نظرة عامة
Living in real-time forgiveness means making a conscious, in the moment decision to send away the hurt, the anger and the offense rather than holding on to it. At Calvary, while he was still being tortured and mocked, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He did not wait until he was resurrected and ascended to forgive. He separated the person from the offense, let go of the hurt, and saw through it with love, enduring the cross for the joy that was set before him. This teaching from Luke 23 shows how knowing who you are in Christ makes that same real-time forgiveness, and real-time healing, possible for you.
النص الكامل
The Last Six Hours of Jesus’s Life
Well, thank you. Please take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 23. We’re going to take a look at the last six hours of Jesus’s life while he took monumental steps that would forever change the course of mankind.
It was these hours that were filled with a clear rejection from the people that Jesus was sent to save, and yet he chose to respond with love. He overcame the offense in the moment, and he chose to respond with real-time forgiveness. The title of the sharing this morning is Living in Real-Time Forgiveness.
In these last hours of his life, he took love to the highest level possible, and then God packaged up that love and gave it to you and me in the gift of Holy Spirit. You’re allowed to cry. That is a pretty amazing thing that God did for us.
Here at the beginning of this record, Jesus has already been beaten and tortured for some 34 hours. At this point, Isaiah says that he lost all visage of a person, and yet he still shows forgiveness to those who persecuted him. We’ll pick up the record in verse 32.
Luke 23:32-46: The Crucifixion at Calvary
And there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. And the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying, If thou be the king of the Judeans, save thyself. And a superscription was also written over him, the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is the king of the Judeans.
And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear or respect God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Verse 46.
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. How amazing to be faced not only with this amount of accusation and ridicule, but to be physically beaten and tortured.
Father, Forgive Them: The Timing of Jesus’s Forgiveness
And to utter these words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Many times, we have good intentions to forgive, don’t we? Or we may eventually forgive. But here, this decision to forgive was in real time out of love.
How remarkable. Let’s consider the timing of Jesus’s forgiveness. It doesn’t say that he was ascended.
He was resurrected. It doesn’t say that he was resurrected, ascended, and then sat at God’s right hand for 10 years. And then finally said, I forgive you.
How Jesus Separated the Person From the Offense
While experiencing pain and torture, he reached up in his heart to his heavenly Father and asked him to forgive them, to send away the offense. This is the ultimate example of in the moment, real-time forgiveness. How did he do it? He knew he was the Christ, despite what others said or thought.
When you know who you are as Christ did, what others think about you, what others say about you, or what others do to you will not matter. Jesus separated the person from the offense. Here, Jesus separates the criticisms that are loud and in his face from the individuals causing the offense.
It was an in the moment, an intentional refocusing of his will to show God’s love. You know, Jesus let go of the hurt. Jesus was sinless.
What Forgive Means in Luke 23:34: To Send Away
What does it mean to be sinless? Let’s take this into consideration. Being sinless, he never held on to hurt or wrongdoing of others. We know from 1 Corinthians 13 that the love of God does not hold on to suffered wrongs.
It was in this moment that Jesus was sending away the wrongdoing of others. He was not holding on to the hurt. This word forgive in verse 34, it means to send away.
It’s an intense form of the words to go. Living in real-time forgiveness isn’t pretending that something didn’t happen, but it’s a conscious in the moment decision to send away the hurt, the anger, the offense that would otherwise have a negative effect on one’s life. Real-time forgiveness is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love.
Love Sees Through the Offense and Rises Above It
Jesus saw through this with love. Those crucifying Jesus were emotionally charged and stirred up the emotions of others as well. And despite these emotional charges, Jesus chose to respond with love.
In real-time forgiveness, to send away the offense, to pass over it. Love sees through the offense. How he did it in this moment is quite remarkable.
He didn’t just get through the crucifixion. If I just make it to this last point and send away this last breath, it’ll all be done. He didn’t just get through it.
He saw through it. He saw beyond it. Well, what did he see? In Hebrews, it tells us that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him.
We have to look beyond our circumstance and see through it with love. In the midst of the offense, he was focused on the joy that was set before him and rather than the offense. Love sees through it and rises above it.
