So, here’s a fun Greek lesson you didn’t ask for but we all desperately need. The word for divine forgiveness in the gospels is áphesis—which doesn’t mean “let’s all sit around and rationalize why Uncle Joe talks or lives that way” (that’d be sugnómé with a much tamer, NPR-friendly vibe).

No, áphesis is fiercer than that. It’s about letting go of an offense even when you can’t explain, excuse, or stomach what’s happened. Like when the car that just radically cut in front of you (with its “visualize world peace” or “coexist” bumper sticker) nearly running you off the road! They don’t care or even notice—but you forgive them and let it go.

This kind of forgiveness is not about cancelling your moral compass. You still believe some things are flat-out wrong. It means that you don’t immediately nail people to the wall for being, well…people. It means holding back your “justice rant” long enough for someone else to breathe without choking on your self-righteousness.

Because let’s be real…nobody likes that girl. It’s just you, a soapbox, and the echo chamber of your own voice. Yay for you.

let it go

Genuine love and forgiveness come at the price of letting go. Remember Peter’s little math problem? How many times do I have to forgive my idiot brother? Seven times? And Jesus is like, “Try again…more like seventy times seven.”

Here’s the rub. Is forgiveness easy? Oh, good grief, no. God knows. For real…He knows.

But what about justice? God’s justice is more than opinion, it’s His character etched into the fabric of reality. Yet in order for us to be with Him at all, in a sense God chooses to hold back His justice for the time being.

pause

Forgiveness is like God hitting pause on justice. Not because justice doesn’t matter, but because love is kind and patient—and saving the lost matters more in the moment. In case we missed the memo, Matthew’s gospel spells it out. In Matthew 27:50 it says that on the cross Christ “gave up the ghost” (aphíemi). He literally let it go. It was the ultimate act of forgiveness.

Here’s the final kicker. Jesus had every right to drop the hammer. Think of all the hostility and shame He endured from sinful people. He did nothing to deserve the punishment and unspeakable misery of death on that cross.

Forgiveness from God (or from us for that matter) isn’t just a moral shrugging of our shoulders, as if to say “oh well…right and wrong don’t matter.” But instead of keeping score, real mercy chooses to let it go. Because we have been forgiven, we must forgive.