E-note 12/4: Forgiveness

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In my reading this week I came across this gem of wisdom from Norwegian pastor and Lutheran brother, O. Hallesby (now deceased). His comments spring from Galatians 3:3, the apostle Paul's timeless question for all who profess faith in Christ: After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Galatians 3:3). Here is O. Hallesby:

We all need this question. There are many Christians who began promisingly, but who have little by little sunk down into a weak, soft, cowardly, and bungling life, with the result that their Christianity is only a shadow, yes, a caricature of what it at one time was. Permit me to mention one of the most important causes of this degeneration of the Christian life. We sin in our daily affairs. It may be that we have a violent temper or that we are peevish, untruthful, or frivolous. Father, mother, spouse, brothers and sisters, children or servants see it. Here is where many Christians have lost their boldness, both before God and people. They do not give up Christianity. That they cannot do. But they become defeated warriors. Unhappy and unmanly or unwomanly. With the pressure of a bad conscience to contend with continually. The wounds of the soul will not heal. True, they confess their sins to God and try to comfort their restless soul with the grace of God. But peace and joy will not return.

The simple and absolutely unfailing remedy for this cancer of the Christian life is this: Pray for forgiveness! I mean ask the people for forgiveness who have witnessed your failures. Tell them that you did not act like a Christian. Tell them how it hurts you. And you will experience the releasing effect of such confession. The fact that it is exceedingly hard for all of us to ask for forgiveness shows how sin has ravaged our lives. We instinctively seem to think that we lose something essential if we ask for forgiveness. Pray God for courage to do this, and you will see how you will succeed in your whole Christian life.

So ends O. Hallesby's wisdom. So begins my self-preserving resistance to the work of the Spirit. I am amazed by how quickly and easily my mind slips into a state of protracted deliberation after reading Hallesby's counsel. I get tangled in questions of propriety: should I ask for forgiveness for that particular thought, for that particular unnoticed negligence, for that arguably justifiable anger, for that obviously small sarcasm or boorishness? But all such hedging is conceit. All such hedging testifies to my looking away from the cross of Calvary where I was crucified with Christ. All such hedging and hiding exposes me as a man who seeks to establish his righteousness by some other way than the way of Christ crucified. To be led by the Spirit is to be lead to the cross, where my right-ness has been gifted to me by Jesus himself. To be led by the Spirit is to be led into relationships where I don't have to establish my right-ness by hiding and hedging my failures. Right-ness is a gift from Christ crucified.

O Lord, save us from the decay of soul and body, the decay of heart and home, the decay of family and friends, that comes from striving to establish our right-ness before one another. We can not do without one another's forgiveness because we can not do without yours. Thank you loving Lord for giving it so abundantly. Amen.