This love Jesus so worked in his heart to be faced with such a challenging situation and still have the clarity and wisdom to respond with love. How he did this is beyond words. Let’s look at verse 35.
Deriding, Mocking and Railing at the Cross
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, he saved others, let him save himself if he be the Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying, if thou be the king of the Judeans, save thyself. And a superscription was also written over him in the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew.
This is the king of the Judeans. And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Here rulers derided, soldiers mocked, and one malefactor railed.
Emotions of failure were hurled in his face. What were they all saying? They were all questioning whether he was the Christ. And the fact that they were in this moment crucifying was proving in their own minds that he was not.
Why the Mocking in Luke 14 Explains It Is Finished
To better understand the magnitude of how Jesus was mocked, let’s take a look at Luke chapter 14. This word mocked in the New Testament is used solely of the mocking of Jesus during the time of the crucifixion, except this other record in Luke 14. For which of you, intending to build a tower, do sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it, what did they do? Begin to mock him.
There’s Jesus speaking in a parable, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. Why were they mocking this individual in Luke chapter 14? Because he wasn’t able to finish it, right? This word finish is from the same root word as Jesus’s last words in John 19. It is finished.
They were mocking Jesus because they thought his work was not finished, and yet little did they know that he was in that moment finishing it. You see, till the last moments, they were still questioning whether he was the Christ. The ones mocking were saying, where is your kingdom? You began to build, you’ve laid the foundation, but here this day it has come to naught.
Criticism That Says You Are Incomplete or Unfinished
You were not able to finish it. You failed. As Christ did, we know who we are.
Has an offense or criticism ever been so loud and in some way convinced you that you are incomplete or unfinished? The root of all judgments we face are the adversary’s attempt to convince us that we are unfinished. We can’t allow criticism to move us away from the completed work of Christ. The adversary wants us to think that this event never happened, that the crucifixion never happened, that it’s not, to remove the reality that we are not finished.
There will be those that criticize us and judge us, tempting us to think that we are incomplete or unfinished. They’ll look at our shortcomings and judge us by their earthly standards, but we have already been judged in Christ. When faced with judgment and ridicule, we must understand that the work of Christ is finished.
2 Corinthians 2: Paul Tells the Corinthians to Forgive
Living in real-time forgiveness starts with knowing who we are in Christ. That’s our mental posture when faced with accusation. Please turn to 2 Corinthians 2. As Christ did, we separate the person from the offense.
Here in 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul instructs the Corinthian church to forgive someone who had caused them grief. In 2 Corinthians 2, verse 5, I’m going to read out of the English Standard Version. It says, Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, says Paul speaking, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you.
Paul says, I realize that this grief was done to you more so than to me. For such a one, this punishment by the is enough. You see, many of the Corinthians had already inflicted their punishment on this person.
Verse 7, So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. So I beg of you to reaffirm your love for him. Verse 10, Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive.
Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. Paul exhorts them to see this person for what God did for them in Christ and not the individual. He judged this person by what God had done in Christ.
Letting Go of the Hurt So Healing Can Take Place
Often when faced with emotionally charged words and actions of others, even from those that we love, we may find it difficult to separate the person from the offense and respond with unchecked emotions. We have to separate what is loud and in our face from those causing the offense. As Christ did, we must let go of the hurt.
How many have said the words, I forgive you, without honestly forgiving them? Many times it was months, maybe it was weeks or years later before forgiveness really, before healing really happened because you actually sent away the hurt. To live in real-time forgiveness, we must be willing to send away the hurt. Healing takes place when we forgive, when we send away whatever the cause of the hurt was.
Without forgiveness, our suffering may be silent but will still be present. We forgive not only for the benefit of others but also primarily for ourselves. When we live in real-time forgiveness, do you know what else that means? We can experience real-time healing.
Borrowing Tom’s Car: Passing Over an Offense
A number of years ago, I was doing some construction work and I didn’t have the right vehicle to transport all my equipment, so I asked my father-in-law, Tom Knupp, to borrow his SUV. And without hesitation, he gave me the keys. I loaded up and headed off to the job site.
When I got there, as I began to unload, I realized that how I had strapped things to the roof of the car had caused a series of small dents all across the top of his roof. Tom is particular about his cars. I knew the expense to repair these small dents was going to be excessive.
