God’s Divine Law of Blessing
Every day people exceed the speed limit in their cars. They break the law of the land in which they live. But unless they are caught by the police, nothing happens. Laws such as this are man-made, and men are needed to enforce them.
The Laws of the Universe
There are other laws in the universe, however, that are not man-made. If we ignore these laws, there are consequences even if there is no one there to enforce them. These laws are both physical and spiritual.
Take, for example, the law of gravity. If you drop a coin, it falls to the floor. If you step off a cliff your body will obey the law of gravity. You will fall downward, probably to your death. Everything in the universe obeys the law of gravity. No one can ignore it—not even for a moment. Nothing and no one can ever change it.
There are many other physical laws that control the whole of the physical universe. All of them are unchangeable. They are a reflection both of the unchangeable character of creator God and of the order He built into the universe.
The early pioneers of science focused their attention on discovering these laws. Without such laws and the order that they bring, the physical universe would be nothing but chaos. Life would be impossible, and human beings could not survive. Men and women are physical beings who are subject to these physical laws.
There is more to a human being, however, than just having a physical body. Humans are also spiritual beings. Not only is the shape and design of the human body unique, but the human character and personality are also totally unique. The Bible uses words such as soul and spirit to describe this spiritual nature (see Psalm 35:9, 51:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12).
We are both physical and spiritual beings. Because we are physical, we are subject to the laws of the physical universe. But because we are spiritual, we are subject to the spiritual laws that God has built into the spiritual universe.
And because we live at the interface between the physical and spiritual worlds, what happens in the physical can affect the spiritual, and what happens in the spiritual can also affect the physical.
As children we learn quickly about the dangers of ignoring physical laws. Our parents try to protect us from experiencing the law of gravity by urging us to be cautious around stairs, and they teach us the laws of motion by keeping us away from dangerous traffic.
But where do we learn about the dangers of ignoring spiritual laws?
It was God’s intention that our parents should not only teach us vital physical lessons, but they should also teach us vital spiritual lessons. For just as there can be very serious physical consequences from being ignorant of the physical laws, there are consequences even more serious that result from being ignorant of the spiritual laws. Ignoring physical laws have serious consequences in present time, but ignoring spiritual laws can also have serious eternal consequences.
Because you and I—and all humankind—chose to rebel against the God who made us, relationship with Him was broken. As a result, we lost the understanding of these spiritual principles that we would otherwise have understood naturally.
But God loved us so much that He did two things to help us. First, He gave us His written Word (the Bible) so that we could understand about spiritual things and learn what the consequences are of ignoring spiritual laws. Second, He sent His Son, Jesus (the Living Word), so that we could have a restored relationship with Him.
Jesus tells us that one of the reasons He came was to show us what Father God is really like, for He and the Father are one. He told His disciples that if they had seen Him, they had also seen the Father (see John 14:7–9).
The Law of Forgiveness
Every one of us has free will—the ability to make choices about anything and everything in life. We can make right or wrong choices, good or bad choices. The right and good choices will bring blessing into our lives. The wrong and bad choices will have the opposite effect.
This brings us right back to the most powerful prayer on earth. To pray this amazing prayer, it is necessary that we embrace a principle that is at the heart of God’s spiritual laws. Make the right choice concerning this principle, and you are headed for blessing.
The disciples asked Jesus how to pray. His answer was to give them a pattern that would form the basis of all our prayers. We call it the Lord’s Prayer (see Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:1–4).
All who believe in God want to know that their sins are forgiven. They do not want their unforgiven sins to remain on God’s slate for eternity and create a barrier between them and God. Therefore, it would have been a relief to the disciples to hear Jesus include within the Lord’s Prayer the phrase that began, “Forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12).
We trespass when we go beyond what we are allowed. If we ignore the signs that say Private and walk on someone else’s land, we are trespassing. When we step over God’s line that divides what is right from what is wrong, we are trespassing against God. We leave behind our spiritual footprints, and God knows where we have been.
