Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the result of the act of pardon, remission of a fault.
Summary |
Religious Perspective
Christianity
In the biblical sense, forgive usually means one of two things:
- When He forgives men, God cancels or rejects the punishment required for sin ;
- When they forgive, men treat each other with Christian love and have no ill feelings towards those who have offended (Mt 5, 43-45, 6, 12-15, Lk 17, 3 -4).
Forgiveness is very important in Christianity. In the Gospel one often sees Christ to forgive sins ( Lk 7. 36-50 ). He does not condemn the woman caught in adultery by saying that "he who is without sin cast the first stone" ( John 8. 3-11 ). He speaks so vivid as in the parable of the prodigal son ( Lk 15. 11-32 ). Jesus commanded Peter to forgive 70 times 7 times up ( Mt 18. 21-22 ). Often, Jesus heals the infirm and remits sins at the same time ( Mt 9. 1-8 ).
Forgiveness is part of the prayer of Our Father ("Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us") that Jesus was sent to men (Lk 11: 1-4, Matthew 6, 9 - 13) :
- "I believe in the forgiveness of sins" ( Apostles Creed )
- "I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins" ( Nicene-Constantinople ).
Christ gave the Apostles the divine power to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven; those to whom you retain they are retained "(Jn 20, 22-23).
God tied the forgiveness of sins to faith and baptism :
- "Go into the world and preach the Good News to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved "(Mark, 16, 15-16).
Baptism is the first and greatest sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites the Christian with Christ died for the sins of Christians, raised for their justification (Rom 4, 25).
Christ after his resurrection sent his apostles "to preach to all nations repentance in his name for the remission of sins" (Lk 24, 47). Thus, "the Church received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that it is done in the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. It was in this church that the soul lives again, she was dead by the sins, to live with Christ, whose grace has saved us " .
From this perspective, forgiveness is universal, and almost all sins can be forgiven. However, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not forgiven by God : "But if someone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, that he will not be forgiven" (Lk 12: 8-12).
The fraternal correction (Mt 18, 15-20) is a means to achieve forgiveness of sins .
For Catholics , Orthodox and Anglicans, the sacrament of penance and reconciliation can be forgiven the sins by God through the priest .
References
Bibliography
- Pascal Ide , Is it possible to forgive?, St. Paul Issues Collection, 1995
- Desmond Tutu , No Future Without Forgiveness, Albin Michel, 1999
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