release of forgiveness so much more exhilarating and so much more desirous than hatred that we ought to fight for its recovery.

To begin to forgive a person that has done me wrong, pre-planned or otherwise, only one thing is needed. Blood. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness."

For every hate-filled word lobbed in your direction--there's power in the blood.
For every fit of jealous rage.
For consecutive moments of thoughtless neglect.
For grinding criticism and stubborn refusal to affirm and appreciate.
For violent and manipulative abuse.
For unlove.
There's power in the blood.

I'm not good enough to follow the example of Jesus who said, "Father forgive." But I'm rational enough to delight in the fact that every sin, open or hidden, active or passive, intentional or not, will receive its due--either on the mount of Calvary or in the pit of Hell. Not a single sin will evaporate into the ether of religious sentimentality.

May we all today find that power to believe that forgiving my enemies, my tormentors, is actually a rational act. A just act. An act that brings glory to the One whose blood was shed abroad for my forgiveness.