In this Lenten season we turn our eyes to contemplate the Cross of Christ, set it in the center of our days, to watch and wait for Resurrection Sunday.

Appropriate that our lesson is about forgiveness this week.  The immensity of God’s choice to forgive us, wretched unrepentant rebels that we are… not out of any deserving on our part but solely out if His love, His mercy, His desire for our benefit and His own glory…it leaves us hushed and breathless as we see it unfold in Scripture.    “In [the Beloved] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us…” (Ephesians 1:7)

Lavish grace, wonderful to receive, but much harder to give to others.  Wounds rise up, calling for justice, and it is hard to remember Whose job it is to repay– funny how strong our moral sense can be at such times, though conveniently dull when our own choices need to be made.  Emotions cloud perspective, and we forget Who is really in charge of this situation and every outcome.

But Jesus is unrelenting in His law of love: “as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”  (Colossians 3:13)  This is the standard He gives us, to bear the painful consequences of someone else’s sin humbly and patiently, as He did, and so take up our cross and follow Him.  The miracle of it is that the same resurrection power that surged through His broken body on Easter morning, beats in our wounded hearts, making us new creatures in Jesus’ image.  It’s the Easter transformation happening every day in those who choose to follow the resurrected Lord.

This is what I choose in this season of Lent, to stand in awe and praise of God’s forgiveness, and to extend it to others.  Love, the rugged choice to do what is right, leans on the Father’s love and trusts Him to rightly judge all men.  All that is mine to do is what He asks of me: come to the cross and follow Him.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”  (Isaiah 53:8)

“Given the reality of sin, love and forgiveness are inextricably bound together.”  (Dan Allender, Bold Love)