Absorbing the Cost
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Whenever someone wrongs you or sins against you, there is always a loss and a cost . If you have wronged somebody or if you have sinned against somebody in some way, there is a loss and a cost that does not just go away. If you break my lamp, I can make you pay for it; or I can forgive you and bear the cost by having to buy my own lamp to replace it, or I bear the cost by not buying a lamp and having darkness in the room. In other words, either you bear the cost or I bear the cost but there is no such thing as just forgiving. If I forgive you, I forgive you by bearing the cost.
This is true even when there is not a monetary issue. If you come to someone whose reputation you have damaged, and you say, I am so sorry, will you forgive me? There are only two things that can happen. The person can say, No, I am going to tell everybody what you have done, which means they are going to damage your reputation to get theirs back. Or they can say, Yes, I forgive you in which case they will keep their mouth shut and bear the damage themselves. The point is that no one just forgives. The forgiver always bears and absorbs the cost and the loss.
How can God forgive us then? He had to bear and absorb the cost of our sin and experience hell on the Cross, and He did. Jesus got what we deserved so that we could be healed.
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
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