Page 86 - Biblical Counseling II-Textbook

Study Section 12: Forgiveness
“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” Colossians 3:13

12.1 Connect
Read the following stories of forgiveness:
“The understanding widower. After a long shift at the fire department, Matt Swatzell fell
asleep while driving and crashed into another vehicle, taking the life of pregnant mother June
Fitzgerald and injuring her 19-month-old daughter. Fitzgerald’s husband, a full-time pastor,
asked for the man’s diminished sentence—and began meeting with Swatzell for coffee and
conversation. Many years later, the two men remain close. ‘You forgive as you’ve been
forgiven,’ Fitzgerald said” (LaBianca, p. 1, 2017).

“An unlikely friendship. Mary Johnson lost her son in 1993 after a then-teenaged Oshea Israel got into a
fight with him at a party, and shot him. With so much unanswered, Johnson went to visit Oshea in jail.
After their first contact, ‘I began to feel this movement in my feet,’ Johnson [said]. ‘It moved up my legs,
and it just moved up my body. When I felt it leave me, I instantly knew that all that anger and hatred
and animosity I had in my heart for you for 12 years was over. I had totally forgiven you.’ The two now
live as neighbors in the same duplex, and Johnson has even referred to Israel as “son” in interviews. ‘I
admire you for your being brave enough to offer forgiveness, and for being brave enough to take that
step,’ Israel [said]. ‘It motivates me to make sure that I stay on the right path’ “ (LiBianca, p. 1, 2017).

“The unexpected caregiver. Domestic violence survivor Pascale Kavanagh said that she never thought
she would reconnect with her mother—her abuser—during her adult life. However, in 2010, her mother
suffered several strokes that left her unable to communicate or take care of herself. With no one else to
help, Kavanagh began to sit by her mother’s bedside and read to her. Through this, Kavanagh says the
hate she had for her mother dissipated into forgiveness and love (LiBianca, p. 2, 2017).

12.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain our motivation to forgive.

2. The student should be able to describe how forgiveness positive impacts our mental and
physical health.

12.3 Forgiveness

In Biblical Counseling I, you spent some time understanding forgiveness. You
discussed three ways to think of forgiveness:
1. “Covering” a debt (1 Peter 4:8)
2. “Positional” forgiveness (Ps 32:1-2; 130:3-4; 1 Jn. 1:9, cf. 2:1-2)
3. “Transactional” forgiveness (Ps. 32:3-5; Jn. 1:9)

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