The Necessity of Divorce

Did you know that of the words in the Scriptures for Forgiveness some are the same as for Divorce?

Forgiveness is divorcing or separating or sending away or loosing an offender from that person’s offence so that becoming divorced from the person is avoided. This is what God does for us. He looks upon us with mercy and love so that He takes our offenses and pays for them so as to be able to divorce us from our offenses. He cuts us off from our sins so that He does not have to cut us off from Himself.

This is the way of forgiveness. It is entirely one-sided. The one who forgives acts entirely apart from the one who is forgiven. From the side of the one who has been offended, a divorce is enacted, a divorce of all recollection and accounting of the offense in connection with the offender.

In order for the offender to receive this forgiveness the offender must be called to repentance. The person must be made willing to hear that the offense is genuine and that the person must be turned from the offense to the forgiveness and renewal of life with the one who was offended. The result is healing and restoration.

We forgive because God has forgiven us and has called us to repentance. Knowing what He has forgiven us, we look to others with eagerness to forgive them what they have done wrong to us.

If we do not act in this way it is because we have not truly received God repentance and forgiveness ourselves. No one who is abiding in God’s forgiveness can hold a grudge and refuse forgiveness, especially to those who repent and ask forgiveness of us. If one refuses to forgive, that person refuses to receive forgiveness. How can anyone truly believe the Gospel, the wonderful message of what God in Christ has done to redeem us all, how can such a believer not acknowledge the “for all” part of God’s forgiveness? How can one who truly knows God’s forgiveness reject the fact that this forgiveness includes the wrongs that are done to us personally?

It simply is not possible. This why Jesus commands us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is the way of forgiveness. It is the only way. Forgiveness begets forgiveness. Moreover, to refuse to forgive on our part, is to deny the reality of what God has already forgiven in Christ. How can we look upon another sinner for whom Christ died and not forgive on our part?

This is why so many “Christians” become divorced. If they truly believed God’s forgiveness, they would continually forgive one another, calling each other to return to the Lord’s forgiveness and to abide in the unity of that forgiveness together. How can anyone claiming to be a Christian even begin to argue that there exist “irreconcilable differences” between the two marriage partners? This is equal to saying, “I do not believe in the power of God’s forgiveness.”

There is only one irreconcilable difference that prevents reconciliation. That is when people do not agree to the means through which God works His forgiveness in us. The Lord has plainly declared His means of grace. He has recorded them in His Holy Scriptures. If we refuse to acknowledge them and receive them as He has ordained, the reconciliation that He has accomplished in Christ is rejected by us and we remain separated both from Him and from one another.

Thanks be to God that He continually calls us to repent even of such denials of His grace so that we receive His forgiveness and in turn forgive one another. Otherwise we would all be without any hope. But He is our hope. His mercy continues to draw us back into His forgiveness and Holy Communion.


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