Arterburn (2007) states:When I read Arterburn's chapter on forgiveness, I thought of another author, Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer distinguishes between costly grace and cheap grace in his book, "The cost of discipleship." Without going into it further, you should get a sense between the two. Now, my thoughts turned to Bonhoeffer only in the sense that Arterburn seems to be talking about costly forgiveness. I don't think that he is talking about the day to day minor offenses that we either have to forgive or be forgiven. I think he is talking about the big hurts in our lives-- the ones that we either perpetrated or the ones that we have suffered. These are the difficult ones to actually release....these are the ones that bring us waves of pain and disappointment.
As we surrender our lives to God, another action becomes necessary: forgiveness.
"If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forvie you." -Matthew 6:14
Forgiveness, when empowered by God's Spirit, is a process of detaching painful events from our emotional responses to them, thus facilitating the process of healing. When we forgive, we recognize our own failures and are are humbled. To forgive and receive forgiveness are gracious acts of love. These acts have supernatural power to change both the life of the forgiven and the one who forgives. When we look at how God has forgiven us, it moves us to find a way to forgive others even if they have deeply hurt us. Only the cross of Christ makes forgiveness possible.
Forgiveness means:
*We return our rights to God (the rights we usurped from Him when we became disobedient) and invite Him to be in charge.
*We obey Jesus' instructions to forgive, and in turn we can be forgiven.
*We no longer energize ourselves with rage or hatred over events or feelings from the past.
*We stop trying to change other people and ask God to do it.
*We begin a process of restitution to right whatever wrongs we may have caused.
Releasing these burdens is powerful in the battle to change yourself. You cannot skip this step and still succeed. Take the time to examine your heart, ask God to show you if there is hidden resentment or judgment. Seek release today.
Lord, let your Spirit penetrate our hearts and reveal to us what it cost you to forgive us. Help us to embrace your forgiveness so that we are empowered to forgive others. Help us to make enemies of any deep seated resentment so that we can live a life of true freedom.
I pray that your ministry of SCS can provide a healing place to students and their family. Grace Howard
ReplyDeleteI'm reading the book along and am surprised that you think Bonhoeffer and Arterburn are on the same page. Arterburn is talking about cheap therapeutic forgiveness in which Christian forgiveness is trivialized into an internalized process whereby we heal ourselves of hate (with God's help, of course). While Bonhoeffer's thoughts on forgiveness were never fully developed, it's clear that he would have focused on specific habits and practices that would have included the difficult tasks of standing up to evil, naming the evil, judgement of the offender, and assessment of the offender's desire for reconciliation. Now that's costly forgiveness. Arterburn doesn't make much sense in your selection when he defines forgiveness as the process of detaching painful experiences from emotional response to facilitate OUR healing. Then he says God's forgiveness of us is a model for us to follow. Really? God forgives us to detach his painful experiences from his emotional response? I don't think so. I think Bonhoeffer's costly forgiveness above much more reflects the pattern of Godly forgiveness that we are to reflect into his Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteArterburn is writing a very good self-help book to complement his ministry to individuals with difficult psychological and/or spiritual issues. Bonhoeffer wrote about Christians remaining silent as Hitler committed atrocities. Arterburn says "Don't energize yourself with rage or hatred" - Bonhoeffer says "Get energized with hatred of the evil!" Arterburn says "Stop trying to change other people and ask God to do it" - Bonhoeffer says "Stop the evil people in the name of God!"
For anyone interested on what Bonhoeffer said about costly forgiveness and wants some help beyond the source documents, I would suggest Dr. Greg Jones' EMBODYING FORGIVENESS: A theological analysis. Scholarly, but very readable. Addresses Bonhoeffer in some detail.
Time out-- I never said Bonhoeffer and Arterburn were on the same page. Please do not put words in my mouth. If you thought that I was equating them from a theological standpoint, I understand your tone. I am not.
ReplyDeleteAs you alluded, I agree wholeheartedly that Arterburn is speaking directly to those who have experienced very deep hurt. If one reads the chapter from that perspective, Arterburn's advice does not appear to me to be "cheap therapeutic forgiveness." We live in a very evil and sinful world marked by deep hurt and pain which results in folks who are trapped and burdened by past events. Arterburn is seeking to help these folks....he is not seeking to provide a theological tome on the biblical nuances of forgiveness (this chapter was four pages long). Generally speaking, we throw around the concept of forgiveness as if it is some abstract concept. The reality is that our sin (and consequently our forgiveness) cost the Father his Son. He is our model for forgiveness. But, too often, we relegate these realities to intellectual assent and never let these truths bring about the healing and forgiveness that we as Christians should be experiencing. In other words, I generally like the idea of forgiveness, but to actually have to forgive someone who has caused deep pain in my life...now you are going too far (of course I am speaking this sarcastically). Theology is of little value if we keep it trapped up inside nice neat categories in our minds....it has to breath and come to life inside of us. And too often, the truth is costly, but it comes with the great reward of freedom.
One more thing-- I think I still owe you a coffee. Call me.