Forgive Them

Forgive them. One of the hardest things to do is to forgive someone who has done something bad to you. We tell ourselves that we will never be able to forgive that person for the harm they have done to us. We usually harbor that unforgiving spirit for the rest of our lives if the act was bad enough. Not being able to forgive does more damage to us than it usually does to the other person.

Over the next seven days, we are going to look at the last seven sayings of Christ before dying on the Cross of Calvary. This will lead us up to Good Friday and His death. These next posts come from a book by Stu Epperson called “The Last Words of Christ”.

As Jesus was nailed to the Cross and the Cross was dropped into the hole in the ground with a painful jolt, the first thing on the mind of the Savior was forgiveness. He goes to the Father in prayer, not for Himself, but for others; for you and me. I can’t imagine the pain that He was in as He hung there, but what is even more unimaginable is that He would ask for forgiveness for those that had put Him there.

He wasn’t just asking God to forgive the people immediately responsible for doing this, He was asking for forgiveness for the sins of every man and woman that He was representing by dying on that Cross. He was paying for the sins of the entire human population, from Adam through those that have not even been born yet as of today. He was our substitute.

The first saying of Christ while He was dying on the Cross was a saying that was wrapped up in a prayer, “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” - Luke 23:34. If He could forgive us while dying in our place for sins He did not commit, shouldn’t we also have a forgiving spirit and forgive others that have sinned against us. We are never more like our Savior than when we forgive others.

Have a great day and God bless.