The author G. K. Chesterton identified one of the reasons why Christianity is not more popular. He wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” You would think that Christianity would be irresistible, with its emphasis on love, mercy and the promise of eternal life. Yet these gifts of God, which are freely given, have only a small value in themselves. To give them their full value requires us to do something ourselves. 

First, one must acknowledge that God’s gifts are not in proportion to what we deserve. We are creatures of sin and, as such, in debt to God and our neighbor. While it’s easy to convince yourself that you lead a sinless life - in fact, I knew someone who said exactly that - sadly, it’s never true. We are often better at counting the sins of others than our own. God, of course, counts them all; if he were to show you a complete list of your sins, you would likely die of shock.

The act that we share with God - the one thing that will bring forth the full value of God’s gifts to us - is the act of forgiveness. By the grace of God, our sins are forgiven. However, the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that forgiveness works in more than one direction. In fact, forgiveness is like an entry in a ledger. The first entry is “Forgive us our debts.” (Matthew 6:12) That’s a request we make to God, our merciful Father in heaven. To sin is to do wrong, to bear false witness, to hurt another - the ten commandments provide a simple summary of what we owe to God and our neighbor. 

The second entry in the ledger is “as we have also forgiven our debtors.” If God has forgiven your sins, you must now forgive those who have sinned against you. This is the “difficult” part that Chesterton identified. God knows when you have been hurt by another; how much of a struggle it is to forgive them. And yet, without forgiveness, there is no proper healing, because the hurt remains locked into your heart. Forgiving others opens your heart to God’s mercy, and allows his healing power to mend your broken and sometimes resentful heart.

It can be a painful process, like pulling out a tooth that is decaying. However, once the tooth is out, there is no longer the gnawing ache. So it is with forgiveness - once you are able to forgive another person, the person and the sin itself no longer has the same power over you.

In the gospels, forgiveness is a way of life. In an exchange between Peter and Jesus, Peter attempts to display his piety by asking if he needs to forgive another person as much as seven times. Jesus replies, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

None of this can be achieved without God’s intervention. The process begins with the confidence of faith: that is, with believing that God’s willingness to forgive your sins is genuine. Next comes the hard part: can I be as generous as God in forgiving? This is the other side of the ledger. If you ask God, he will give you the strength to forgive others. That will enable you to restore the balance in your own life, unburdened by your own sins and the sins of others. 

Father David