The Unnatural Laws of Forgiveness.

Newton's First Law:  An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

The First Law of Thermodynamics and the Conservation of Energy:  If two systems are both in thermal equilibrium with a third then they are in thermal equilibrium with each other.

The law of conservation of energy: This states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. However, energy can change forms, and energy can flow from one place to another. The total energy of an isolated system does not change.

In the physical laws of nature we expect balanced equations.  If something is still and undisturbed, we can expect it to remain so.  If something is set in motion, we can expect it to keep moving.  The force of energy may change forms, but it does not disappear.  As wild as the natural world appears, there is order.  There are equations.  There are explanations.  When we try to apply this intuitive logic to our human relationships, well, things don't quite add up the same way.  Energy poured into a relationship may fade into oblivion.  Massive forces exerted on an individual person may yield an explosion of energy 2 or 3 times that of which was originally exerted.  Or these same forces may cause complete immovability of that person.  A gentle nudge may produce an outpouring of happiness, or an eruption of anger.  A great exertion of effort may yield nothing, no result, or even a negative result.  

In the realm of human interaction, Forgiveness seems the most unnatural, most illogical and the most dependant on supernatural forces.  Forgiveness is the total absorption and total release of the (harmful) impact of a force upon you.  Forgiveness is the ability to totally undo that which has been done to you.  When a person is wronged their being quite naturally reacts and sets their emotion in motion.  There must be a reaction, and not necessarily an equal and opposite reaction.  That reaction could go many different ways, from a complete resistance to a complete flight in the opposite direction from the force of the wrong.  Forgiveness is the supernatural force that completely nullifies these bodies in motion.  To forgive within the system of our own human abilities is to fall short of complete and real forgiveness.  In a closed system, I may say I forgive you and even act accordingly, but that wronged energy remains somewhere and will surface again in at least equal energy, even if it is not recognizable as a reaction to the original wrong.  We may suppress, but we do not diminish the energy.  The ability to feel the effects of Forgiveness are mysterious.  The initial wrong will cause a reaction.  And if I have wronged you, it doesn't matter how sorry I am or how guilty I feel; the ability for you to forgive is dependant on forces other than my repentance.  There is no correlation between my regret and your ability to forgive me.  We appreciate apologies, but they don't really do anything in and of themselves.  I may sincerely beg forgiveness, but that does not necessarily mean that you can or will.  And on the other end, people have been able to truly forgive the most heinous of crimes without any prodding or expectation that they should do so. If you are able to forgive, then the energy to do so must come from somewhere else. It is an unbalanced equation.

In human efforts, we try to balance the wrongs against us with our flawed notions of revenge, or penance, or absolution.    In a strictly human to human expression of forgiveness, I must interact with you to come to some sort of resolution.  If I am sorry enough or you are gracious enough, then the problem is solved.  However, of course the efforts are never really enough and the energy expressed as pain is a resilient remainder.  Only in the power of Christ  can the equation of Forgiveness be completely changed.  You have Christ on once side, and everything else on the other.  In true Forgiveness it is Christ that acts on behalf of both sides.  I take my wrongs and repentance to him and he exchanges it for Grace.  The wronged person takes their unresolved pain to him and he exchanges it for comfort.  The act that makes both things possible is his death and resurrection.  His death accounts for the wrong, his resurrection insures hope and comfort.  True forgiveness is not an exchange we make with each other, but a complete surrender of all things to him.  And all hope is possible because of this surrender.  We can then come back to each other having had Christ balance the equation to our mutual benefit.

We are humans, acting in an isolated system.  We are trying to reconcile the logical exertions of Nature with the illogical expectation of supernatural beings.  We have eternal longing and desires, yet we are bound by flesh and time.  It makes for quite a mess.  The most noble of intentions can devolve in the frustration of inability to execute those intentions.  What is flesh but the realization that we are not quite what was meant to be.  Close, but no cigar.  A glimpse and a taste, but not (yet) the satisfaction of our true selves.  It is not chaos though, we have been left an option, THE option, of reconciliation.  We have the ability to call on a force to exert itself from outside this isolated system of time and flesh.  The eternal and perfect imposes it's will on the decaying world, making it new from the inside out.  God set this system in motion, and has always had a plan for it's renewal.  On the grandest of cosmic scales he will make all things new and be given his due Glory.  

In a particle accelerator we experience the universe on a incomprehensibly tiny sub-atomic scale, to help us understand the universe on an equally incomprehensibly massive scale.  In the endless cycle of human forgiveness we have the numerous tiny reactions, one soul to another that help explain the immense forces that God has set forth from the beginning of time.  In those moments of Christ filled forgiveness we have the evidence of the once and for all sacrifice he made to supernaturally balance the equation.  The world made whole, the world made new.

2 Corinthians 5
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[b] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 1
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace,which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[d]made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.