The Results of Forgiveness
By Woodrow Kroll
When I practice forgiveness, what can I expect to see happen in my life? One of the realities of life is that we get hurt or wronged by other people and we do our fair share of injury and injustice to them in return. You probably don't have to think too far back to recall an incident where you either needed to forgive or to seek forgiveness.
This is an issue that's critical to our spiritual success since an unforgiving or unrepentant spirit can get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. We're currently looking at what the Bible tells us about forgiveness, and today we want to take a closer look at the fruits or benefits of being a person who both offers and seeks forgiveness when it's appropriate.
Today is the proverbial bottom line, Don. What are the results of forgiveness? If everything goes the way the Bible describes, friends, what should we expect? What are the benefits of seeking or granting forgiveness? What lies ahead for the forgiver and for the person who's been forgiven?
Now, have you ever had to go to someone and ask forgiveness? How did it feel before you went? It's pretty scary, wasn't it? But how did you feel after you returned? Much better, right? Ah, indeed that's true. But being forgiven is more than feeling good. You see, the fruit of forgiveness--it's kind of like going to a Hawaiian luau. The banquet table is full. Let's see what the Bible has to say are the results of forgiveness--when you take care of forgiving someone else or when you go to someone that you have wronged and ask them to forgive you. What benefits can both of you see? What are the seven fruits of forgiveness?
Number 1. One of the great fruits of being forgiven is reconciliation.
You know, you have become estranged from someone, perhaps someone who's very dear to you. But seeking and granting forgiveness--when you do that--you can be reconciled with that person whether it's your spouse, or your son or your daughter, or a neighbor, a brother, a sister.
You see, to be reconciled means to be at peace with someone. It's signing a peace treaty. But that's not enough--only forgiveness heals a wounded relationship. Do you remember Jesus' words in Matthew 18:15? "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother." Now think about that statement for a moment.
If your brother hears you--that is, if he recognizes his sin and repents--you have been reconciled with your brother. You have gained your brother. But does that mean you have lost a brother if no reconciliation takes place? Well, it probably does. Oh, he still may be your brother, but he will be a stranger to you until peace replaces hostility.
And just as you've been reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ, you and I need to be reconciled to those people from whom we've become estranged. When you make peace, you make it through forgiveness. One of the great fruits of forgiveness is being reconciled to one another. Ah, friends, it's worth the effort. The fruit of forgiveness is reconciliation.
Now here's the second fruit of forgiveness--it's the right relationship with the Lord.
You and I seek that kind of relationship all the time, and often I have people write to me here and say, "How can I have a right relationship with God?" Well, when our relationship to others is out of whack, friends, our relationship to God is also out of whack. John alludes to this problem in his first epistle. He says, 1 John, chapter 4, verse 20, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"
Now that's a pretty good question, isn't it? And basically what that question means is this--that if our relationship with our brother, our relationship with our spouse, our relationship with our kids or our parents, if our relationship with somebody at church is not what it ought to be, then automatically, friends, our relationship with God is not what it ought to be. You see, getting into a right relationship with others may be the fruit of a right relationship with God, but frequently the street runs the other direction. We have to make right our relationship with others in order to be in a right relationship with God. And that means seeking or granting forgiveness. A right relationship with God is one of the seven fruits of forgiveness. I hope it's one of the fruits in your life.
Well, let's go on and see another one. For me, one of the excellent benefits of forgiveness, I find in my prayer life.
You know, Jesus teaches us a very valuable lesson about this in Mark, chapter 11. Right after that great passage about having faith to move mountains, Jesus says, "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses." That's verse 25.
Now, did you see the relationship there? If you are praying, He says, "Stop. Seek or grant forgiveness first, whichever the case is necessary for you and then come back to your praying." Do you know why He says that? Why is it important that you or I seek or grant forgiveness before we pray? The answer, friends, is so that God will hear our prayers. There's just something about that faulty relationship with other people that sets up a roadblock to our prayer life.
Are you getting through to God today? Do you ever have a difficult time getting answers from God? You know, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that your relationship to other people is what's causing a faulty relationship in your prayer life. Harboring an unforgiving spirit or not asking someone to forgive us, that's sin, friend. And the Bible reminds us, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear [me]," Psalm 66, verse 18.
Now, if you're having a good prayer life--if things are going very well between you and God, you have a great talk with Him several times a day--the chances are pretty good that you also have a good relationship with other people around you. One of the fruits of forgiveness is an excellent and a vibrant prayer life.
Now what I do in my prayer life is this, I say, "Lord, how am I doing? Am I getting through to You? Are You responding to me?" I take a little prayer check every now and then and if it doesn't seem like things are working the way they ought to, you know the first place I look? I look to my relationship to God and then immediately after that, I look to my relationship with other people. Am I harboring an unforgiving spirit toward someone? Did somebody hurt me in some way and I say, "Well, I'm not going to deal with that person." Did they say something about me that I resented and I failed to forgive them? You see, friends, there are so many things that you and I can do that set up these roadblocks that keep us from getting through to God.
Today we're thinking about the benefits of forgiveness--the results of forgiveness, the fruits of forgiveness. And one of those, obviously, one of the fruits of forgiveness is reconciliation. And another is our relationship with the Lord is right. But a third one is our prayer life is right as well. If you're not getting through to God, think about whether or not there is something between you and a brother, or a sister, or a friend.
Now another fruit of forgiveness is the removal of bitterness. Let's think about that for a few minutes.
There's an undeniable link, I think, between a bitter spirit and a spirit of unforgiveness. And the more bitter the person becomes, the less likely they are to forgive. Haven't you noticed that in people? Maybe, unfortunately, you've even noticed it in yourself. Listen to this, these are the words of the apostle Paul. He said, "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you." Now that's Ephesians, chapter 4, verses 30, 31 and 32.
Did you notice the contrast there? I mean it is absolutely evident. In one verse, he says to put away bitterness; he says to put away wrath and anger, all those things that eat away at our spirit. And in the very next verse, he says to be kind to one another, to be tenderhearted toward your friends, tenderhearted toward your parents, forgiving one another. You see, the first is juxtaposed to the second. The first is diametrically opposed to the second. If you have the first, my friend, you won't have the second. If you practice the second, there won't be any room for the first. You see, bitterness and forgiveness are mutually exclusive.
Ah, but listen--there's good news. If you truly forgive, you have rooted out the root of bitterness. You see, it's an easy thing to say, "I want to forgive my friends," and not forgive them because we're so bitter toward them. It's a very easy thing for you to say, "I'd like to forgive parents who treated me badly," but I'm so bitter toward them I can't forgive. You see, one of the things that you and I have to do in our lives if we want to enjoy the fruit of forgiveness is we have to root out bitterness from our lives. We have to stop being bitter toward those who have hurt us.
You know, that's not easy. And I can hear you now, saying, "Boy, I'd like to do that, but how do I do it?" Well, listen to the Bible again. Ephesians, chapter 4, "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."
Now to be put away simply means you discard it. You cut it off. You don't feed it anymore. The things that are feeding your bitterness, you stop those things. The thoughts that feed your bitterness--keep those thoughts from your minds. Cut them out. Do you know how to cut them out? You do the opposite thing. Here it is. "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you."
If you truly forgive, my friend, you have rooted out that root of bitterness and your relationship with God and all those around you will take a dramatic upturn. Remember it this way--the fruit of forgiveness is always better than the root of bitterness.
If you have someone today toward whom your feelings are absolutely bitter--maybe somebody who has hurt you deeply; a friend who betrayed a confidence; a friend who treated you shabbily; a parent who abused you as a child; a brother who just never got it, he just never appreciated you--if you're still living in bitterness toward any of those people, if you haven't been able to bring yourself to cancel their debt (that's what forgiveness means) then you're robbing yourself of the fruit of forgiveness. And one of the fruits of forgiveness is removing the bitterness in your life.
Now today, we're looking at the fruits of forgiving--the benefits of forgiveness. We've seen, thus far, four of them. Let's look at another. Number 5. Another fruit of being forgiven just could be revival in your life--both personal revival and corporate revival.
