Revelation of God as Forgiving (Lent 35, 2023)

Most of us know the famous quote attributed to Alexander Pope,
“To err is human, to forgive is divine”.

As He hung on the Cross, Jesus—the Very Image of God being crucified for us—displayed not just His humanity but also His full divinity. Reaching out to the Father in a prayer, Jesus cried out loud, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Focus for Lent: If God’s perfect revelation of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ is any indication, being forgiving is an aspect of the Image of God.

Questions for further thought:

Back in Exodus 33, God states that He will proclaim His Name to Moses.

Exodus 33:19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion…Exodus 34: 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

In the attributes of God, we see His Image. Forgiving is there, balanced with justice. Why is forgiveness alone less than God’s Image? What would it say about God’s holiness if blanket forgiveness stood alone? If God gave a pass on sin?

As Image-bearers should we be any less forgiving than the One whose Image we bear?

How does trust in God allow us to forgive with the assurance He will not leave the guilty and those who harm us unpunished?

Prayer: Father, thank You that You are a forgiving God. I ask, Lord, that You would help me to be more forgiving because we’re supposed to forgive others as we have been forgiven. It can be hard, Lord, for us to look outside ourselves and remember that at the end of the day, You will always be faithful, and that vengeance is Yours. As we continue in Holy Week, may we remember what Jesus endured and His heart of forgiveness. Even being in agony and dying, He forgave. Lord, the heart of forgiveness You have for Your Image-bearers is beyond our fathoming, that kind love that would save us though it cost the crucifixion of Your One and Only Son. Oh, Lord, that His life would be the price He would pay for our redemption, we humble ourselves and fall upon Your mercy. Thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ! We glorify His holy Name. Amen.

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Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.