April 15: the day of reckoning: Your taxes are due. Famous for declaring that the only certainty in life is “death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin also said government taxes were nothing compared to our more grievous obligations. “We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, 3 times as much by our pride, and 4 times as much by our folly,” he said. Now there’s a man who did not understand forgiveness.
Forgiveness is to be free of obligation. Imagine for a moment that you have received a letter from IRS forgiving your tax obligation. But “feeling” undeserving, you refuse their offer. You pay it anyway.
I think many Christians live under false debt, presuming their sins are too great to be forgiven. “I know God forgives me, but I just can’t forgive myself,” they say, thus lingering in their guilt. Do you know the Bible never talks about “forgiving yourself?” Only God can forgive. You possess no such power within yourself! And God's forgiveness is based on Christ having paid our obligation in full. It is as simple as that (1 Jn. 1:9).
Moreover, the Bible says that when God forgives us, He remembers our sins no more (Jer. 31:34). Not that He forgets, but that He chooses not to remember. If God chooses not to remember your sins, why do you? (And how much more insulting is your failure to receive God’s forgiveness than to refuse forgiveness from the IRS!) Do your former sins keep coming to your mind? Choose to remember them no more! Fill your mind with gratitude. And rejoice that you are debt free. You owe absolutely nothing.
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