Benefits of Forgiveness Col. 3 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The benefits of forgiveness are clearly stated in the Bible.  Forgiveness affects you and the person you forgive.  Plus, there are great spiritual blessings, as well.  The outline for this sermon is a modified outline from a sermon I heard Bro. Mark Rogers preach three years ago.

There are several reasons why you might not have forgiven someone who has hurt you.  It can be difficult to forgive.  You still feel the hurt.  You don’t think they deserve forgiveness.  You are proud.  But we are commanded to forgive.  Forgiveness:

Removes a barrier to prayer – Matt 6:9-15 – we know that this instruction on prayer is given to Israel and that it is before the cross.  We are not waiting to be forgiven until we forgive others; we are already forgiven.  But the Lord connected these instructions to prayer and his attitude about our forgiveness certainly hasn’t changed.  Remember the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matt 18:23-35.  When you forgive, you will see a freshness in prayer and more response from God.

Restores a repentant brother – 2 Cor 2:6-7 – this is the young man of 1 Cor 5.  When he repented; the church was instructed to restore him [Gal 6:1].  How many of us have been restored by the Lord?  Many of us have been given a second chance.  We really need to be ready to forgive when a person who has transgressed against us and the Lord gets it right.

Repels a Satanic advantage – 2 Cor 2:10-11 – it’s like Satan is waiting for us to not forgive so that he can gain an advantage against us.  We don’t need to give him any more advantages than he already has.  He is a vicious enemy.  He doesn’t need help from us.

Reveals to the world that we have been forgiven – Eph 4:31-32 – the world certainly needs to see that we forgive because we have already been forgiven.  Forgiveness, therefore, is not so much about us.  It is about Jesus Christ.

Conclusion: if you have someone that you need to forgive, then forgive them and let them know they are forgiven.  It will do you good, it will do them good, it will do the devil bad and it will do Jesus Christ good.