So after finishing up that day, I went to return the car. And Tom happened to be outside when I returned the car, and without any small talk, I got out of the car and told him exactly what had happened. And you know what he said to me? As soon as I told him, he didn’t even look at the top of his car.
He said, it doesn’t matter. I never look at the top of my car anyway. If you need to borrow a car, I suggest you talk to Tom.
But you see, I couldn’t let it go in my own mind. I looked at him in the eye and I said, I know of a place where I can get these repairs done. He didn’t even look at the top of his car.
He just looked at me and said, it doesn’t matter. He clearly passed over the offense and forgave. In that moment, a weight and a burden that had been dwelling up within me all day long was released.
Real-Time Forgiveness Brings Real-Time Healing
In that moment, not only did I experience real-time forgiveness, but I experienced real-time healing. We can experience real-time healing because we’re no longer carrying the dead weight and burdens of others’ wrongs, criticisms, or guilty conscience. I love how the Amplified Bible in verse 7 in 2 Corinthians here reads, instead of further rebuke, now you should turn and rather forgive.
It’s tempting to hold on to the hurt when we feel we were right. But love doesn’t look to settle the score, but instead realizes the score has already been settled in Christ. God forgave, and so do we.
Two Benefits of Forgiveness in 2 Corinthians 2
1 Corinthians 13 says, love does not hold on to the hurt of suffered wrong. It doesn’t accumulate offenses. Paul’s exhortation here to forgive carries two benefits.
First, it benefits the one who did the wrong. And secondly, it benefits the one forgiving. First, to forgive the individual so that they weren’t swallowed up with excessive sorrow.
And secondly, to forgive lest Satan should get an advantage of them, for we are not ignorant of his devices. How would Satan get an advantage of us if we are not willing to forgive? Let me ask you a question. If you don’t forgive, who are you hurting? Yourself.
Forgiveness Is the Act of Love That Sets You Free
You see, forgiveness is the act of love that sets you free. Without it, you’re still a prisoner. Sometimes we may find it difficult to overlook an offense.
If held on to long enough, it could very easily distract us from what God has called us to do. Most offenses are small and insignificant, but when unwilling to forgive, they become a big deal. Are we holding on to what others have said or done so much that we lose sight of what God has called us to do? For some, the criticism and disappointment may have come from someone that isn’t even still walking this earth, and yet we hold on to it.
Our calling of God is more important than the offenses we face. You see, Paul refocused the anger, the hurt, the grief that the Corinthians experienced to a higher calling to love by forgiving and sending away the offense to stay above the self-inflicted pain of unforgiveness. I love Proverbs 19:11 in the ESV.
Proverbs 19:11: The Glory of Overlooking an Offense
It says, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook or pass over an offense. It’s to overlook rather than replaying the offense, it’s living in real-time forgiveness. I’d like to encourage you to practice real-time forgiveness with the small things, and then those larger offenses too will have no negative effect on your life.
So the next time, this is a big one, the next time your spouse walks into the kitchen, opens that cabinet door, and leaves without closing it, it’s a big offense. You can in that moment choose to overlook it and say, I’m over it. The next time your family member criticizes you for a past mistake, you can in that moment choose to overlook it and say, I’m over it.
This is the biggest of them all. The next time your co-worker heats up fish in the microwave, you can in that moment say, I’m over it. For those of you saying, what do you mean, heating up fish in the microwave? You’re probably that person that needs forgiveness.
Back to Luke 23: Seeing Through It With Love
Please turn back to Luke 23. As Christ did, we see through it with love. Love sees the big picture, living above the offense.
It’s easy to get mixed up in the emotions that come your way, but it is to your glory to overlook the offense. How many relationships could be healed by showing God’s love, by sending away offenses, not seeking to be right, but loving? Jesus didn’t say, you will know that these are my disciples because they’re right. You will know that they’re my disciples by how they are loving.
Love sees through and rises above the in the moment anger and forgives in real time. Back in Luke 23 verse 40, let’s look at the love that fueled Jesus’s heart as it continues on full display as he shows mercy and compassion for this man right next to him. Luke 23 verse 40, but the other answering rebuked him saying, dost thou not fear or respect God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? This man rebuked those that were mocking Jesus.
