Forgiveness, Not Retribution – Toni M. Babcock
“I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions; and like a cloud your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you,” (Isaiah 44:22 NKJV).
Many believers in Jesus are troubled by the rise of a growing trend called ‘cancel culture’ in American society today, because forgiveness doesn’t seem to be in its interest. Perhaps you’ve been “canceled”— as when you’re harassed, shamed, or persecuted for saying or believing what someone else in society believes is wrong.
Interestingly, there is no savior among the ‘woke’ willing to cancel an ‘offender’s’ debt, even if the offender tries to make amends. Whereas Jesus teaches us to forgive “from the heart” those who trespass against us, and to seek unity and achieve inner peace and identity in Him; cancel culture appears to encourage separateness, hostility, grievance and retribution. It seems better served when offenders are left ‘on the hook’ to be reminded of their flaws and missteps, their unworthiness and their irredeemable past. Cancel culture condemns oppression but never seems to judge oppression in itself.
Jesus is all about forgiveness, not retribution. He’s about healing, not opening up old wounds. He’s about erasing the past and giving us a new beginning, not about digging up dead dogs and tying them around our necks in order to make us pay. He didn’t advocate we ignore our sins however, or fail to make amends, but taught us that true transformation begins with Him. Through Jesus, we can hold ourselves accountable and transform our ways because Jesus makes people what they ought to be by grace not force. “For without me” he told his disciples, “ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5b NKJV).
Toni M. Babcock is the author of The Stone Writer and Christian Fiction for Young Readers and Teens. Contact
