The understanding of legal justification which Paul the Apostle discusses–the justification received through faith–and the one that brings us into the favor of the Heavenly Father are two different steps on the road leading us to the mercy of God.
We need faith to receive justification, but if we do not remit all injustice committed against us and bring redemption to all those who are indebted to us, God will not accord his mercy and will not accept us as his children through the justification of his favor.
The condition is very clear and is not at risk of being misunderstood. Nevertheless, our history is proof that steeply discounted understandings of this truth very much abound.
Our Heavenly Father did not accord his love to us in limited measure through the power of the sacrifice of the cross of his son Jesus and certainly is not pleased when we short this very same grace of remission and forgiveness to others. If we have doubts on this point, we must read again the following words from the prayer our Lord taught us to pray: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who owe us debts.”
Our Lord Jesus set a direct proportionality here which we do not have the right to dismantle through little faith, nor do we have the power to alter or regulate its free flow, because its agency resides in the power of the mercy of our Heavenly Father, not our own free will. Yes, Jesus gave us the divine power of the Father to forgive and remit sins, AND he gave this power without the option for us to deny it to anyone we know to have wronged us. We are bound to forgive all injustice and sins committed against us, otherwise we will not find justification from the Father, and he will not remit our sins.
This is indeed our court of law. This is the true meaning of the winnowing-fan in the hands of our Lord (Matthew 3.12) and its power clearing the threshing-floor and gathering his wheat, to consecrate that bread into his Body with his word carrying the power of his Holy Spirit.
We are grafted onto Christ through our baptism of conversion, and by keeping his commandment of love, we remain united to the Holy Spirit; the living sap of the Spirit flowing through our nature–body and soul–transforms us into the nature of the Church. Jesus indicated with the parable of the grain of wheat the path his disciples must follow. This parable explains the power of the divine Word, which develops its roots in our nature and consumes it for its nourishment to produce the new wheat, some thirtyfold, some sixty and yet others a hundredfold.
We enjoy, in other words, the pruning of the Father and bring forth abundant fruits. By remitting and forgiving all injustice committed against us, we share in the justifying sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, and bring into life our Father’s inexhaustible justice and boundless mercy, which form the anchors of all peace and happiness. In sum, we become living witnesses of the Love of God.
