Someone who was exploring Christianity and reading the Lord’s Prayer came across Jesus’ words, “Our heavenly Father…forgives us our sins as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.”

He said, “I have a real problem with that. If someone hurts me, I want to hurt them back. I’m a fighter; I’ll take out my pound of flesh.”

There is something that seems very powerful about those words when we adopt that mindset. It gives us   a sense of power and control.

But Jesus calls us to a different way of being human—a way that overflows with forgiveness precisely because one has experienced the deep, deep forgiveness of God.

At the heart of the message of Jesus is “the forgiveness of sins.” In fact, one of the last things he said to his disciples was that “forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

The “breaking news” is that God now offers the forgiveness of sins to everyone no matter what they have done. And like any gift, it must be opened to be received.

And this forgiveness of sins is meant to transform the receiver into radical forgivers too—people who forgive others “from your heart.”