On February 13th the Australian Prime Minister said sorry to Aboriginal people. It happened a week before I started attending a church in Redfern, where many Aboriginal people live, and I know they were all deeply appreciative.
I started thinking about people who are never told ‘sorry’. Must their lives be on hold, without resolution, with ongoing bitterness or despair?
The answer to this question requires faith and trust. The first part of the answer is that even if people are never sorry or never tell you so, they are accountable to God, and he does not overlook a single wrong. When the Lord Jesus died, he bore God’s wrath for each evil deed done on this earth. So the second part of the answer then, is that through Jesus, God offers your enemies mercy. They can say sorry to God and he will accept Jesus’ punishment in their place. But if they do not, justice will still be served. So this leads to the third part of the answer – our role is to show the same mercy we have been shown. To forgive as we have been forgiven.
It is some comfort to know that judgment is assured. But is there no more hope and comfort for this life? Jesus has risen, he has given us his Spirit and called us to follow him – surely the world can be transformed. But there is actually little hope for this life, for as long as people are cruel and careless, the world can never be very good. Suffering and heartache will always be the norm in this world. This does not mean, of course, that we should turn a blind eye, just that there will never be heaven on this earth. And yet, the fourth and final part of the answer is that there is hope, a hope so good that it eclipses all the pain of this world. “[O]
When this life is ugly, we are to trust in God’s justice, to show mercy, to be kind and to work towards justice and to wait patiently and eagerly for the new heaven and earth. It is simple, it is hard and it is good.
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1 comments:
I should add a bit more to what I said.
Jesus is the way because he came to earth to forgive our sins. He did this because he loves us. He did it all - and there's nothing we have to do except believe!
Here's what the Bible says:"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." (1 John 3:16) "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10)
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