Are you only forgiven if you forgive?

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." Mark 11:25-26

This portion of scripture used to terrify me, especially with doctrines and teachings I was learning within deliverance focused and legalistic cultures. I can now confidently say this, fear will never lead to fruitful living.

I sought out to find every area of unforgiveness that I possibly had so that I could get it out and be forgiven. So many times I would recount, rehearse and panic over areas of potential unforgiveness. How do we ever know when we have found it all???

Now, after understanding the grace of God and faith righteousness, I do not deal with unforgiveness the same way. I definitely do not want to have unforgiveness in my heart, I want to freely forgive others just like I have been freely forgiven. So I am not making room for sin or saying that it is okay, but I don’t focus on the sin any longer.

I don’t go on endless, stressful deep dives into my soul trying to find every area of unforgiveness, terrified that if I don’t find them all that I am in danger of hell fire. I now trust that I am fully forgiven of all of my sin (including the sin of unforgiveness) solely because of what Jesus did. I chose to open the free gift of salvation and enjoy the benefits.

When it comes to addressing unforgiveness, I choose to abide (rest) in the finished work of Christ, trusting that my good and perfect Father will show me when I need to address issues in my heart. He is so good and so faithful to love us, teach us, instruct us, and help us. His love and salvation are not conditional or dependent on what we do in any way, it is all dependent upon Jesus and what He did. We have been forgiven of much, and when we recognize this and understand this we are empowered to release forgiveness to others.

We don’t have to panic, worry of fret over sin, Jesus removed them all. When we rest in this and trust that what Christ did is sufficient, we will automatically bring forth good fruit.