We sometimes feel that, if we forgive someone, justice will not be served. They’ll get off scot-free. We’ll be doing little more than giving them permission to do wrong again, seeing how easily we let them get away with it this time.
From a human perspective, this makes sense. But our minds need to be renewed to think God’s way. According to God’s Word, wrongdoers will get their just due. But we’re not the ones responsible to mete out the penalty….
Letting the offender off your hook doesn’t mean he’s off God’s hook. Forgiveness releases the accused from your custody and turns him over to God — the righteous Judge — the one and only One who is both able and responsible for meting out justice.
And so what feels like the height of unfairness, what seems to be nothing more than giving our offender the pass, actually becomes for us a step of freedom….
But listen to Joseph’s response to his distraught brothers: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” (Genesis 50:19 NIV).
What wise, humble words! Am I in the place of God? Is it my job to make you pay for what you’ve done? Do I really want the added burden of this after all I’ve been through already? Isn’t it foolish to think that revenge could be as sweet as advertised — sweet enough to make up for the pain of all these years?
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 92-94