Category Archives: Forgiveness

‘I’m really sorry’

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[This is a repost of something I wrote in February 2008.  It kept attracting spam comments, so let’s see if re-locating it throws the spammers off the trail.]

Many psychologists emphasise the healing power of forgiveness.  Professor Aaron Lazare, Dean of the University of Massachusetts medical school, however, has written a book called On Apology. As reported at the time in The Independent, 28/12/04, Lazare says that saying sorry has the power ‘to heal humiliations, free the mind from deep-seated guilt, remove the desire for vengeance, and restore broken relationships.…

‘If the church were Christian’ – 3

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By the time we reach chapter three of Philip Gulley’s book If the Church were more Christian, the procedure is becoming rather predictable: tell a story or two illustrating how bad ‘they’ (other Christians) are, and then tell a story or two showing how ‘we’ get it right.  Throw in one or two references to the Bible (don’t take too much trouble about how you select, interpret, or apply them).  Job done.  Next chapter please.…

Seventy times seven – sermon notes

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Matthew 18:21-35

I’ve never yet met a person who didn’t think that forgiveness was a good thing.  Peter certainly thought so.  He just wanted to check what its limits might be.  The rabbis said that one should forgive a person up to three times.  Peter was prepared to more than double the figure: “Up to seven times, Master?”  “Not seven, but seventy times seven,” says Jesus; meaning, of course, one should forgive his brother an unlimited number of times.…

Discussion Starters, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26

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1. Which is more important: physical healing, or the forgiveness of sins?  Why?  And why do you think the two are linked together on this occasion?

2. Surely, healing and forgiveness are good things?  So why do you think the Jewish authorities we so resentful of what Jesus did?

3. In what ways can we follow in Jesus’ footsteps by bringing God’s healing and forgiveness to others?

This entry is part 7 of 29 in the series: Discussion Starters

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Forgiven! – sermon notes

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Text: Psalm 32

Happiness is ‘…an unexpected piece of chocolate’, ‘…Friday’; ‘…being married to your best friend’.

Here is the biblical answer.

1. Problem confronted, 3-5

‘Don’t be negative’.  ‘I know I’m not perfect’.  ‘Don’t go to church to be told I’m a sinner, I go to to be comforted, to be uplifted’.

Synonyms: rebellion, wandering away, twistedness.

How ridiculous to think that we can hide our sin from the all-seeing eye of God.  Yet ever since the days of Adam and Eve people have been trying to do precisely that.…

Forgiveness in the teaching of Jesus

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According to N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God)  “Forgiveness of sins is another way of saying ‘return from exile’”.

‘However,’ (writes Robert Stein) ‘this is at best an overstatement. There is much in the Gospels concerning the great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and receives forgiveness (Luke 15:7, 10). It is difficult to see in Jesus’ forgiving the paralytic’s sins (Mark 2:1–12), in his forgiving of the sinful woman (Luke 7:36–50), in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–10), and in all the accounts of the forgiving of sinners the theme of the return of the nation from exile as being more central than the forgiveness of these individuals.’…

‘Father, forgive them’

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In Lk 23:34, says John Flavel, we find the best of mercies desired for the worst of sinners.

Peter (Acts 3:17) and Paul (1 Cor 2:8) also stress the ignorance of those who crucified the Lord Jesus.  These people may have known many things, but they did not know that this was the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.  This was because

  • though they had the Scriptures, they misunderstood them: they could not believe that the Messiah would arise out of Galilee (Jn 7:52), or that he would die (Jn 12:34; cf.
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Be thankful for great mercies – sermon notes

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As part of my current drive to be less dependent on written notes, this was a largely unscripted sermon which used the following Powerpoint presentation as a basis:-

Psalm 107 v2

There were just a few sections that I did script out more fully, though even these I adapted at the time of delivery:-

SLIDE 7

There are other ways of being

Lost – there is the lostness that comes from simply not knowing the God who made us and to we must give an account

Enslaved – there is the moral slavery that comes when we find ourselves trapped in repeated patterns of unhealthy thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviours and we can find no means of escape

Damaged – there is the damage that comes from a guilty conscience that eats away at us and stunts our spiritual and emotional growth

Storm-tossed – There is the anxiety of feeling that everything has got on top of us and we can see no rhyme nor reason in it

The human condition.…

Celebrating the Cross

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Reflection on the death of Christ and its achievement, so far from being a sombre experience, actually leads to a type and degree of celebration that can be found nowhere else.

For the cross brings us into a new relationship with God.  This relationship is marked by boldness, love and joy.  And these do not belong merely in the interior experience of the individual believers, but are to distinguish our public worship.

As W.M. Clow points out:-

There is no forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, except through the cross of Christ. 

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Quotes on Forgiveness

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Forgiveness has not always been valued. Nietzsche, who denounced Christianity as a religion of pity, saw forgiveness as immoral because it glorifies weakness. Others have regarded it as an insipid response to the complexities of responsibility, power and justice.  The Briefing #202 (May 1998)

Someone has called forgiveness ‘the most healing force in the world.’

’It would tire the hands of an angel to write down all the pardons God bestows upon true penitent believers. (William Bates)

Where we went with our vicious sins, there we must go with our soiled virtues.’ (W.E.…