Freely Give

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know I've been thinking about forgiveness off and on for quite a while.  Last week, I came across the paragraph below while reading a blog post on the attack and rape of 150 Congolese women.

For me, this story reminds me of the reconciliation that is taking place in Rwanda following the genocide. If they were to take "an eye for an eye" from every person that took part in the genocide, Rwanda's population would be cut in half...again...and another type of genocide would take place. What they are doing is bringing the people who took part to justice, taking them to court. But they bring in the families of those that the convicted person raped, mutilated and murdered. The convicted person is then forgiven by the people and they must pay their debt to society by helping to rebuild the country, kinda like serving work probation. The kicker? The family must choose to forgive that person or they will feel the full weight of the law and receive the death sentence for their crimes. If our rapist was brought before us - by the Most High Judge - would we choose to forgive and let the Judge handle him or would we want to exact our own revenge?

To me, this is a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us.  We are the killers, the rapists, the ones deserving of death.  And yet God chose to forgive us.  He not only cancelled what we owed, He paid it.  He died the death we should have died, so we would not have to.  And like the song Follow You says, "When I was dead you gave me life...And on the cross your blood was shed, so how could I not give it away so freely?"  In the words of Jesus, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Mt. 10:8).  What amazing grace!  What boundless love!  May I show forgiveness in the same manner in which I have received it.