Forgiving Challenge: The 11-Day Life-Changing Journey to FreedomSample

Day 7: What Does Living Absolved Mean for Us?

Yesterday, you read about what absolution is. But what does it look like, practically, to live every day like your debt has been covered?

Jesus used a parable (a story meant to illustrate a central point) that we are reading in our Bible plan today. It's from Matthew 18:21-35, and Jesus is trying to help His disciples understand how to live after receiving this pardon.

The parable begins with the disciple Peter asking how many times he, or anyone, should have to forgive someone else. The Jewish law at that time inferred that three was an acceptable amount. But Jesus takes it way beyond three. He says that we are to forgive not just once, twice, or thrice, but instead 77 times (some translations say seventy times seven). But, the point Jesus is making, whether it's 77 or 70x7, is that forgiving others is just something that those who have been forgiven by God do. There aren't limits.

Jesus expressed that an inability to forgive others means you don't understand how much you have been forgiven. When you know how much God has done for you, you would have no issue forgiving others, as hard, challenging, demanding, and complex it might be. A forgiven person is a forgiven person. This is what absolution looks like. Once your debt has been wiped clean, you then go pay the debt of others.

After Peter's three denials, Jesus asked him three times if he loved Him. That was completely intentional. Just as Peter denied Jesus three times by a charcoal fire leading up to His crucifixion, Jesus now recreated a new charcoal fire in John 21 and absolved him of all three sins. There was no mystery there; Peter knew what Jesus was doing. When Jesus called Peter to feed His lambs, what Peter heard was, "your sin doesn't disqualify you from a life of service to me." What music to Peter's ears!!!

We no longer have to run around trying to even up scores in our lives because we have more than enough room to absorb the debt of others.

Living absolved means giving up all your rights to get even.

We can let it go, seven times, seventy times, even 777 times. After all, who's counting?

Challenge: Practice absolving someone today. This might be just a quiet moment in your heart where you just decide to let things go. (This might even be yourself.) However, if you feel led, talk to someone face-to-face. Give up your right to make things even, but instead, let God have the last say in the matter.