Forgiveness is a Decision

"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
— Ephesians 4:32

Aesop’s fable “The Laborer and the Snake” warns of the limits of human forgiveness. It shares the story of a Snake who builds his home near the door of the Laborer’s house. One day, the Snake bites the heel of the Laborer’s son and the boy dies. In anger and out for vengeance, the Laborer waits to ambush the Snake when he emerges from his hole. In his haste, the Laborer misses and cuts off the Snake’s tail. Then he becomes fearful that the Snake will seek vengeance and bite him. So, he begins to feed the Snake and tries to befriend him.

He finally gets the chance to ask the Snake for peace. The snake responds, “There can henceforth be no peace between us. For whenever I see you I shall remember the loss of my tail, and whenever you see me you will be thinking of the death of your son.”

The moral of the story: “No one truly forgets injuries in the presence of him who caused the injury.”

Forgiveness is hard!

True forgiveness, lasting forgiveness is not a choice. It is a decision. And yes, there is a difference. To make a choice is to select an option available. A choice can be changed. A decision is something completely different.

The word decision has the same root word as incision. Incision means to “cut into” something. Decision means to “cut away” something. In other words, when you make a decision you are cutting away all other options except the one you select. A real decision carries the idea of leaving no options on the table to change your mind later. You have cut them away from consideration.

There are times in our life where we do not need to make a choice, but we need to make a decision. Placing our faith in Christ should be a decision, not a choice. Entering into marriage should be a decision, with all other options cut away. And forgiveness must be a decision.

You will rarely feel like forgiving someone. Forgiveness is most often a decision that goes against everything you are feeling. But we are to forgive as Christ forgave us.

He did not feel like doing it. Read the accounts of him in the garden before his crucifixion. He was in agony to the point of sweating blood. But he made a decision. He forgave. He cut away our sins and removed them as far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. And we are forgiven not by anything we do, but by what He did. It was His decision.

We are to forgive the same. We are to make a decision and cut away all other options. We are not to leave the choice of dredging up past injuries against others. To forgive is to cut those away. Take them off the table. Not because the other party deserves it, but because we make a decision to forgive. It is not easy. As I said, forgiveness is hard.

It is too easy to make a choice to forgive and keep the injuries on the table for later. However, true freedom from injury only comes when we make a decision to forgive. It empowers us because it removes us from being a victim of someone else. We take back the power by making a decision over which they have no control.

We are to forgive as Christ forgave. We can’t truly do that without Christ. Our forgiveness rests on His finished work and is extended as we allow Him to work through us. I don’t know about you, but I certainly have some decisions that need to be made. Forgiveness is a decision.

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.