Just as human relationships are damaged when we trespass on someone else’s property, our relationship with God is damaged when we trespass spiritually. Our conscience is affected, and we know we have done wrong.
Deep inside we long for relational restoration. To deal with the situation, we need to face up to our pride and come back to God humbly. We need to say we are sorry and ask for forgiveness for our sin. Humility is the gateway to God’s grace. The Lord’s Prayer brings us to this point of asking God for forgiveness.
We find, however, that the next phrase contains some unwelcome and challenging words. Not only does it say, “Forgive us our debts,” but it also says, “as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). It is here that we come up against one of those vital spiritual laws—laws that cannot be changed, and laws that we are subject to even though we do not want to be.
The disciples must have struggled with the idea of having to forgive others as well, for Jesus had to tell them again—and in very simple words: “If you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).
Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, even asked Jesus how often he needed to forgive others, suggesting that perhaps seven was a very large and generous number. There was a gentle rebuke in Jesus’ words when He replied, “Not seven times, Peter, but seventy times seven” (see Matthew 18:21–22). In other words, stop counting and just keep on forgiving.
The Law of Blessing
If we want to know the continuous blessing of God, then we have to forgive others continuously and quickly. Otherwise when we ask God to forgive us, we will be asking Him for something that we are not willing to give to others. We will become trapped by our own hypocrisy.
There is no way that Jesus could have prayed the most powerful prayer on earth if He had not first come to the point of forgiving those who nailed Him to that piece of wood. He knew that forgiveness of others was an essential gateway to knowing the continuous blessing of God. This is what He had taught His disciples to do time and time again.
Forgiveness of sin is the greatest possible blessing that God makes available to His children. But if we are not willing to forgive others, we will miss out on God’s best for our lives.
Consider the examples of Mary and Alec who discovered the blessing that comes with forgiveness. Mary had been abused sexually by her father for many years, and she had also done many wrong things, including having had several wrong sexual relationships. In the arms of other men, she was looking for the comfort her father should have given her.
Mary knew these relationships had been wrong, and with many tears, she confessed them to God. She knew she had done the right thing in confessing them, but she did not feel much different as a result. She could not understand why.
It was then that she had to face the hardest decision of her life—whether or not she would choose to forgive her own father. How could she, after he had done such terrible things to her? But deep inside she knew that it was her attitude toward her father that was the barrier preventing her from knowing the forgiveness of God for herself.
Slowly, Mary faced the issue. She realized that if she did not forgive her father, the memories of what he had done would control her for the rest of her life. She wanted very much to be free, and yet to be so, she had to give up all of the bitterness and anger in her heart.
Finally, the battle was won, and she was able to forgive him. It was only as God lifted the burden of her sins that she realized the full depth of His love for her. She experienced the blessing of God in a totally new way—just as Jesus had said, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14).
Mary had learned that we cannot ignore God’s spiritual law of forgiveness. It is just as powerful in the spiritual realm as the law of gravity is in the physical realm. Ignore the law and we bring suffering on ourselves; abide by the law and we walk in God’s blessing.
Alec had struggled desperately with what he had thought was the unfairness of having to forgive others—until he experienced the joy and blessing of forgiving the one person who had hurt him the most.
Just like Mary, Alec was still carrying scars from his father. His scars were not the scars of sexual abuse, however, but of having been squeezed into a career mold. His father had pressured him into being a doctor, which was a career that did not match his gifts, abilities and desires. In midlife he went into deep depression and had to retire early from his work as a family doctor.
When he decided to forgive, it was as if the black clouds of depression that had masked every activity of his life lifted from his mind. He became a totally different man. As he started to rediscover himself, he was desperate to think of anyone else he could forgive! He wanted to enjoy more of God’s blessing on his life.
Mary and Alec, and thousands of others like them, discovered God’s spiritual laws the hard way. By ignoring the command of God to forgive, they discovered the law that bound them in spiritual chains. When they forgave, they discovered another law—this time a law of blessing. They began to know the forgiveness of God for themselves. They learned the relationship between forgiving others and being forgiven, and they began to taste for themselves the blessings that God promises.