Unforgiveness Opens the Door to the Demonic
The currency of a pastor is the struggle and study of rightly communicating the Word of God, His truth.
5. Healing does not depend on the offender’s _repentance_.
- Healing doesn’t depend on anyone’s choices, but directly on your _choice_.
- Healing doesn’t depend on your control of what others do or not do, but you can only control how you _respond_.
What if our offender does not repent or ask for forgiveness??
- Forgiveness without repentance is not _biblical_.
Ephesians 4:32
Acts 2:38
Forgiveness without repentance creates a moral _vacuum_.
- No accountability/ no sense of accountability.
- Entitlement
- Therapeutic Amnesia
Pardon & Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation and Restoration. – Jefferis
2 Corinthians 5:18–21 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Said another way: not counting your trespasses against you
Reconciliation means: the restoration of friendly relations. Befriend God!
God has reconciled himself to us… God is not counting any sin. No matter what you have done, God is not counting or holding it against you. With that good news, we can come to God and be reconciled.
1 John 2:2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus’ blood shed upon the mercy seat, God now sees you through that blood of expiation as if you have never sinned and never done anything wrong.
In our legal system, it is like a Presidential pardon. The slate is wiped clean like you never committed the crime. In regards to God, pardon is like you have perfectly obeyed God as if you were Jesus and never sinned.
Parole: a person must be on good behavior and not break any laws or will be thrown back into prison. IOW, a person’s criminal history is held against him, remembered and measured against current conduct. If he fails again, the weight of prior transgressions is fully pressed against him, and he must pay for both current sins and past ones.
Pardon in regards to others: If you forgive the sins of anyone, it is as if they have never sinned against you. But like reconciliation with God, the offender must choose to be reconciled. Just as we ask Jesus to forgive us as we accept his sacrifice, the offender must seek reconciliation by admitting sin and asking forgiveness.
If they have sincerely repented and made amends; if we are holding on to former sins, we are holding these people on parole.
Trust? But with broken relationships in the past, can you immediately and fully trust them? What did Reagan Say? “Trust but verify” 🙂 We need to be assured that their repentance is genuine.
We can give forgiveness without requiring repentance, but reconciliation requires repentance on the part of the offender. Without that, the relationship remains broken, but just like humans who refuse to accept God’s mercy in Jesus, while on God’s part pardon remains, it is not received by the unrepentant. They remain estranged.
I think pardon and forgiveness are two fingers on the same glove. While, reconciliation is dependent on the other person.
Important: God has given us the ability to forgive. But it is a decision and an act of the will. “I forgive you of _____ in Jesus name.” It is not an act of the emotions. It is an act of will not of want. We don’t want to forgive, but when we choose to, God will heal our emotions afterwards. Otherwise, we remain in the emotional, mental and spiritual torment of past trauma. Forgiveness is primarily for us, not for the offender.
Although forgiveness may give them an opportunity to repent. It is hard to repent if someone is always pointing the finger of accusation at you. It puts you into a defensive mode. It appears to you like the door of restoration is closed.
Here’s my thoughts. . . . (Gary)
Any wrongful offenses creates a _moral debt_.
Biblical forgiveness means to release an offender by paying his moral debt.
Matthew 6:12
Only when an offender repents is he pardoned.
Luke 17:3–4
Prodigal Son
Escrow Account
We are not generators of forgiveness, just _distributors_.
1 John 1:9
Love does not forgive the unrepentant but love pursues in hopes of repentance, forgiveness and restoration.
Final Words:
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A Pastor’s Caution/Warning
There is a deep dark connection in the Bible with un-forgiveness and demon activity.
There is a reason Jesus gives the name of Satan, Beelzebub.
“Lord of the flies”