Has Jesus Suffered Enough?

Someone hurt me really bad. Really, really, bad. Betrayal bad. Someone close to me, someone I trusted implicitly. You know those times when you're hurt so bad you can hardly breathe? Then they were unrepentant and the pain went on and on.

I knew I should forgive. I said the words. I tried to feel it in my heart. But the next day it would come up again. Forgiveness is a process. I would forgive again, do my best to let it go, but, boy, did that person owe me.

Then a Christian counselor taught me that the person is not the evil they did to me. Yes, they did evil to me, no doubt about it. But the person is not the evil they did. She taught me that once we can acknowledge that, then we can come to a place where the person doesn't owe us anything.

While she was teaching me, I had a vision. Not an open vision or anything, just in my mind's eye. I saw Jesus hanging on the cross, and he asked me, “Have I suffered enough to pay you back for what that person did to you?”

The question shocked me. I knew Jesus died for my sins against God, but it never occurred to me that he died for other people's sins against me. “Yes, Jesus, of course,” was all I could say. And I meant it. Instantly, the feeling that the person owed me a debt vanished. I can honestly say I felt like they didn't owe me a thing. It was the most freeing feeling in the world!

That person's sin is now between them and God. I'm out of it. Even if they are still bound by their sin, I'm not bound by it anymore. And I can pray blessing for that person.

That's forgiveness. Not that I'm patting myself on the back or anything. The point here is if I could learn it, so can you.