Luke 23:40-43: Compassion for the Man Beside Him
Throughout all of this, Jesus wasn’t the one rebuking. Here, it’s one of the criminals that’s right next to him. Verse 41, and we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man had done nothing amiss.
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Did you see that? He understood Jesus’s kingdom was not over. It wasn’t unfinished.
He knew dying on the cross. This was not the end. There’s more to come.
Verse 43, and he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. The comma was added and should be placed after the word today. So the text should read as I just read it.
Verily I say unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise in the future. Love sees through the offense. And in the moment, Jesus extends this compassion to this man right next to him on the cross.
Father, Into Thy Hands I Commend My Spirit
Verse 46, and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. This same record in Matthew says that Jesus yielded up the ghost, which is the same word as to forgive, to send it away.
When Jesus sent away his last breath, he sent away all the hurt and disappointment that we will and have experienced in this life. He sent away everything about you that may appear to be unfinished. When Jesus said it is finished, that is our ultimate release from this life on this earth.
Living in Real-Time Forgiveness Today
In the very moment of experiencing torture and ridicule and torment, Jesus chose to respond with love, asking for his father’s forgiveness for those who wrongfully persecuted him. Jesus had endured the most grueling torture, and yet this love did not respond to the deeply rooted emotions that were marshaled against him, but rather forgave in the moment and sent away the offense. He lived in real-time forgiveness, releasing the anger and resentment that he rightfully could have chosen to hold on to, and he saw through it with love.
There will be those that criticize you to in some way convince you that you are incomplete or unfinished. Understanding how you are a completed and finished work in Christ ought to convince you louder than any narrative of this world. We release, we send away the wrongdoing of others, and pass over the offense with love.
Understanding the love that Jesus demonstrated in this record, it speaks volumes of the love that we have dwelling deep within us. We can walk as he did and live in real-time forgiveness.
الوجبات السريعة الرئيسية
- Jesus forgave in real time: while still being tortured he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), rather than waiting until after the resurrection and ascension.
- The word forgive in Luke 23:34 means to send away, so forgiveness is not pretending something did not happen but consciously sending away the hurt, anger and offense.
- Jesus separated the person from the offense, and in 2 Corinthians 2 Paul asks the Corinthians to do the same by forgiving and comforting the one who caused grief.
- Living in real-time forgiveness starts with knowing who you are in Christ, because criticism is the adversary’s attempt to convince you that you are incomplete or unfinished.
- Forgiveness carries two benefits: the one who did the wrong is not swallowed up with excessive sorrow, and the one forgiving is kept from Satan getting an advantage.
- Proverbs 19:11 in the ESV says it is a man’s glory to overlook an offense, so practice real-time forgiveness with small things and larger offenses will have no negative effect on your life.
الأسئلة الشائعة
What does it mean to live in real-time forgiveness?
It means forgiving in the moment rather than eventually. As the speaker puts it, living in real-time forgiveness isn’t pretending that something didn’t happen, but it’s a conscious in the moment decision to send away the hurt, the anger, the offense that would otherwise have a negative effect on one’s life. Jesus did this at Calvary while he was still being tortured, and when we live in real-time forgiveness we can also experience real-time healing.
What does the word forgive mean in Luke 23:34?
It means to send away. The word forgive in verse 34 is an intense form of the word to go, so when Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” he was sending away the wrongdoing of others rather than holding on to the hurt. The same word describes his last breath: Matthew says Jesus yielded up the ghost, which is the same word as to forgive, to send it away.
How did Jesus forgive while he was being mocked and crucified?
He knew he was the Christ, despite what others said or thought, and he separated the criticisms that were loud and in his face from the individuals causing the offense. He did not just get through the crucifixion, he saw through it: Hebrews tells us that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. Knowing who you are in Christ is what makes that same response possible.
المراجع الكتابية
Luke 23:32-46; Isaiah (chapter and verse not stated in the audio); 1 Corinthians 13; Hebrews 12:2; Luke 14:28-29; John 19:30; 2 Corinthians 2:5; 2 Corinthians 2:7; 2 Corinthians 2:10-11; Proverbs 19:11; Luke 23:40-43; Luke 23:46; Matthew 27:50
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