Uniting Church in Australia
Northern Synod

Indeed, all human evil originated from ‘oneself’ which exploded in his rebellion against God in Paradise. Humans were consumed by the bait of the devil in his diplomacy with snakes. The Bible states that God from the beginning never forced and suppressed humans who were made in His image. Because of that, God does not take the path of liquidation to quell humanity and its ego, but God takes the path of “love, faithfulness and justice” which is precisely “the crown of the Glory of God that can never be disarmed by anything and anyone.”
The loving loyalty of God put human interests first as His creation by sacrificing His honour and glory through the cross on Golgotha. This is a deed of God that cannot be repaid by the sinful human mind. Because of that Paul said, “the cross is the power of God and the Wisdom of God!” Indeed, the cross is the “heart” of God who remains faithful in maintaining His creation. The cross can also be considered as the “hand” of God who embraces helpless humans in their struggle against sin.
Through his physical suffering on the cross, when he wrestled with death, during his last moment on earth, his love blazed more on us. He showed his great love and mercy when he asked his Father to forgive us and teach us about true forgiveness.
Forgiving others who are guilty or different to us, is a difficult job. We are witnessing so much fighting in the household, the breakdown of interpersonal relations in the community, the loss of friendship and the outbreak of war between groups, ethnicities, tribes and nations because of revenge and the difficulty of forgiveness. As Christians we are called to meditate, live and carry out God’s call to forgive one another because mutual forgiveness is one manifestation of our faith and love for God and others.
Experience proves that sincere forgiveness will free us. Forgiveness frees us from a bad past and opens space in our souls for a new life. A term in
English says “to forgive is to forget”, meaning to be able to forgive we must be ready to forget what is bad, and move forward to start a new journey, the journey brings peace to ourselves and to others.
In the power of His resurrection, let us fight and struggle seriously in faith to sacrifice ourselves as recorded in Galatians 2:20:
“As for my life, it is not me anymore, but Christ who lives in me, I live in faith in the Son of God who has loved me and has given himself because of me”.
Rev Thresi Mauboy Wohangara