Grace - Forgiveness Must Extend Potential Friendship

Let's look at the love of Christ:

"Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."  Isaiah 53:1-6 (NASB)

Interesting, that as Christians, we rejoice in Christ's total forgiveness of our sins, past, present, and future--and not only that, but also His complete payment for all guilt, shame, and condemnation, and yet...and yet, we hold grudges against each other, often for years, refusing not only to be reconciled to each other, but also refusing forgiveness that would lead to another chance to someone who has offended us (reconcile:  to conciliate anew; to call back into union and friendship the affections which have been alienated; to restore to friendship or favor after estrangement; as, to reconcile men or parties that have been at variance.  "Go your way; first be reconciled to your brother" - Matt. 5. ~ Webster's 1828 Dictionary).

No wonder the whole world thinks most of the church hypocrites.   We, as a whole, have held onto the sins of others and have missed the whole point of forgiveness:  not to say that we're righteousness in the whole matter, but rather to bring about reconciliation:  the restoration of friendship.  How arrogant of us to think we're in the right because we merely forgave someone.  How sad that we prefer to eat our own cake while starving others around us.  This is most certainly not the love Christ wants to live out through us.  True forgiveness extends the merciful offer of restored friendship.

The world tells us to protect ourselves, but the world doesn't look to Christ.  I agree that there needs to be wisdom and caution in dealing with someone who has hurt you, but the world would have us look after our own interests primarily.  Let's not forget that God offered forgiveness and reconciliation to the world in Christ before any of us repented.  We despised Him; we rejected Him; and we offended Him.  And yet, on His part, the potential for our friendship with Him exists.  It should be the same with us toward others.  To refuse reconciliation to someone who has repented is bad enough, but our heart toward such an offender should be that we have done everything to restore a person to friendship with us--even if he doesn't repent.  If Christ's type of love exists in our hearts, so also the potential for friendship must exist.  We cannot deny freedom to our captives while enjoying the freedom that God has given us.

I just wish we could experience a love such as this within ourselves--the God-type of love of a loving Father who desires all to be saved and brought into His family.  Forgiveness must extend potential friendship.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy