I’ve often been asked if anyone ever needs to forgive God. That language makes me uncomfortable.
Forgiveness is giving up our right for revenge. It’s putting the other into the hands of God. It’s His to avenge. He’s the one to repay. How can we put God in His own hands? How could we ever take revenge against God?
However, forgiveness is also agreeing to live with the consequences of another’s action or inaction. That could mean we may need to forgive God… but the language and sentiment isn’t right.
I’m in debt to Bill Johnson for giving me biblical words to express how we need to relate to God when things happen that just don’t make sense in light of His nature or character.
It comes from what John the Baptist had his disciples ask Jesus, while John sat in prison awaiting his fate.
John the Baptist declared the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, knowing the Anointed One would release the prisoners. But then he sat in prison and doubt started to set in. He sent his disciples to ask his cousin if he had gotten it wrong and Jesus responded:
“Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Luke 7:22-23 (NKJV)
John was sitting where he did not expect, facing something he did not want. We could almost say he had the right to be offended at Jesus.
And Jesus said “happy is the one who is not offended because of Me.”
We don’t need to forgive God. We need to live un-offended with Him. Part of living un-offended at God is agreeing to live without what He withholds.
We’ll discuss how you can agree to live without what God withholds starting in the next post.
I and others have mistakenly fallen for the Satanic trap of viewing God through the lens of our earthly father. In my experience, seeing God as Father requires beating this hangup for many.
Yes, I agree. I’ve written a few thoughts down on this topic on my other blog Drink From the Deep – Do You Ever Wondered What the Father is Really Like?
Many have anger toward God, for not answering prayer, answering it in a way different than “wanted,” for giving them “bad” parents or mate who injured or abused them, who would have made things ‘better’ if He cared, and on and on. While “forgiving God” may seem theologically absurd, coming to terms with Who God is, accepting His omniscience, and accepting that He is Good, we do have to come to a level of acceptance of God as a Father Who is not like quite “all” or “what” we want for ourselves, nor the genie we want Him to be. Until I can accept that it is me who is imperfect and sinful, and whose perceptions are tainted, selfish and self-centered, the process of accepting God may in fact involve a degree of saying “ok, God, You ARE God, You are Good, You do know best, and You do love me beyond understanding and measure, and will never leave or foresake me…. That process requires, in some convoluted, but necessary human way, that I “forgive” God for not being what I wanted before I can truly accept and ‘understand’ Him (let Him be God); saying “ok, You are God, whether I understand it or truly accept that my life and all about me are really “best.” Whether that is really “forgiving” God may be semantically interesting, even if theologically absurd, but whatever I call it, there are areas that to my human rationale and selfishness border on forgiveness nee acceptance of what I can grasp of His character, that I must, to truly internalize His love for me.
Paul, I agree. I’m writing a booklet on hope and how to keep it as our helmet of salvation when our prayers aren’t answered. I’ll put most of those thoughts on this blog in time. The next few posts are going to be on Judging… from my booklet “How to Judge and Not be A Jerk”.
I agree with your post that we dont need to forgive God! spot on. But its being a little theologically correct in an emotional issue. It is like the ‘I don’t believe in God because of suffering,’ it’s never actually a philosophical question its an emotional one.
puppy love is real to the puppy …
In my pastoral experience because it is so crazy to think we need to forgive God we often overlook the fact that SO many christian are upset with Him deep in their heart, due to mis aligned expectation ect.
I would be interested to hear thoughts about how you would help someone overcome their offense towards God even if they cognitively recognize that they dont need to forgive him.
Rob,
We need to choose to live unoffended at God. The difference is huge for me. I can’t accuse God of doing wrong. I can accept I won’t understand. I’ve drawn this out quite a bit in my book Hope in Transition. It comes through in spurts on the posts in this site as well. I may use your question as a blog post soon as I know so many people have the same question.
@Rob…I took some time to more fully answer your question here http://revtrev.com/questions-and-answers/how-to-stop-the-blame-game-with-god/
I’d appreciate your comments on it.
~Trevor