God is the Ultimate Victim of my Sin
Mary and I have been learning some lessons about accepting God's forgiveness. There is a common phrase, "you have to learn to forgive yourself". I've started to react negatively to that. There seems to be too much focus on me as the starting point. I think it's more accurate to say, "you have to learn to accept God's forgiveness." The idea comes up when I think about forgiveness for sin without punishment. I readily console myself by saying that sin has consequences, so sinners still get some measure of punishment. Written down in black and white, I see how ridiculous that is. I'm really saying that I don't feel worthy to be forgiven by people I have hurt with my sins and my pride wants to hang on to my guilt as a twisted form of control. If a murderer is paroled by a judge he is forgiven in a sense. We recoil at the idea that a judge, who has no skin in the game, can forgive without considering the family of the victim, so parole he...