Forgiveness Verses Relationship

There is a story in the old testament that strikes me as almost out of place and feels awkward. Such stories I always look deeper into and ask Father to reveal them to me.

The Children of Israel were preparing to enter the promised land. Once again they grumbled and complained against God and Moses about the harsh conditions.

God did something quite unexpected in my view. He sent hundreds of snakes to bite the people and kill them. The remedy that was proposed to save the people was that Moses was to make a copper snake and put it on a pole. Everyone who gazed upon that snake lived.

Looking deeper, I find that the snake represents sin. The poison represents the destruction sin can do. The remedy? To look our sin full in the face and recognizing it for what it is.

Later Jesus used this very story as an analogy of Himself being lifted up for all to look on. Jesus was implying that the sin was being placed on Him. We were all to look at that cross to identify our sin for what it is and the destructiveness it causes so graphically depicted on that cross.

Often times we hear that we have to forgive the people who hurt us and FORGET. It has been so deeply ingrained in our minds that forgiveness = forgetting. This is to say that if someone hurts us, we are to act like nothing happened and continue on in the same old relationship the same old dynamics and the same old way.

I hold that there is a big difference between forgiveness and restoring relationship. They are not one in the same. Forgiveness is required and is done based on the work Christ did on the cross. Forgiveness is a transaction between myself, the other person, and God, stating that I don't require them to pay me back or suffer for what they did to me. It means that the accounts are settled and zeroed out because Christ did the same for me.

Restoring relationship, however seems to take on an entirely different meaning and dynamic to it. As I have read through the old testament law concerning sacrifice and temple rituals, one thing stood out to me. Relationship is not cheap and is not to be taken so flippantly.

God made it clear that not just anyone could come into his presence. Not just anyone could consider themselves a part of God's chosen people, sin, and just go right back to the relationship. God didn't require sacrifice. He didn't require blood as though it were vengeance. God endorsed sacrifice as a very clear, graphic picture of what sin does to us and relationships. Sin sheds blood. Sin destroys. Sin kills. God taught the children of Israel the same thing He is trying to communicate through His son on the cross today.

If I were to sin against you in those days, an animal would die. Blood would be shed in order to restore the relationship.

I think if Christians today still did this practice, we would think twice about demanding relationship and treating it so carelessly and flippantly. If every time I were to sin, I was required to shed blood, that is, causing the death and suffering of an innocent animal dear to me, I would think twice about the way I live.

I really believe that this forgive and forget mentality that is widespread, not only in churches but in the rest of the world kills the heart. The mentality of being required to go on with a relationship that has been hurt or killed by a sin or an offense against me kills the core of what Love really is and the weight of the sin that destroyed it.

Jesus spoke against certain religious leaders and such people who would try to sneak in through the sheep fold another way. He called them thieves, robbers, and wolves in sheep's clothing. Jesus stated that he was the sheep gate and the only correct way into relationship and reconciliation with God and man was through Him and the work He was about to finish on the cross.

There is no other way to restore relationship except to face the blood that sin caused. To face the wound and the hurt and the damage one caused.

Dear reader, don't let people bully you into sacrificing your own heart so cheaply for relationships demanded by others. Guard that heart. Let Jesus, that Sheep Gate be the only approach one can take with restoring relationship.