In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us. –Eph. 1:7

Like most mothers, I think my children are “the world’s greatest, bestest, most well-behaved, precious, loving, and all things good in the earth” children in the whole wide world.  Even still, because nobody’s perfect (ha!), I had to try to teach each of them a very important lesson around relationships, trust, offenses, and forgiveness.  See, I believe that the art of forgiveness is a value that can be taught.  When it is based on the scriptures, it makes it easier to learn, especially when we are a family of believers.  Nevertheless, there is a vital difference between us and God.  While God’s word teaches us that God will forgive us when we repent and ask for it, humans are not always that easily receptive to an apology.  So I wanted my children to understand this difference when it comes to human relationships.  Once you offend a person, all you can do is try to make reparations and ask them to forgive you.  You can’t make them forgive you.  While I also teach them that it is right for us to forgive, we all have a free will.  You can’t make people forgive you and you can’t make them reconcile.  It is in these moments when people can begin to seriously consider the high cost of forgiveness. 

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 6:23

Forgiveness is essentially covering someone else’s debt.  Forgiveness is not making an excuse for the offense or pretending it didn’t happen.  Our all-knowing, all-seeing God doesn’t do that either.  God made a way for our sins to be forgiven.  God made a way for our sins to be covered by the blood of Jesus!  Man broke God’s heart when we chose to sin against him, and his forgiveness definitely came at a high cost!  It cost Jesus Christ his life!

When we think about our sin, and how God sent his only Son to be the sacrifice to make a way for us to be forgiven, it is very important that we think long and hard about it.  Around Easter, we are able to take the time to think about the agonizingly cruel death Jesus suffered on the cross.  Most of the time, though, we tend to gloss over it without dwelling on how awfully gruesome crucifixion actually was.  And Jesus was innocent.  That makes it worse, doesn’t it?  Yes, forgiveness comes at a high cost!

Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

–Luke 11:4

Praise God for his Son, Jesus Christ!  I am so grateful that God is not like us humans!  I praise God because of his lovingkindness and his grace and his mercy!  God sent his Son to save us from our sins, and it comes at a high cost.  Remember that.