Comments on: Forgiveness is Never Free http://www.cloften.com/?p=1105 He'd rather be funny than good! Fri, 29 Jan 2016 20:05:26 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Beverly Stringfellow http://www.cloften.com/?p=1105&cpage=1#comment-663 Beverly Stringfellow Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:53:26 +0000 http://www.cloften.com/?p=1105#comment-663 thank you Charlie and Peter for your words on forgiveness. I am in a life long relationship that calls for forgiveness on almost every encounter. I plan on reading these books. thank you Charlie and Peter for your words on forgiveness. I am in a life long relationship that calls for forgiveness on almost every encounter. I plan on reading these books.

]]> By: Peter Freund http://www.cloften.com/?p=1105&cpage=1#comment-662 Peter Freund Thu, 30 Sep 2010 17:09:06 +0000 http://www.cloften.com/?p=1105#comment-662 These points are so good, I hate to add anything. But, there is another issue that is important to tack on: whether forgiveness is conditional or unconditional. I've been really helped by a book I read a while back called "Unpacking Forgiveness..." by Chris Brauns. He helpfully makes a distinction between what many Christians believe to be forgiveness and what is true, Biblical forgiveness. Therapeutic forgiveness - we forgive the other person unconditionally and experience that inward benefit of letting the offense go. We simply let it go in our mind/heart. Biblical forgiveness - something that involves more than just an internal aspect. It requires an offer of forgiveness first but requires repentance by the one being forgiven, and finally of reconciliation. The emotional relief comes by laying the offer of forgiveness on the table, even if the other person doesn't accept it. You brought this out in your sermon implicitly when you mentioned how your friend did not simply forgive you at an emotional level, but actually reached out to you to be friends again. There's much more in Brauns' book on conditional vs. unconditional forgiveness. But, here's an interesting quote by Piper: "...I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4 'Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying 'I repent,' forgive him. So there's a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance... when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do him good; but cannot carry through reconciliation or intimacy." I think a danger of merely forgiveness "on the inside" (therapeutic) is that the only good that comes from it is a psychological well being whereas the fuller view with both internal and external aspects restores the relationship and the two individuals involved. If God forgave us unconditionally, then universalism would be true and all are saved whether they are Christians or not. These points are so good, I hate to add anything. But, there is another issue that is important to tack on: whether forgiveness is conditional or unconditional. I’ve been really helped by a book I read a while back called “Unpacking Forgiveness…” by Chris Brauns. He helpfully makes a distinction between what many Christians believe to be forgiveness and what is true, Biblical forgiveness.

Therapeutic forgiveness – we forgive the other person unconditionally and experience that inward benefit of letting the offense go. We simply let it go in our mind/heart.

Biblical forgiveness – something that involves more than just an internal aspect. It requires an offer of forgiveness first but requires repentance by the one being forgiven, and finally of reconciliation. The emotional relief comes by laying the offer of forgiveness on the table, even if the other person doesn’t accept it.

You brought this out in your sermon implicitly when you mentioned how your friend did not simply forgive you at an emotional level, but actually reached out to you to be friends again.

There’s much more in Brauns’ book on conditional vs. unconditional forgiveness. But, here’s an interesting quote by Piper:

“…I am not sure that in the Bible the term forgiveness is ever applied to an unrepentant person. Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4 ‘Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying ‘I repent,’ forgive him. So there’s a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance… when a person who wronged us does not repent with contrition and conversion (turning from sin to righteousness), he cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do him good; but cannot carry
through reconciliation or intimacy.”

I think a danger of merely forgiveness “on the inside” (therapeutic) is that the only good that comes from it is a psychological well being whereas the fuller view with both internal and external aspects restores the relationship and the two individuals involved. If God forgave us unconditionally, then universalism would be true and all are saved whether they are Christians or not.

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