Excusing, Forgiving and Forgetting

In the November 2013 issue of Christian Century Nicholas Wolterstorff wrote a most interesting article entitled After Injustice. He gives a new slant on forgiveness that intrigued me.

I will greatly simplify his ideas but here is the gist of them. He points out that for forgiveness to take place first their must be something to forgive; “someone has wronged someone.” To illustrate he makes up an imaginary person, Hubert and 5 components for forgiving Hubert: “1)Hubert did wrong me, 2)I rightly believe that he was blamable for doing so, 3)I feel resentment or some similar negative emotion at the deed done, 4)I feel anger or some similar negative emotion at Hubert for having done it, and (5) I continue to remember the deed and who did it and continue to condemn it.”

Note well here that forgiving here done not forgetting the act done.

He also says we can go past forgiving by just not caring about Hubert, or thinking he was not aware of the wrong he done. In this case you just excuse his behavior, which is not forgiveness.

Wolterstorff believes that for forgiveness to take place you must remember the wrong done to you. Forgiving may take a very long time and must fully embrace both person’s personal history. There is an important relationship between the sinner and the one sinned against.

For forgiveness to take place Hubert, the wrongdoing must ask for forgiveness, repent. Then the wronged must decide whether to forgive and to reconcile. If such takes place it is liberating for both individual the forgiver and the forgiven.

He notes that in Greek the English word for forgive (Luke 23.34) in an form of the verb aphiemi meaning to “let go, send away.” Thus Jesus forgives his crucifiers for what they are doing; but in Wolterstorff says this is Jesus excusing them not forgiving them.

He goes on to the story of Peter asking how many times we must forgive someone, the answer Jesus give is not seven but 70 times 7, or a really big number. But in all this it assumes there is a request for forgiveness; repentance. He sees this throughout scripture that God forgives when someone asks for forgiveness.

Well, I think you get the idea Wolterstroff is making and it is very interesting, and gives a fuller understanding of forgiveness in relationship and recognizing our connections and sinners and forgivers.

I very much like most aspects of Wolterstroff’s ideas but it also assumes a type of efficacious grace. What I mean by that is we are in the catbird’s seat when it comes to forgiveness, who chose to forgive or not. While I think this is true in human interactions I don’t believe it is true in human divine interaction. It seems to lead to the idea that if I repent, confess my sin, God must forgive me, or not depending on God’s mood. In one case, if God forgives I caused God’s forgiveness, in the other case, God seems capricious and arbitrary. I am not comfortable with either of these scenarios.

Let us take a look at these passages:

Isaiah 43:25 (NRSV)
²⁵ I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 43:25 (MSG)
²⁵ "But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins—that's what I do. I don't keep a list of your sins.

Hebrews 8:12 (NRSV)
¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

Hebrews 8:12 (MSG)
¹² They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.

Hebrews 10:17 (NRSV)
¹⁷ he also adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Hebrews 10:17 (MSG)
¹⁷ He concludes, I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.

Here is seems clear to me that God forgiveness is different from ours. God forgive and forgets our sins. This takes place at God’s initiative. In this context the action of repentance on the part of forgiveness in unnecessary, it is what God wants and does do despite human action. It is like the great covenants we see in scripture, for instance the flood story, where God says God will never do that type of destruction of human beings again. It is a covenant but the action is dependent only on party of the covenant, God. Truly God’s ways are not our ways.

Went I lead worship on occasion I would put in the liturgy the forgiveness of sins before the confession of sins or the call to confession. The point I was making it was God’s initiative and God’s nature to forget us whether we ask for not. Before we confess God forgives.

I think this is evidenced best in the death of Christ. Christ died for the sins of humanity. We do not cause our salvation by confessing or being good, it is just a gift of God whether we recognize it or not. Again from Hebrews (9.26) Christ “appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Thus, I very much enjoy Wolterstorff’s ideas and agree with them in terms of human interaction, it does not relate to the divine human connection and relationship. God forgives and forgets. We, forgive and remember.