The Madness of Unforgiveness: What is Forgiveness?

by David Chadwick

What is forgiveness? Well, if we look at the dictionary definition from Merriam Webster, it means “to cease to feel resentment against an offender.”

Biblically, forgiveness releases someone of the debt once owed. It’s a significant display of love, ultimately mirroring what was displayed to us by Jesus.

Forgiveness is extraordinarily powerful and, like grace, sets apart the Christian faith from all the other world religions.

On a practical level, if bitterness can be described as “drinking poison and expecting the person who hurt you to die,” then forgiveness is the release of that bitterness. A complete relinquishment of the debt owed to you by someone. Forgiveness doesn’t hold onto a record of past wrongs done to you (1 Corinthians 13:5).

Forgiveness replaces bitterness with a love for your enemy that allows you to pray for those who have hurt you (Matthew 5:44). It places a desire for God’s mercy and grace to wash over the pain that you’ve experienced.

When forgiveness becomes real to you, you will become fully aware of what someone has done to you, yet you still choose to forgive. To let the other person or people go. There is no repression or denial because if you deny your pain, forgiveness can’t really take place. You must know that what happened to you really happened. But you release them. Not wishing for them to suffer like you have suffered. And cancelling the debt of the way they have hurt you.

Forgiveness hands over the offender and the offenses to Almighty God. This release becomes a wonderful display of just how much you trust in Jesus. After all, he certainly forgave all of us!