Forgiveness is Powerful.
When we forgive, we give a welcome gift to the forgiven. We usually restore a relationship and make that relationship better than it was before. It often affects whole families. Forgiveness is a blessing to the forgiven and to the forgiver.
I was speaking in a country that had been atheistic and was just coming to a recognition of God. I passed on a truth that I had read that when we forgive someone we are to give up the right to ever use that thing against the person forgiven again. When I shared that, there was a shocked silence in the room. Finally a lady spoke up and said, “We can’t do that here, because Russia has no God”. I hadn’t used the word God in my statement, but she realized that to forgive like that we must have God’s help, even though she didn’t know God and had been taught that there isn’t any God. I said, “But He has always been here waiting for you to turn to Him and to give you all the blessings He gives to anyone in the world”.
Not only is it powerful to forgive, it is very important that we do so.
If we don’t forgive, God won’t forgive us. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.” “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive your trespasses.” (Mathew 6:14+15)
If God doesn’t forgive us, we can’t go to Heaven.
We see in Philippians 4:3 that when our sins are forgiven and we believe in Jesus, our names are written in the book of life.
When Judgment time comes, we, who are forgiven, will be invited into Heaven. “Then shall the King say to unto them on his right hand, ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’.”
But…
“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15)