Page 78 - Biblical Counseling II

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

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 many unanswered questions, 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 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).

The Lesson ...

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)

You also learned that God’s positional forgiveness was conditioned upon Christ’s payment and not at all upon
us (Heb. 9:19-28). In addition, forgiveness is transacted with repentance and confession (Ps. 32:5; 1 Jn. 1:9).
(BCI, p. 27)

Biblical Counseling, I also covered the question “How are we to forgive?” It was answered with three points,
backed up by scripture:

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