Jul 02, 2025
After almost every time I preach or teach, I find myself thinking of several things I wish I had said. Sometimes I leave things out because of time, sometimes because I forget, and sometimes because I don’t think of them until after the fact. When Sam invited me to contribute some writing to this site, I almost immediately thought of this series which is intended to let me write out “what I didn’t say”.
I didn’t get to preach Sunday morning this week, but I did get to perform a wedding. After presenting the gospel, I tried to show ways the good news about Jesus has direct bearing on marriage. For instance, we think about love at a wedding and in marriage, but in the gospel we get to see God’s love for sinners. We have the ability to love because he first loved us.
What I didn’t say was that the gospel is also connected to forgiveness. In fact, the gospel shows us the highest form of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a necessary skill for every married couple, in fact for every human relationship of any depth. Because inevitably, we are going to sin against one another and need to receive (and extend) forgiveness. The good news of the gospel is that “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Romans 4:7-8). Paul grounds our understanding and practice of forgiveness squarely in the gospel when he writes, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
How can a married couple keep asking each other for forgiveness, and how can they keep forgiving each other without giving in to bitterness or keeping grudges? By knowing the forgiveness provided for in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and living accordingly.
Share this post