Forgiveness: The Path to Peace

I can't help but feel the weight of all the tensions in the world right now. COVID. Race. Politics. Religion. Sexuality. These are all dividing issues. Polarizing is perhaps not a strong enough word in some situations. I can't help but feel afraid, afraid of the way these issues are tearing apart the social fabric of this "one nation under God," afraid of the carnage that these issues leave behind, afraid that myself or my family might be targeted, afraid that nothing and no one can ever solve these problems.

Then I feel afraid that I will contribute to the problem. What if I unknowingly get COVID and unwillingly contribute to its spread? What if I say that wrong thing at the wrong time?. What if I vote for a person who ends up doing bad things? What if what I say or do is unintentionally offensive? What if there is some photo somewhere, or something I have written that gets taken the wrong way? It seems like there are so many "unforgiveable" sins right now, sins that I could never atone for, no matter what penance I pay. And if there is no forgiveness, there is no hope.

But then I remember the cross. The cross is the great equalizer. The cross demonstrate that anyone and anything can be forgiven. The cross means that there is hope! "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility " (Eph 2:14-15). Should I intentionally abuse the cross by purposefully sinning? As the Apostle Paul writes, "By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" (Rom 6:2).  Should I fail to repent when unintentional sin is brought to my attention? No. In the Old Testament, sacrifices for unintentional sin still had to be made (Lev 4). But Jesus is the great and perfect sacrifice. He died "once for all" (Rom 6:10). Praise Him!

And what about those who have wronged us? Is the price Jesus paid on the cross sufficient for that, too? I know this is a touchy subject, but friends, if Jesus' perfect death wasn't sufficient to pay for and forgive all sin, nothing ever will be. We can repent and atone and plead and placate all we want and nothing will ever reconcile us to each other, or our nation to itself.

Pay attention to the issues at hand, friends. Act as the Holy Spirit leads. But please don't permanently live in guilt, fear, hopelessness, or shame. Christ died to forgive, to give us new starts, over and over again. Can we pass that forgiveness along, at least a little bit, to ourselves, and to others? Forgiveness, Christ's forgiveness, is the only true path to peace.

(With thanks to our local church body and other churches for their resources reminding me of the sufficiency of the cross. Please contact me directly if you would like access.)