Jesus Predetermined He Would Forgive Us

One of the primary misconceptions about forgiveness is that we need to wait for the offending party to repent before we forgive. Conventional wisdom says, “The person who hurt me will have to admit that what they did was wrong before I will consider whether or not to forgive them.” In other words, I don’t have to decide to forgive until they choose to repent. Yet, the way of Jesus was never conventional. 

Jesus predetermined that He would forgive us. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things in accordance with the plan of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:3-7

The Apostle Paul begins Ephesians with a great Trinitarian proclamation of the Gospel, noting each member of the Godhead’s role in the redemption plan. The Father adopted us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit sealed us. Notice when this all was decided.

The Father “chose us before the foundation of the world”. When was the foundation of the world? Was it before or after you repented? Before, of course! Before we repented, before we sinned, before we were born, and most significantly before the world began, Jesus chose to pay for our sins and forgive us. He predetermined that He would forgive us. He not only forgave our sins, but the sins of the ones who hurt us. 

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2

Every sin ever committed by anybody... anywhere on the planet... past, present, or future was paid for by Jesus on the cross and the decision to forgive was made at the beginning of time.

A pastor friend was recapping the Forgiving Forward message the Sunday after we had taught the Seminar at his church. As he was reviewing this part of the teaching, he said “It’s like we have a prepaid Forgiving Forward debit card that is always fully loaded by the blood of Jesus. When someone hurts us, we can pull out the Forgiving Forward card, swipe the air and say, it’s been pre-paid in full!” The next week one of the church members brought a stack of Forgiving Forward debit cards that he had made with the church’s name on them. The pastor laughed and then distributed the cards to the congregation as a reminder that they were a church of pre-forgivers.

A few weeks later, when a conflict arose in a meeting, my pastor friend told everyone to pull out their Forgiving Forward cards and swipe the air. The issue was quickly resolved! 

So, when do you forgive? Do you wait until “they” repent? Or do you follow Jesus’ model and choose ahead of time to forgive? That’s when Jesus did it!

Let’s actively choose to make pre-forgiveness a lifestyle and predetermine to forgive every wound we have or will suffer.