Lesson 19: God’s Power Accomplishes Three Amazing Things – God Redeems Us and Forgives Our Sin

“I can’t! I just can’t see her again!” You have just learnt that an old colleague will be present at a Christmas event. It feels like a truckload of boulders have landed in your heart by just thinking about this person and how they took the promotion that you had worked for years to earn. You cry out to God: ‘Lord, you can’t expect me to forgive her for what she did! I can’t give her grace for something that hurt me so badly”.

But now, you know the truth that holding unforgiveness harms your own heart and more importantly that the cure is the cross of Christ. Christ was betrayed, abandoned, and abused, and yet He spoke forgiveness to those who were mistreating Him.

When dealing with the pain of your past, you know you look to our Savior on the cross and receive the grace you need to forgive those who have harmed you. You know that you were taken advantage of by your work colleague, then you remember that Christ was, in one sense of the term, also "taken advantage of" on the cross; He purposely laid down His life for you on the cross, so you ask Him to help you lay down your life for others (1 John 3:16). And as you look to Jesus and receive His mercy, love, and grace in abundance, your heart is comforted because you know you are loved by God. You know that we are working for our Lord and not for man (Colossians 3:23-24). You didn’t deserve God’s grace when God saved you, as He died for you “while I was still a sinner” (Rom. 5:8). You feel the enabling grace of God for forgiveness soften your heart causing you to respond to Jesus. You know that your work colleague may not deserve a response of grace, but the Jesus who was crucified on the cross for you does.