The Dynamics of Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Steps to Experiencing Healing and Freedom from Hurts

By Joseph Campbell

FORGIVENESS done God's way will change your life!

This book is eye-opening for readers. Dr. Joseph Campbell lays out the intertwining effects of hurt, anger, and unforgiveness on our physical and mental well-being. Then he contrasts these emotions with the power of choosing to forgive and offering forgiveness. He even exp

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Nov 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890414557

Joseph Campbell

Dr. Joseph Campbell has a doctor of ministry degree in Christian Leadership from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. He is the senior pastor of Cross Creek Church in Lebanon, Missouri, and the executive vice president of Intercessory Prayer Ministry International (IPMI). His ministry focuses on equipping, empowering, and releasing people to fulfill their purpose and destiny in God. He and his wife, Caroline, a pediatrician, are the proud parents of two children.

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The Dynamics of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Trilogy Christian Publishers A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

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Copyright © 2023 by Joseph Campbell

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), Copyright (C) 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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ISBN: 979-8-89041-454-0

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation I have received. I am thankful to the Holy Spirit, who gave me the passion, insights, understanding, and patience to complete this book. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

I am indebted to my family for their love and support. I thank my wife, Caroline, for her encouragement, patience, and assistance in helping to type this book. I appreciate my children, Lydia-Beth and Elliott, for helping me to grow as a father. I am grateful to my sister, Janetta Campbell, for investing in my education and having faith in me.

I am especially thankful for the prayers of my friends Newton Gabbidon, Angela Christofferson, and Bonnie Goodwin. Finally, I appreciate the leaders of Cross Creek Church, who allowed me to teach the principles in this book to the congregation.

Introduction

This book presents a model of forgiveness and reconciliation that brought healing to several people who had been wrongfully hurt. The model consists of the processes of offering forgiveness, seeking forgiveness, and reconciliation. The phases and details of these processes evolved from biblical-theological and psychological research done on the concepts of forgiveness and reconciliation.

This book offers practical ways to progress in the three processes of the model of forgiveness and reconciliation. The author also gives guidelines for overcoming anger and interacting with opponents who do not desire reconciliation. Descriptions of activities often confused with the offering and seeking of forgiveness address the fears commonly associated with these processes.

The author outlines some of the benefits of offering and seeking forgiveness. These benefits may provide the reader with incentives to offer forgiveness to and seek forgiveness from their opponents. Moreover, God requires forgiveness, but He offers grace to help victims heal and to deal with the issues associated with offering and receiving forgiveness.

Chapter 1

Divine Forgiveness

The apostle Paul came from a family of Pharisees. He called himself a Hebrew of Hebrews. In his zeal for Judaism, he became a persecutor of the Church. He saw the pharisaical perspective as the way to live the Old Testament Law. Paul oversaw the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and he got letters from the high priest to imprison Christians. Paul made it his business to travel throughout Asia Minor arresting and imprisoning Christians. On his way to Damascus, he encountered the risen Christ at noon. A bright light shone, and he fell to the ground and became blind. He then heard the Lord’s voice saying, Why are you persecuting Me? (Acts 9:4). Out of that encounter, Paul gave his life to Christ. He experienced conversion and embraced Christianity.

Paul classified himself as the worst of sinners because he had persecuted the Church. He referred to himself as a violent man (1 Timothy 1:13–16). This zealous and violent man experienced God’s forgiveness, or divine forgiveness. The Lord unilaterally offered forgiveness to Paul. The Lord also offered Paul His forgiveness permanently. Paul repented of his way of living and accepted this divine forgiveness.

After receiving God’s forgiveness, Paul became one of the chief spokesmen for Christianity. He took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all the then-known Gentile world. He wrote perhaps twelve of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament. His writings help us to know how to relate to and fulfill the Old Testament Law. He serves as an example of someone whose life was completely changed by divine forgiveness.

Like the apostle Paul, John Newton experienced God’s forgiveness. He struggled for a while to fully understand and embrace it, but he eventually came to have a complete turnaround in his life. As the captain of a slave ship, he was involved in the slave trade. He was a violent and angry man. He cried out to the Lord and experienced divine forgiveness. He had his life totally turned around. He later became an ordained minister of the Gospel of Christ and pastored several churches. Several years after his initial conversion, he wrote the well-known hymn Amazing Grace. This has become one of the most popular hymns of all time. It highlights aspects of God’s forgiveness and grace. John Newton wrote it to help his congregation remember theological truths and doctrine. In it, he refers to himself as a wretch.

John Newton eventually became an abolitionist, campaigning against slavery. He became a mentor to William Wilberforce, the historically known abolitionist. These acts show the total turnaround of John Newton’s life after he received divine forgiveness. He changed from being a slave trader to becoming an abolitionist. Like the apostle Paul, after he received God’s forgiveness, John Newton had a major impact on society, especially in his roles as a pastor, mentor, and abolitionist.

God offers forgiveness to everyone, but people must repent to receive it. Those who receive divine forgiveness will have major changes in their lives.

The Lord has revealed Himself to humankind as a God of forgiveness. The motive and characteristics of God’s forgiveness are evident in both the Old and New Testaments. An understanding of these two dimensions will assist people in practicing forgiveness because the Scriptures present divine forgiveness as the paradigm for human forgiveness (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32).

Compassion:

The Motive for Divine Forgiveness

Shortly after delivering Israel from slavery, God disclosed His forgiving nature to Moses and the nation of Israel. He did this in Exodus 34:6–7, where He declares:

The

Lord

, the

Lord

God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.¹

The above confessional statement highlights three important truths about God. First, it describes Yahweh as compassionate and gracious. These two attributes—compassion and graciousness—flow directly out of His name and are central to His nature and character. Moreover, Yahweh’s compassion and graciousness also give rise to His abundant lovingkindness, which works hand in hand with His slowness to anger.

Second, Yahweh’s commitment to forgive comes from His compassion and graciousness. Hence, He does not have to be in the mood to forgive, because it is in His nature to forgive.²

Third, the Lord will judge those who reject His patient and gracious offer of forgiveness. As a holy and just God, He cannot ignore sin; He either must forgive it or judge it. However, even when He judges, He acts with compassion and graciousness because He hopes that His judgment will cause wrongdoers to repent and receive His forgiveness.³

Moses must have grasped the above truths about God because he responded to God’s self-disclosure with worship and a plea for God to relinquish His judgment upon Israel by forgiving their sins, accompanying them as they travel to the Promised Land, and accepting them as His own possession (Exodus 34:8–9). Yahweh responded to Moses’ request by forgiving Israel’s sins and renewing His covenant with them (Exodus 34:10–28).

Some scholars, such as John Durham, believe the above confessional statement eventually became a part of Israel’s statement or confession of faith about Yahweh.⁴ Such an assertion may be defended on two grounds. First, clear references to the confessional statement occur in Numbers 14:18; Joel 2:13; Nahum 1:3; Nehemiah 9:17; Jonah 4:2; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 145:8, and in numerous other passages. In addition, many allusions to and echoes of the statement appear in passages such as Deuteronomy 5:9–10; 1 Kings 3:6; Lamentations 3:32; and Daniel 9:4, 9–10.⁵ As these biblical references indicate, the confessional statement found its way into a variety of biblical literature at different points in Israel’s history. Furthermore, the confessional statement occurs at junctures when Israel needed to affirm or be reminded about the nature of the God whom they served and His commitment to them. At those crucial moments, the statement gave Israel a concise way of declaring their convictions about Yahweh.

Second, the confessional statement has a hymnic structure, meaning that it may have been used as a part