It Shall not be Forgiven

Lately I have been reading George Macdonald's book ' Unspoken Sermons' and I find his veiws to draw light to passages I have read over and over but never thought about.
The last sermon was called ' It shall not be forgiven' this one I have to say, taught me what I have a hard time doing...... forgiving.
I can hold on to things that have hurt me for years, and the more I think about it, the more the problem can hurt me over and over again. I never thought it was something I could change or that I even wanted to change, but it has been something I have been told I have to do.. forgive.

These are just parts of his sermon that hit me:

start with -Luke 12:10

- Christ is God's Forgiveness.

- If God forgave a man who was unforgiving and hated his brother, How would the man interpret it? Would it not mean to him, " You may go on hating. I do not mind it. You have had great provocation, and are justified in your hate"? Man would think, Not that God loved the sinner, but that He forgave the sin, which God never does. Every sin meets with its due fate- inexorable expulsion from the paradise of God's Humanity. He loves the sinner so much that He cannot forgive him in any other way than by banishing from his bosom the demon that possesses him, by lifting him out of the mire of his iniquity.


-Forgiveness, is not love merely, but love conveyed as love to the erring, so establishing peace towards God, and forgiveness towards our neighbour.


-Without the Spirit to witness with his spirit, no man could know himself forgiven, even if God appeared to him and said so. The full forgiveness is, when a man feels that God is forgiving him; and this cannot be while he oposes himself to the very essence of God's will.

*- When a man gives up self, his past sins will no longer oppress him.

note: these are just some of the quotes I like from this book, and this was just one sermon, but one I need to get into my thick head.