Cost of the Gospel - Forgiveness

As I have been meditating on this idea of the gospel, I continually come back to this theme of brokeness. As followers of Christ, or as His body, we enter in the lives of others, both followers and non-followers alike. But in doing so we are entering into filth, muck....brokeness. And when we are here it is only natural that we are going to be hurt or broken ourselves. But then again thats kindof the point, isnt it? We have been restored and made whole because Christ entered into our brokeness, took it on His shoulders, tramples it under foot, and offered wholeness and life. Therefore we can enter into the broken lives of others and take their brokeness on ourselves, while offereing the possiblity to be whole, clean, good. So I guess that in a sense we are like conduits that channel the brokeness of the world onto Christ who defeats it and offers wholeness, and life instead.

Now that sounds all nice and dandy, but the reality is we are allowing ourselves to be broken, hurt, defilied, even killed, while instead offering beauty, wholness, agape. This is the high cost of discipleship.

And we wonder why forgiveness or the lack there of is such a huge deal in scripture. "if you forgive the sins of others then your father will forgive yours, but if you do not forgive the sins of others, then He will not forgive yours." Forgiveness seems to be a defining characteristic in the life of and disciple. So this is my definition of Forgiveness: willingly absorbing the brokeness of another, and in return offering wholeness, life and agape.

In the very act of forgiveness I am offer salvation to another. Is this wrong, or going to far. Think about it. We are Christ's body, and those who are broken (aka everyone) cannot restore or heal themselves. Then the only way they can find restoration is for another who is not broken to enter their lives, take their brokeness on themselves and offering restoration instead. So when I forgive I am offering the very salvation of Christ. (believers and non-believers alike James 5, "confess your sins to each other to be healed" ) Thats the Gospel.

At this point my mind naturally goes to the movie "End of the Spear". The five missionaries in this movie we dedicated to reaching this remote tribe with the gospel. Now this tribe was absolutely broken, with the most noteable aspect of brokeness being that of violence, revenge, and death. So these missionaries Knowingly, Willingly, submit themselves to the brokeness of this tribe. I'll never forget the scene where the missionaries had just been speared and lay dieing on the ground. The indians hovered over the dieing bodies of the missionaries, and when they peered into their faces they saw someting different, they saw, peace, forgiveness, friendship. In that moment they where pierced to the core, because they had just encountered the kingdom of God, they had just experienced the gospel. Remember their faces and their composure. From this point on they are tortured, and eventually every one of them comes to Christ. What a beautiful picture of the gospel, forgivness, and the bearing of brokeness.
But what a high cost the missionaries paid! Are we willing to do the same?