Drafted from listening to piper. So, these are mostly his original thoughts.
Most of bitterness and anger unforgiveness is rooted n an inability to be profoundly amazed at Christ’s love for us in His sacrificial death for our sin, including the bitterness and anger.
The solution is not in fixing the person who has sinned against us, it’s being stunned at the grace of God found in Christ. The overflow of that amazement is pure forgiveness. because if you r aware of the cost of ur own sin, offending a holy God and consequently the just penalty is wrath and how that cost has been absorbed and forgiven by Another, Jesus Christ (if in fact it has been), that will drive u to forgiving another sinner as urself. The Grace of Christ u have received will inevitably spill over towards the offender. So we do have to see our sin.
The bible does say that if u do not forgive, God in heaven will not forgive u (Matt 6:15) So this is a mortal issue; this is a hell bent sin – unforgiveness. (matt 18). Anger and Unforgiveness is very dangerous. It can take over ur heart, dominate u and u will be judged. It kills somebody’s heart and makes them shipwreck, proving they have never belonged to God.
So then…
1. No one goes to heaven unforgiven by God. It’s a place for forgiven sinners, not unforgiven sinners.
2. No one is forgiven by God who will not be forgiving.
3. Therefore no one who is unforgiving goes to heaven.
God forgiving our anger, like forgiving murderers because the bible says hatred in ur heart is like murder.
So, if u have been forgiven, u ought to, commanded to and enabled to, (if u r truly His), to forgive. And it’s all fruit of the Spirit, meaning true, biblical forgivenss is evidence of a true follower of Christ. Therefore If u cannot, will not, have not, u r not His.
