Seeking God’s Forgiveness
“The Five Languages of Apology: How to Experience Healing in All Your Relationships” is a book written by New York Times best-selling author Gary Chapman and counselor Jennifer Thomas. This book, which was recommended to me by a dear brother in Christ, “is an eye-opening study of one of the most important and yet least understood pillars of human relationships: the apology.” Chapman and Thomas state that many Christians understand what the Bible teaches about forgiveness, but miss the principles taught in the Bible about apologizing. So they seek to remind us of the five parts of a sincere biblical-apology.
According to the authors, a sincere apology speaks of five basic languages: expressing regret, accepting responsibility, making restitution, genuinely repenting and requesting forgiveness. When all five are used, true forgiveness is developed, healing is attained and the relationship most likely will be restored. As they point out, though, most people only use one of these languages when apologizing, and very few use all five.
However, after hearing about the main points of the book I began to think about how these principles apply to our relationship with God. Does the Bible teach that these languages should be present when seeking God’s forgiveness? I believe it does.
In essence one can almost say that a Christian’s whole life is to be an apology to God. When we realize that we are sinners who have willfully transgressed God’s law, we should want to do all that is necessary to show remorse and seek His forgiveness. We should want to express regret (2 Corinthians 7:10), accept responsibility (Psalm 51:1-4; 1John 1:8-10), make restitution (Luke 19:8), genuinely repent (Luke 13:3), and request forgiveness (Proverbs. 28:13). All of which, Scripture teaches, should be displayed by us in order to obtain a restored relationship with God.
Therefore, the word of God clearly teaches us that these languages of apology are crucial to our relationship with God. We need to demonstrate these attributes before we can benefit from the forgiveness of sins provided to us through the death of Jesus Christ. So the question that we need to ask ourselves is this: Are we ready to apologize to God in order to receive His forgiveness?
— Sam Barclay
