In the book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie Ten Boom tells her powerful story of forgiveness in the face of the worst kind of injustice. After her release from Ravensbruk, a Nazi concentration camp, Corrie traveled to Munich to share her experience of God's love and forgiveness to a room filled with Germans.
It was in a church in Munich where I was speaking in 1947 that I saw him─a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat, the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
Memories of the concentration camp came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister's frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment of skin.
Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland. This man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: "A fine message, fraulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!"
It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
"You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard there. But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. "Fraulein"─ again the hand came out─ "will you forgive me?"
And I stood there─and could not. Betsie had died in that place─could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it; I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."
Still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling."
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"
For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.
There’s no doubt that forgiveness can be life-changing. Corrie’s experience so beautifully illustrates how forgiveness not only releases the one who originated the hurt, but sets us free in the process. Besides being commanded to forgive, here are four good reasons forgiveness needs to be a regular practice in your life.
1. Forgiveness is healing for a broken heart
Forgiveness is powerful. It’s a command. It’s a choice─and Corrie discovered that it’s healing for a broken heart.
What would have happened if Corrie hadn’t made the choice to forgive those who had wronged her and her family members? No doubt she would have remained imprisoned by the memory of Ravensbruck. Unforgiveness toward God and others would have stolen her ministry, testimony, confidence, and joy─and her heart would have stayed broken.
So many times we languish under a broken heart, wishing our hearts would heal, but we don’t realize that if we would only forgive, then our hearts would heal. Forgiveness is a door that opens healing love to flood our hearts, but unforgiveness blocks that healing.
2. Forgiveness helps us not to be outwitted
When we don’t forgive, we are in danger of our hearts not healing, but also of passing on our pain to others.
Several years ago, I had a misunderstanding with a dear friend that resulted in the end of a 20 year friendship. In the days to follow, I spent hours hiking through one of my favorite spots in Colorado Springs. As I rounded a curve in the trail, I sensed the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Your job is to forgive so that you don’t pass on the pain.
I immediately thought of 2 Cor. 2:10-11 which says, “If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven─if there is anything to forgive─I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Paul clearly states here that unforgiveness gives the enemy the power to outwit us. I knew then that I had to forgive my friend or I would hurt others in the future. If we could only embrace this truth we could avoid a lot of personal pain and destruction.
3. Forgiveness matters for eternity
I used to think that forgiveness was an earthly issue, that God commands us to forgive, but it only matters in the here and now. I was wrong.
In Luke 6:20-22, Jesus shares the ways we will be blessed in heaven: we’ll get the kingdom for poverty, satisfaction for hunger, and laughter for tears. Then, in Luke 6:35, He specifically says that we’ll be rewarded in heaven, and in the prior verses, He tells exactly how we will receive those rewards.
- Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (vs. 27).
- Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you (vs. 28).
- Give freely to those who take from you (vs. 29-30).
- Do to others as you would have them to do you (vs. 31).
- Love people who don’t love you (vs. 32).
- Do good to those who don’t do good to you (vs. 33).
- Lend to your enemies without expecting anything in return (vs. 35).
- Don’t judge; Forgive; Don’t condemn (vs. 37).
- Give (vs. 38).
Isn’t it fascinating that every command in this passage on how to receive rewards in heaven, which Jesus said will be pressed down, shaken together, and running over (vs. 35; 38) has to do with relationships─in particular with people who have been less than nice? Forgiveness matters for eternity, but we shouldn’t be surprised because Jesus said the two greatest commandments focus on love. Mark 12:30-31 says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In Luke 6:38 Jesus says that the measure we have used will be measured back to us in heaven. He also says that if we don’t forgive others that we won’t be forgiven (Matt. 6:15). Do we actually believe these truths? Or, are these two Scriptures we want to sweep under the rug of personal justification? Well, I won’t forgive. And I have every right not to forgive. Just look at what that person did to me!
4. It keeps God's power in perspective
No doubt, it can be tough to forgive. It presses me to the edge of myself where I am forced to acknowledge that there is a God who is greater than the wrong that has been done to me, and in this, I recognize that no one can do anything that will ultimately destroy me or God’s plan for my life. When I choose to forgive, it keeps God’s power in perspective.
Someone may stop loving me, insult me, steal from me, or abuse me, but they will never be able to destroy the love that God has for me or His sovereign rule over all that concerns me. God’s redeeming love is bigger than my enemies.
Think about something someone has done to you that has demanded forgiveness. Do you believe that God is bigger than the wrong? Are you convinced that His love and His rule are redemptive? If so, let the person who has wronged you off the hook. Stop thinking that they have ruined your life and that you will never recover─because God is a redeemer. He will perfect that which concerns you in spite of what has been done to you (Ps. 138:8).
If you haven’t found redemption in what’s been done to you, don’t give up. Keep holding on because God isn’t done writing your story. If you allow Him to, God will weave your life’s injustices into a greater whole. Isn’t this the promise of Rom. 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” Do you believe it?
