Finding Forgiveness: Discovering the Healing Power of the Gospel

By Stanley D. Gale

If you are a Christian, you have personally experienced the joy of sins forgiven and reconciliation with God. Forgiveness, writes Stanley Gale, “is a divine accomplishment to be savored and offered to others.” Forgiveness is the most basic of Christian graces, yet the topic raises many questions, including these:

Is it biblical to “forgive and forget”?
Why do we need to confess our sins if they are already forgiven?
How do we actually go about forgiving someone?
Does the Bible give a place to forgiving ourselves?
What does life look like after forgiveness?

In Finding Forgiveness , you will discover practical answers to these questions and many others. With pastoral warmth, the author will help you see how the awe of the gospel dawns anew for those who apply forgiveness and experience the healing of a burdened spirit or broken relationship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
• Release date: Nov 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781601785039

Book preview

FINDING

FORGIVENESS

Discovering the Healing Power of the Gospel

STANLEY D. GALE

Reformation Heritage Books

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Finding Forgiveness

© 2016 by Stanley D. Gale

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Direct your requests to the publisher at the following addresses:

Reformation Heritage Books

2965 Leonard St. NE

Grand Rapids, MI 49525

616–977–0889 / Fax [phone]

[e-mail]

www.heritagebooks.org

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

16 17 18 19 20 21/10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gale, Stanley D., 1953- author.

Title: Finding forgiveness : discovering the healing power of the gospel / Stanley D. Gale.

Other titles: Why must we forgive?

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Reformation Heritage Books, 2016. | Expanded edition of author’s Why must we forgive? c2015. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016042358 (print) | LCCN 2016041433 (ebook) | ISBN 9781601785039 (epub) | ISBN 9781601785022 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Forgivenes—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Forgiveness of sin.

Classification: LCC BV4647.F55 (print) | LCC BV4647.F55 G25 2016 (ebook) | DDC 241/.4—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016042358

References to people and circumstances are drawn from an amalgamation of pastoral experience and imagination and do not refer to any actual persons or situations.

For additional Reformed literature, request a free book list from Reformation Heritage Books at the above regular or e-mail address.

To my church family for over twenty-eight years,

The Reformed Presbyterian Church of West Chester, Pennsylvania

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Forgiveness and the Gospel

2. Forgiveness as Kingdom Currency

3. Practicing Forgiveness

4. Authentic Forgiveness

5. What about Forgiving Ourselves?

INTRODUCTION

It was the blank pages that did it. That was the impetus for the book you hold in your hand. In 2015 Reformation Heritage Books published a booklet I wrote on the topic of forgiveness as part of their Cultivating Biblical Godliness series. It was titled Why Must We Forgive? and briefly dealt with some of the fundamentals of forgiveness, that most basic of Christian graces.

The gospel is conspicuous in power and glory through the practice of forgiveness. Relationships are healed and community strengthened. The grace of forgiveness bears witness to the gospel, and the hope for a better world shines forth. Forgiveness displays the glory of a reconciling God and gives teeth to the angelic announcement: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men! (Luke 2:14).

This is the picture I painted in Why Must We Forgive? The booklet covered a good deal of ground, albeit in generally broad strokes because of the brevity of the treatment. I remember first holding the bound, finished product in my hand, always a point of satisfaction for an author. I paged through it, reflecting on all the work that goes into the writing process and editorial gestation of a book, pleased to be able to make a small contribution to the literature on the subject, and praying for its usefulness to Christ’s church.

Then I got to the end of what I had written, and there were those blank pages—five of them, a bit glaring for such a small book. It was like they were taunting me, suggesting that I had not adequately addressed the subject, that there was more to be said and I had been remiss by pulling up short of the goal. But that’s the way it was—time to move on to the next project. But the first project would not give up so easily.

I am part of a writers’ group. Five of us meet monthly to review one another’s work and share helpful comments about content, flow, and grammar and generally encourage one another in the writing process. I am the lone religious nonfiction writer. As always, the group was helpful in their writing expertise but also in the questions they raised about forgiveness.

One group member posed a question: What about forgiving ourselves? Evidently, that struck a chord, because the others started to chime in, saying that forgiving ourselves was essential to a proper treatment of the subject. One even went as far as to suggest that self-forgiveness was foundational, something we must come to grips with before we can move on to forgiving others.

