The one who ‘forgives’ is a person who belongs to the divine

In an unforgivable situation…

Recently there was a news article in which a father ‘forgave’ a person who killed his son due to drunk driving, and people were very moved by it. Forgiveness is a privilege that belongs to ‘divine beings.’ As a human, when you forgive someone in an unforgivable situation, you reveal the image of ‘a divine being.’

Corrie ten Boom’s ‘forgiveness’

This is a true story that happened during World War II. Corrie ten Boom was born in the Netherlands. Her father had great character; he helped Jews and hid them in his house when they were being chased. For that reason, the whole family was imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. In the end, after the harsh torture from the Nazis, all the family members except Corrie ten Boom were killed. Because she barely escaped death, she became a sincere Christian. Moreover, after the war ended, she became a revival speaker and delivered the gospel of consolation to souls who had become weary from the war. Whoever listened to her message received the great inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 

Some time afterward, Germany invited her to visit. At first, she hesitated to accept it because it was difficult for her to accept. However, she visited them because of the work of the Holy Spirit pushed her [to go]. On the day of the assembly, she delivered the gospel of reconciliation and forgiveness. She was shaking hands with the audience members who were leaving after the assembly. There was an old gentleman who shook her hand, and as soon as she saw him, she was so shocked that she felt like her whole body was paralyzed. It was him, the notorious director of the concentration camp where she had been imprisoned. The one who killed her family by torturing them, beat her down with her clothes off, and tormented her with every type of humiliation possible… that person was shaking her hand.   

“God, even though I could forgive all the people of the world, this person, I cannot forgive at all,” she cried out in her heart.  

At that time, the Lord’s voice said, 

“Forgive him. I have carried the cross to save that person.”

“Thank you so much for delivering the gospel of forgiveness. Please forgive all the wrongs that we, Germans, have committed during the war. To be forgiven for all my wrongs in the past and to become a new person, I came before the Lord like this today.”

When she heard the story of the old gentleman, she was able to ‘forgive’ him with the heart of the Lord and burst into tears being deeply moved and thankful.  

The missionaries who were martyred...

In 1956, five young people with promising futures received God’s calling and decided to evangelize the Aucas tribe of Ecuador with burning hearts. After a long time of prayer and preparation, they boldly left their hometown for their journey. However, without being able to deliver even one phrase properly to the Aucas tribe, they were murdered by spears and arrows at the entrance of the village near a river.  (Photo: This is the plane that Nate Saint was on. It was found buried in sand along the Curaray river in 1994.)

At that time, LIFE magazine said, “The Aucas tribe has been murdering all the foreigners who have approached them for hundreds of years. Those missionaries went there even though they knew this… how unnecessarily wasteful it was!”

However, after a little while, another two women left for the village of the Auscas tribe with the determination of a martyr after they received nursing training and sufficiently learned the language of the Aucas tribe. When they entered the village, they found out that the Aucas tribe did not kill females even though they were foreigners. Therefore, while they were living in the village, they were able to do volunteer work and the work of a missionaries. 

These two women who dedicated themselves to the Aucas tribe for five years were Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliot who was martyred, and Rachel Saint, the older sister of Nate Saint. When Jim’s wife said to the Aucas tribe that they were going back since it was the sabbatical year, the chief of the tribe held a feast for them before they left and asked who she was. She said, “The man whom you killed five years ago was my husband. I came here too because of God’s love.”

The Aucas tribe heard this story and came to truly accept the Lord.

The way of Confucius 

Confucius said that ‘there is one thread that runs through my doctrines,’ and his disciple, Tseng Tzu, said that ‘the Way of our Master is none other than 忠 (zhong) and 恕 (shu)*.’ It means that being loyal to yourself and forgiving others is the core of ‘the Way.’ One who lives a life of 忠恕 (zhong shu) is a true ascetic, a person who has the face of a divine being. 

(Translator’s note: 忠 (zhong) means ‘loyalty’ and 恕 (shu) means ‘forgiveness.’)