Forgiveness

According to Jeremiah 34:15, the acceptable year of our Lord, the year of Jubilee in which liberty was proclaimed “every man to his neighbor. All debts were forgiven. All land was restored and every one who had been sold into servitude through debt was released. All bondage that held people captive was null and void and people were to be set free. The sad part is that this was the fast that Israel refused to keep.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)

The Lord’s fast is a celebration of freedom in which bonds are loosed, heaven burden lifted and the oppressed go free. Ir is not enough for the bonds to be broken also every yoke must be broken and every means of external control and manipulation must be put away with if we are to celebrate the freedom that Christ brings.

Freedom begins or ends with forgiveness. Without forgiveness there is no freedom. Forgiveness is more than a pardon...true forgiveness is letting the oppressed go free. Forgiveness sets people free from the expectations of the controller's manipulations.

Unforgivers have an acute sense of justices, they feel they have the right to condemn and judge the offender to an eternity in hell fire.

To forgive as Jesus forgives is to let the guilty go free and actively bring them into a relationship with God. forgiveness is not about justice...it is about mercy trumping over judgement and condemnation.

Without forgiving as Jesus forgives you will  not love as Jesus loves.