Article May 9, 1970 Issue

Can We Forgive as Jesus Did?

JAMAE WOLFRAM RICHARDSON

Once when an adulteress was brought before Christ Jesus, her accusers, ready to mete out to her the punishment prescribed by Mosaic law, pressed him for his judgment of the matter. Jesus answered that he who was without sin should cast the first stone at her. When they all, conscience-stricken, had gone, he lovingly reassured the woman he had rescued, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."^{John 8:11;}

His forgiveness might well be interpreted as a total refusal to accept as real and powerful any claim of sin or of a mind apart from God. This doesn't mean that Jesus closed his eyes to wrong-doing or made no effort to bring an end to it. When forgiving the woman, he required of her that she sin no more. And might we not logically conclude that he helped her fulfill this requirement by seeing sensuality as a lie of the material senses, or evil, about her real, spiritual being? He condemned the lie, not the person; he separated the evil from the individual.

Can we forgive as Jesus did? We must if we would heal spiritually as he did. Jesus said to the palsied man he restored, "Thy sins be forgiven thee."^{Matt. 9:2;} And they were truly forgiven. By so clearly establishing in his own thought the true, sinless nature of man made in God's image, Jesus also enabled others to see and manifest this nature. This we each can do for our fellowmen. And only in this way, forgiving and helping others as well as ourselves, can we prove our own true purity and sinlessness.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

There Is a Way Out of Tragedy