FORGIVENESS: The Deepest NEED of Every Human Heart

By Tommy Boland

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More victories are won by Satan within the church through the spirit of unforgiveness than in any other way. Unforgiveness weakens our walk and wrecks our witness for Christ.

Forgiveness is the deepest need of every human heart; it is the foundation on which Christianity is believed and built. Dr. Tommy Boland establishes the glorious truth that those who have embraced the forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus know the truth that frees them to genuinely forgive. He then examines two questions many of us wrestle with: "I know God has forgiven me; why do I struggle to forgive others? And why can't I forgive myself?"

This intensely practical book teaches us how to live out God's command to "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." It isn't easy, but it is possible, and Tommy Boland describes both the root and the fruit of genuine, God-drenched forgiveness, which enables us to utter the Lord's Prayer with full and sincere hearts: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."

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Dr. Tommy Boland, with his wife, Kim, and their four children, founded Cross Community Church in Deerfield Beach, Florida, in 2012. Tommy is the author of Now What?, The Strangest Spiritual Secret, and the Disciples Making Disciples evangelism program.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887512525

Book preview

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FORGIVENESS

The Deepest NEED of Every Human Heart

Tommy Boland

ISBN 979-8-88751-251-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88751-252-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Tommy Boland

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

1

Forgiveness: Why We Need It

2

Forgiveness: What It Is and Is Not

3

Forgiveness: How We Get It

4

Forgiveness: How We Give It

5

Forgiveness: The Last Word

Notes

About the Author

Introduction

Forgiveness is the foundation upon which Christianity is both believed and built. Only those who, by grace through faith, seek forgiveness from God are reconciled and brought back into right relationship with Him. This is the divine forgiveness that meets the deepest need of every human heart. But there is also human forgiveness, which is one of the most important aspects of all lasting human relationships—forgiving others for the wrongs they have done to us.

In this book, we will briefly look at both the vertical (divine) and horizontal (human) aspects of forgiveness. But before we get started on that, let me make an important point regarding human forgiveness. More victories are won by Satan within the church through the spirit of unforgiveness than in any other way. As Ephesians 4:27 warns us, it is one of the strongest footholds the devil gains against the family of faith. Unforgiveness weakens our walk and waters down our witness for Christ.

In the ancient unbelieving world, forgiveness was a foreign concept. By nature, the sinful human heart beats to deal out vengeance and deliver some payback, not offer forgiveness. People of that time did not believe wrongs could simply be forgiven; they believed that the only way to keep your guilt from following you to the grave was by making restitution for a wrong you had committed and atoning for your wrongdoing yourself.

The radical teaching presented by Jesus Christ on the free forgiveness from God and the necessity of extending free forgiveness to others caused unbelievers to ridicule, revile, and malign Christ's followers. Those who had not experienced divine forgiveness themselves believed that extending forgiveness to others was simply a sign of weakness. There was no getting off the hook for any hurt you had perpetrated without personally paying for it in some way. And in their minds, the notion that God would send His Son to die on a cross for the forgiveness of the sins of others was not only foolish thinking, it was a figment of the imagination of a weak mind.

To be sure, God is portrayed throughout the Old Testament as a God of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Yet people generally related to each other with the response, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth…wound for wound, bruise for bruise (Exodus 21:24). When Jesus appeared on to the first-century scene, His teaching regarding forgiveness was truly radical to the people of that day; it comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable, to borrow an expression from the world of journalism. Jesus taught a message that had never been heard before, and nothing was more foreign to self-absorbed, sinful minds than the forgiveness of sins—not through making personal restitution, but through redemption freely offered in Him.

Jesus expanded the biblical teaching of love for neighbors to include even loving our enemies. He said things that would have left many of His listeners slack-jawed, such as, If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also and Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mathew 5:39, 44).

In Jesus' parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–31), the forgiveness freely and lavishly given by the father (who was clearly meant to represent God) to his prodigal son stands in stark contrast to the haughty, unforgiving spirit of the elder brother, emphasizing the elder brother hostility of the religious leaders to Christ's teaching on the unearned and unmerited forgiveness He had come to offer as the Savior of the world.

In the pages that follow, we will take a brief look at the deepest need of every human heart—forgiveness—and see how this forgiveness is freely offered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While this forgiveness is freely offered to all those who will receive it by grace through faith, it was definitely not free, and we will consider and count the cost in this book.

For now, let me share with you how our Lord Jesus put on display, for all the watching world to see, what the deepest need of every human heart is—whether we know it or not:

When Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, We have never seen anything like this! (Mark 2:1–12)

For years, this story sounded so strange to me every time I read it until I finally realized what Jesus was teaching through it. This paralytic had not come to Jesus for absolution and the forgiveness of his sins; he had come to be healed from his paralysis. This is clearly confirmed