Lesson 3: Forgiveness in the Bible Story
Having looked at the prominent place of forgiveness in Jesus’ message, we should open up our study to the entire Bible. It, of course, deals with the relationship between God and humanity and, consequently, the way humans relate to each other.
The Bible’s story assumes humans refuse to understand what’s good for them. They reject God’s friendship and guidance and thereby deny reality.
Genesis offers four stories to illustrate this: the Garden of Eden, where they chose to make their own ill-conceived laws; Cain and Abel, where jealousy incites a man to murder his brother; the Tower of Babel, where a community tries to control all others, including God; and the Great Flood, where violence is so prevalent that people are killing anyone who offends them. The Bible describes these as self-destructive and potentially destroying the human race.
From this perspective, the remainder of the Bible is about God rescuing humanity by intervening to bring good from evil and providing laws that enable people to live peacefully with one another. In the New Testament, this is described as God’s love that inspires humanity to live by a golden rule or royal law, enabling them to work together for the common good.
Until the kingdom of God is established, forgiveness is an integral aspect of the divine-human relationship as well as the law and love that emerge from it. Rejection of God involves rejection of the way that leads to the good life. Rescue involves change that overcomes the mistakes of the past.
I am pushing the understanding of forgiveness pretty far, maybe too far, in order to highlight the dangerous conflict taking place in our society. Power politics insist progress calls for everyone working for their own advantage, putting us right back in Genesis’ self-destructive stories.
The entire biblical message directly opposes this me-first, America-first, white-first, male-first approach. It proclaims the need for forgiveness that pardons offenses in order to maintain a relationship so we can work together to build a better future.
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