Sunday, August 13, 2006

Kelly Clarkson's Bad Theology of Forgiveness

A couple of things struck me about today's lesson on forgiveness. First, I seemed to see many people in the class connected with the lesson. I guess as we experience more hurts as we go through life, we have many more opportunities to forgive and a deeper need to forgive. Watching the pain register on people's faces was sad and a little hard for me. I wondered what the stories of hurt were that many of us had been through.

Second, I walk away from the lesson pondering the supernatural-ness of forgiveness. Again, my legalism is exposed. I want to be able to forgive in my own strength--I want to find the formula, do it, and move on. Now, thanks to your input, I realize that I can't truly forgive apart from the grace of God. True, Biblical forgiveness is probably beyond me. Perhaps another way to look at it might be, "How is forgiveness possible only when we rest in and feed on Christ?" As some of you pointed out, he forgave deeply and completely. I know that we can trust him to work the same forgiveness in us as we draw near to him.

1 comment:

Lee said...

Don't miss Doug's comment to the previous post on forgiveness.