There it was, the material for the five blank pages. The problem was that the booklet had already been published.

I contacted Reformation Heritage Books with the idea of a second edition. That conversation generated other dimensions relating to forgiveness that would be helpful to a more thorough study of the subject, moving it from booklet to book format. So my first acknowledgment is to Joel Beeke, editorial director, and to the editorial staff at RHB for their encouragement in the project. A special mention goes to Jay Collier, director of publishing, for his early involvement in bringing the book to life. In addition, Dr. Beeke and Dr. Ryan McGraw, coeditors of the Cultivating Biblical Godliness series, were invaluable in stimulating me to take up certain considerations in dealing with the subject of forgiveness. Annette Gysen, senior manuscript editor for RHB and project editor for my books, helped me to flesh out the practice of forgiveness in addressing specific relationship challenges. Annette is a joy to work with in that she is more than a stylistic taskmaster; she is also an invested reader who interacts with the material to make it richer.

Those of you who have read Why Must We Forgive? will experience a sense of déjà vu in that what you read within will sound familiar. I have taken the approach of dividing the content of that booklet and augmenting and illustrating it in greater detail. Sections of that booklet have grown into chapters for this book. Practical matters dealing with the nuts and bolts of forgiving are spread across two chapters, fleshing out various considerations. A full chapter is devoted to the question of the biblical propriety of forgiving ourselves, and why that topic resonates with so many. In that light, I would like to thank those members of my writers’ group who inspired discussion on the subject as well as for their help in the art and science of writing and for helping me to keep it real: Audra Supplee, Alexandra Coulter, and Gretchen Lockwood. While another member, Stephen Thompson, was not part of the conversation about forgiving ourselves, he did contribute to the print worthiness of both the booklet and the book.

My gratitude reaches to new heights in recognizing my wife, Linda, for her contribution to this book, because she has illustrated a forgiving spirit for the forty-plus years of our marriage. She has also served up a ready reminder for me to put into practice the gospel principles I believe and teach, helping me keep the log out of my own eye.

The topic of forgiveness raises many questions, which we address to some degree in the following pages:

1. Is it biblical to forgive and forget?

2. Why do we need to confess our sins if they are already forgiven?

3. Does Jesus’s parable of the unforgiving servant teach that God’s forgiveness can be rescinded?

4. Is it hypocritical to forgive if we don’t feel like it, especially when Jesus says we are to forgive from the heart?

5. Why does John say that God is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess rather than faithful and merciful?

6. Does God forgive sins simply because a person confesses them?

7. When Jesus says, If your brother repents, forgive him, is He making repentance a prerequisite for granting forgiveness?

8. How do we actually go about forgiving someone?

9. How is asking for forgiveness different from apologizing?

10. How does forgiveness relate to reconciliation?

11. What does God’s forgiveness of us teach us about our forgiveness of others?

12. What does the biblical terminology of forgiveness convey about its tone?

13. Does the Bible give a place to forgiving ourselves?

14. What does life look like after forgiveness?

15. How does forgiveness lead us to the battlefield of spiritual warfare that is constituent to the life of the Christian in a fallen world?

Even though this book addresses those nagging blank pages of the booklet, it will not and cannot be exhaustive. There is always more that could be said, new insight gleaned from the study of God’s Word, and fresh apprehension of the glorious gospel of grace. With the application of forgiveness in the healing of a burdened spirit or a broken relationship, the awe of the gospel dawns anew and presents a spectacle of beauty and certain hope of a better life to come for those who know and love Jesus Christ.

I would delight in hearing how the Lord used this book in your life and what questions or topics you might have that carry a discussion of forgiveness further.

—Stan Gale

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Chapter 1

FORGIVENESS AND THE GOSPEL

I believe…in the forgiveness of sins.

—The Apostles’ Creed

Isaiah thought he was going to die. In his vision he found himself in the throne room of the living God. Around the temple sanctum flew angelic beings, seraphim by name. They cried out to one another in chorus, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3). Such was the seismic scene of God’s majesty and holiness that the temple was shaken to its foundations. The room filled with smoke, a theophany indicative