Before-giveness

Men may exercise power over His human body. They may pierce the holy temples with the crown of thorns. They may strip from Him His raiment, and quarrel over its division. But they cannot rob Him of His power to forgive sins. In dying He bears testimony to His own divinity and to the glory of the Father. His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, neither His arm shortened that it cannot save. It is His royal right to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. The Desire of Ages, p. 751.

"The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin;" Exodus 34:6-7.

For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,

And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You. Psalm 86:5.

Look up forgive at Dictionary.com

O.E. forgiefan "give, grant, allow," also "to give up" and "to give in marriage;" from for- "completely" + giefan "give" (see give). The modern sense of "to give up desire or power to punish" is from use of the compound as a Gmc. loan-translation of L. perdonare (cf. Du. vergeven, Ger. vergeben; see pardon).

Observation: To forgive means to give up my right for revenge. This gives new meaning to the passage:

Rom. 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.

Not only does vengeance belong to God in the sense that He will avenge us of our enemies, but in the sense that He has taken the vengeance that we deserved. He gave up His right for revenge through the cross. He said: "I will bear Your abuse, I will take Your punishment, I will forgive!"

The group Switchfoot captured this idea in their song Revenge:

I'm the failure

I'm everyone's fool

And I'm losing my cool at the end

I'm the loser

My numbers come up

I've been hung up with thoughts of Revenge

Revenge

Revenge

Oh!!!!

I've been watching you with my terminal view

As you struggle to rise to your end

I laughed hard at the insults we throw

As the weight of the world found revenge

Revenge

Revenge

Oh!

Have hatred and Gravity won?

Oh!

Oh!

The world hung upsidedown

I drew first blood [2x]

With my hateful recrown

I drew first blood [2x]

Revenge

I watched heaven dying today

and I'm gonna die here tonight

I'm the villian and I deserve to be dead

I've been hung up for recking my life

Revenge [2x]

Oh!

So I stopped for a moment

to look at the sun

dying today

That's when the irony hit me

That this was revenge

That love had decended and stolen our pain

Away.

We consumed heaven's Son

And I drew first blood [2x]

And my hate was undone

And I drew first blood [2x]

Revenge

Here's a story

How thief had been robbed

How murder had stolen my rage

Think of me Lord

I'm a few breaths away

As my lungs finally rip from the cage

Revenge.

OH!!!!!!!!

God's forgiveness is not only giving up His right for revenge, but also giving in advance. I like to call it before-giveness. At the cross provision was made. And now He is simply waiting for us to accept His provision. This is what pass over was about... giving in advance. Blessing before the actual blessing. Delivering before the actual deliverance. Yes Israel was delivered from Egypt, but ultimately they would be delivered from sin. Before the lamb of the cross was the lamb of the alter. And before the Christ of the cloud is the Christ of the cross.

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:8-10.

This is forgiveness... It is there before I ask but it isn't mine until I ask. Forgiveness is a package waiting to be picked up at the post office. It is a letter waiting to be opened. It is a email waiting for a response. It is there for us; there for the taking. What will we do with the before-giveness of Christ? You see: "God "chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us." Ephesians 1:4-8.

Yes we were forgiven before we ever sinned. By this I mean the provision was in place. Jesus is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world (see Revelation 13:8). Before I breathed my first breath, He had considered death. Before life was mine, death was on His mind; a divine plan before the fall of man. For He was not willing to give life, if He did not have a plan to forgive. It was a complete giving on God's part. It was a design for creation and redemption. The two are a part of the whole. For God does not create without a plan to recreate. He doesn't give without a plan to forgive.

Prayer: Lord Jesus I accept your before-giveness. I thank You purchasing my life... both at birth and at conversion. Because of the cross I'm twice yours. Once because You made me and twice because You saved me. Both times are the purchase of the cross. For You wouldn't give me life if you could not forgive my life. Thank You for dying for me. Thank You for living for me. Thank You for promising to come for me. I await your return. And in the mean time, I will embrace Your forgiveness. I accept the provision of the cross. Thank You for saving me!