Blog #1004 Forgiveness
Forgiveness is not absolution of sin and does not imply trust. We have no power to absolve sin. Only the Lord, Jesus Christ, can do that and even he does not just absolve sins but rather pays the price for them. We obviously can not pay that price. When we forgive we simply leave the other person to the Savior’s judgment for Him to forgive or condemn according to His will. As was noted in my earlier blog (#1003) love and forgiveness can be granted regardless of merit in obedience to the commandments of God. We are commanded to love and forgive our enemies but we are not commanded to trust them. We are commanded to trust God and rely on Him.
Recall the story of the rich man who lent a poor man some money. The poor man was unable to repay the debt and so the rich man had determined to confine the poor man in debtor’s prison. The man in the story who represents the Savior offers to pay the poor man’s debt if the rich man will relinquish his right to have the poor man put in debtor’s prison. Notice in the story that the Lord does not demand that the rich man go without payment for the debt. The Lord does not condemn the rich man for wanting to be repaid. He does not act as though the rich man is bad for wanting payment. In fact, he offers to pay the debt himself.
When we are the one who has been wronged we may feel that the Lord wants us to forgive without payment. That is not true. He wants us to trust Him for payment. He says in the scriptures that we will be repaid a hundred fold for the losses we suffer (D&C 98:45). He also asks us to leave vengeance in His hands and trust Him. He promises that “vengeance is mine and I will repay” (Romans 12:19, Mormon 3:15, 8:20). It is the blood of the saints and of the murdered prophets, not of the sinners that cries to him for vengeance (Ether 8:22, Alma
