Forgiveness

Last night, I laid in bed thinking  about forgiveness. As I thought about all the sin in my life that Jesus has forgiven me for, it just overwhelmed me! His forgiveness is real forgiveness—the kind of forgiveness we experience when someone doesn’t hang on to old hurts…when someone doesn’t remind us of that thing we did a long time ago. Partial forgiveness is not Jesus’s way. His way is complete forgiveness. But that doesn’t always happen in our lives, right? We see that situation in the Bible in the life of King David…

A long time ago there was a king in Israel, King David. One of his son’s, Absalom, decided he wanted to be king (2 Samuel 15:10). So Absalom got his people together and they rebelled. King David was in trouble. He decided to leave Jerusalem—he knew Absalom would try to kill him! As he headed out, there was this guy, Shimei, who saw David and started cursing him (2 Samuel 16:5–14). He threw rocks and dirt at David. Shimei not only dishonored King David, but he was a traitor—he supported Absalom’s attempt to overthrow his father and take the throne.

As it turns out, Absalom was killed and King David returned to Jerusalem. As David crossed the Jordan River, who came running out to meet him? Shimei. And he cried out to David about how he had done wrong…that he had sinned…and here he was, the first of his tribe to come out and meet the king. David was merciful to Shimei that day. He said, “You shall not die” (2 Samuel 19:23) even though Shimei’s traitorous behavior deserved the punishment of death. But you know what? David didn’t actually forgive Shimei. He just postponed punishment…because he later instructed his son, Solomon, to give Shimei what he deserved (1 Kings 2:9). That’s not real forgiveness.

But let’s consider Shimei too. Real forgiveness comes in response to repentance, Did Shimei truly repent of his behavior? We don’t really know, but it seems to me he wasn’t really sincere running out to David. If Shimei was truly repentant, he would have actively sought David out and asked for forgiveness. Shimei did acknowledge his sin—but only when he got caught. Now David was back in town. He was king. That put Shimei in a bad spot—he decided to try and avoid the consequences of his betrayal. That’s not real repentance.

What do we learn here? Real repentance and real forgiveness go together. When you truly repent, Jesus truly forgives. He remembers your sin no more (Hebrews 8:12). No more means just that: no more. Not like David, who remembered Shimei’s sin. Yet true repentance is not a flippant, “Hey, I’m sorry” and off you go to the next sin. It’s turning away from sin, hating sin, and turning to Jesus for forgiveness and for life. I pray that you truly turn from sin and receive the forgiveness only Jesus can offer. If you need prayer or a Bible let me know.