Dear Family at Christ Community,

On Sunday, we will hear of God’s radically generous forgiveness of our incalculable sins and how this affects how we approach forgiving others. Jesus in Matthew 18:21-35 calls us to deny our selfish desire to judge others and take up our crosses of incalculable forgiveness to follow Him in offering this same forgiveness to others. This requires every spiritual help and wisdom available to us to forgive in a way that brings glory to God, joy to us, and serves for the life of the world. We will celebrate our forgiveness in Christ at the Lord’s Table to be nourished to serve others through forgiveness. The need to be reminded of our incalculable and radical forgiveness in Christ serves as the foundation from which we offer forgiveness.

As a help to considering our firm foundation of forgiveness, consider the comforting words from Joe Novenson’s adaptation of how Richard Sibbes responded to someone seeking his counsel struggling with relapsing into the same time and again:

“If Christ will have us pardon our own brother seventy times seven times, dare we think he would enjoin of us more than he will be ready to do himself; when in fact, in the case of showing mercy, he would have us know for certain that his thoughts are so far above our very own? Adam lost all by once sinning, but we are under a better covenant, a covenant of grace and mercy and are encouraged by the Son Himself to go to the Father every day for the sins of that day! (The Lord’s Prayer) Take hope! Where the work of grace has begun, sin loses strength every day by every new fall…For the Holy Spirit issues an ever deepening humility in us…He gives greater hatred of evil to us…He stirs fresh indignation over the hardness within us…He renews our resolve until that sin is further brought under His rule…He makes us more ashamed of sin and less ashamed to glorify God for his mercy as we plead for further (understanding of our) pardon for sin!”

Please come to the table humbly as those who’ve been so boldly forgiven! Ask the Holy Spirit to show you who you can boldly share this same humbly forgiveness with.

In Christ,
Cameron