You see, folks, when we're reconciled to someone we've wronged, following hard on the heels of that reconciliation is revival--it's getting right with God and, subsequently, getting right with people. D. L. Moody, the great American preacher, once said it this way, he said, "The one sin that is doing more to hold back the power of God in revival than any other is an unforgiving spirit." And you know what? He may be right.
There are some people that pray every day for revival and they hold a grudge against somebody that hurt them at the same time. Friends, those are counter-productive activities. Satan knows that it's the little foxes that spoil the vines. Sometimes great movements of God at a local assembly, a great revival at a local church may be thwarted simply by two people who are unforgiving toward each other.
In fact, isn't that exactly what Paul addressed in the disagreement between Euodia, and Syntyche in Philippians, chapter 4? Revival in that church was just too important to let two unforgiving women spoil it for everyone. Listen my friend, when we forgive one another in the same way that God forgave us, it will not BRING revival in the church--it will BE revival in the church. And one of the great fruits of forgiveness is the fruit of revival.
Well, we're looking at seven such fruits of forgiveness today. Number 6 is this--a great reason for forgiving one another is to ensure that God has forgiven us.
Remember Jesus' words in the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chapter 6? "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Now that either means forgive us in the same way we forgive others, or it means forgive us to the same extent that we forgive others. Now, to tell you the truth, either way I'm not sure I'm happy about that, are you? Either way, if we are not going to forgive, we are not forgiven. If it means forgive us to the same extent that we forgive others, do you want that to be God's criterion for forgiving you--the same extent that you forgive others? Or if it means to receive God's forgiveness in the same way that I forgive somebody else--I'm not sure I want that to be the criterion either.
But that's what the Bible says. Jesus continued immediately after that prayer, and He said, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." And then this warning--"But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Folks, that's pretty plain, isn't it? Those are pretty stern words from the Lord. They indicate that one of the fruits of forgiveness is to know that we have been forgiven by God. And all of that in itself, that's enough to make us want to be forgiving.
We've been considering today the seven fruits of forgiveness. Now we've come to the last. Maybe I've saved the best for the last. The seventh benefit of forgiving or seeking forgiveness is to have a clear conscience.
Now having a clear conscience is something that a lot of us wish we had--isn't that true? Having a clear conscience is not an easy thing, but it is a necessary thing. Christianity is a religion of the conscience, friends. It's more than an adherence to external rules. It is the heart that is in tune with God. And once we're convicted of wrong, we're going to be absolutely miserable until we make that wrong right.
Haven't you found that true in your own life? The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is going to see to it that we are miserable once we know we have done wrong until we make the wrong right. That's what the convicting power of the Spirit is all about in the believer. Titus, chapter 1, verse 15 refers to a defiled conscience. When we are unforgiving, that's the kind of conscience we have. But 1 Peter 3:16 and 1 Timothy 1:5 speak of a good conscience.
Now be honest with me, which would you rather have? A defiled conscience--one that's soiled because you've been unforgiving--or a good conscience--one that's been cleaned because you have been forgiving? There's an old proverb that says, "A good conscience is a soft pillow." And wasn't it the actor, Eddie Cantor that said, "A sleeping pill will never take the place of a clear conscience"? The people in Hollywood ought to know that. Would you prefer a conscience that thumped like a sore thumb all the time or would you prefer a conscience that was soothed, a conscience that was freed from pain, a conscience freed from distress?
You know, you can have this last kind of conscience, but only when you are free from offense to God and to others. And to be free from offense to God and others, you have to be both forgiven and forgiving. And that my friends, that is why being forgiven is so important. The fruits of forgiveness are worth cultivating. And they're worth hanging on to once you have them in your grasp.
Being a forgiven Christian today is being a forgiving Christian. Wouldn't it be grand to be able to stand up today, free from bitterness, free from a grudge, free from long-standing hatred? You can, if you seek forgiveness from God by confessing your sin to Him and then seek forgiveness from someone else that you've wronged, or grant forgiveness to someone who's wronged you. That, my friend, that is the benefit, the fruit of forgiveness. And it's a benefit that is certainly worth the effort. Why don't you try it and see.
By Woodrow Kroll
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