Pictures of Forgiveness
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. …Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph 4:30, 32)
The final step of repairing a relationship-injury, according to Ephesians 4:32, is forgiveness: first, kindness, then compassion, then contemplation of God’s forgiveness of us in Christ, then… forgiveness.
What is forgiveness in the Bible?
That’s a really big question! There are so many verses, stories, passages of instruction, related and balancing principles. So let me draw attention to two Psalms that picture, for me, God’s vision for forgiveness.
Picture One: Psalm 103:10-12 and a galaxy far, far, away.
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
God removes our sins from us—He forgives us. But He doesn’t keep them handy; it’s not part of a growing case file, recording our mistakes, but temporarily archived. No, but our sins are removed “as far as the east is from the west.”
How far would you say that is? Like, you and a friend get into two cars and begin driving, one of you east and one of you west. When would you stop and call each other and say, “I’m here!”
God’s vision for forgiveness is that, relationally, those sins are gone. That’s how He treats our sins when we turn to Him for forgiveness. That’s His vision for forgiveness between us too.
Picture Two: Psalm 133, Aaron’s oily beard and a second “Day 7.”
Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.
Psalm 133 layers two pictures. First, it flies us back in time to the day of Aaron’s anointing as high priest over God’s tabernacle (Lev 8). It was on that day that the tabernacle was “officially opened for business!” (Lev 9:23-24) The work of God for which He created the world—that it might be filled with His glory like the waters cover the sea!—which had been derailed by Adam and Eve’s sin, was now back on track.
The second picture in Psalm 133 deepens the first picture. The dew of Hermon, descending upon the land, is a picture of the most gentle and reliable way to bring prosperity to an agricultural society. As the psalm says, “there the LORD commanded the blessing, life forevermore.” It’s a picture of blessing and life. But not just any blessing. It’s a reference back to Genesis 2 and how the Garden of Eden itself was watered with a mist. (Gen 2:6) It pictures a return to the life God meant for us to have with Him in the beginning.
God looks at our forgiveness, given to each other in His Name, as if it were relaunching the hope of Israel all over again—and look, here come the blessings of God, rolling down to bring us life.
Forgiveness is no more the end of the work than Aaron’s job was finished at his ordination or the farmer’s work is over after irrigation. But it’s like that moment in the history of Israel, in the history of the world, most full of promise, most full of hope.
What is forgiveness in the Bible? I think it’s choosing to live on that day, a day of promise, and within that dew, the dew of blessing. I think it’s inviting each other, and stepping together, into freedom, into love, into life.
That’s what’s God forgiveness has done for us, and does. That’s what the Spirit is eager to work in our lives. That’s what we see in Jesus.
Maybe it’s not the end of the story, maybe it’s not the whole story. But it’s the story we long to live in and get to.
Photo by Rui Alves on Unsplash