Forgiveness is a wonderful thing... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2023

You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness
Nehemiah 9:17.

Forgiveness is a wonderful thing. It means being free of guilt: it gives relief and peace. This is the case in personal relationships between people, when one has become guilty and the other forgives. It is all the more so in our relationship with God.

Forgiveness presumes that the guilty party recognises and confesses his guilt. That is where the problem often begins.

A boy, who had committed an offence, once came to his father and asked, “Papa, will you forgive what I have done?” The father replied, “What then?” The boy repeated, “What I have done.” But the father insisted, “If I am to forgive you anything, then I must know what.” Then the boy understood that he had to make a clear admission. There was no other way.

Similarly, we must acknowledge and confess our guilt before God, so that we can obtain forgiveness.

Some raise the objection that the Christian faith imposes a guilt complex on people, simply because it is often a question of sin and guilt. Actually, the opposite is true: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ frees us from guilt and any suppressed consciousness of sin, for God is a “God ready to pardon”.

Whoever has obtained forgiveness through faith in the redemptive work of Christ at the cross of Calvary knows the wonderful feeling of liberation that is expressed in these words: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Today’s reading: Zephaniah 1:1-18 · Mark 10:32-45