What is Forgiveness?

An Unconventional Yet Well-Founded Take on Y'shua of Nazareth

John Vervaeke, professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto, talks here about the concept of forgiveness, relating it especially to the teachings of St. Paul.

See the entire lecture "Christianity and Agape" here:

#love #agape #christianity #paul #jesus #sunday #sermon #sabbath #sunday

This is controversial to say.

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Jesus does not anywhere in the

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gospels present himself

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as the what means by which

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we obtain forgiveness from God. He often

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presents himself as a way, and things

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like that, and we'll talk about that.

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But when asked how to obtain forgiveness

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from God —

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this opportunity of radically

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transforming ourselves — Jesus’ consistent

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message is “by forgiving other people.”

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We experience agape

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from God the degree to which we give it

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to others, and this has been

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of course radically trivialized in our

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culture.

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We think about we think of

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forgiveness largely as a matter of, you

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know, somebody feels sorry and we tell

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them it's okay.

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That's not the core idea of forgiveness.

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The the core of the idea of forgiveness

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doesn't depend on your contrition.

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The degree to which you are trying to

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afford someone else

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growing

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into their personhood, and the degree to

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which you are making a sacrifice towards

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that, is already forgiveness. Some

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forgiveness is when somebody has

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slighted us and the relationship has

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been damaged and, we have to act

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agapically in order to re-establish the

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relationship. But in a very real sense

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all agapic love is forgiving love,

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because it is “giving before”

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the person that is receiving the

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love can in any way be said to have

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earned it. So this idea that our we we

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are

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sacrificially extending

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the capacity

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for

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individuals to redirect their own

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history, experience their own kairos,

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was often captured by Jesus in the famous

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language of being born again.

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You're dying, and you're being born again.

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This radical transformation

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of your entire orientation,

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your entire way of being.