Grace and Forgiveness

Romans 6:15-18 (NIV)

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
 
     I have talked to so many people who think that to forgive someone is to allow them to continue in their behavior. This faulty belief system has stopped so many from forgiving.  It's really sad.  To forgive does not mean you can't walk away. 
     An abusive husband, parent, a friend who continually lies, a thief, no matter how you have been wronged and how many times you forgive you do not have to allow the person to stay in your life.  Grace, mercy and forgiveness are not a license to keep on sinning.  One verse really caught my attention.

Psalm 84:11

 

¹¹ For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk along his paths.

 

     He who walks along the Lord's path, not his own.  The Lord wants us to forgive and give grace and mercy, but he does not want us to be abused.  We are to forgive 7 times 70 but as C.S. Lewis says, we don't put the child molester back in the classroom. 

     God sometimes will have us speak into another's life, and continue in a friendship to speak that truth, but I believe He does not ask us to tolerate abuse and lies.  If your husband is cheating and has promised to change 100 times and failed, God says you can go.  If your friend lies to you regularly, God doesn't expect you to believe them, just because He asked you to forgive them.  Go!

     A person who is truly pursuing God, truly trying to walk the narrow path can be set free from addiction and bad behavior, but if they say, "Don't judge me.  Give me grace."  Do it and walk away.  A person who cannot see that they are doing wrong and hurting others will demand grace, but grace is a free gift given, so if a person is demanding it from you, then it's not really a gift anymore is it?  Give it to them anyway and walk away.  Go!

    

“...here also forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. (This doesn't mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart - every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.)”
― C.S. Lewis, Fern Seed And Elephants