This past year, I taught a Sunday school class titled, “Engaging the Culture with the Gospel.” The basic premise of the class was focused on finding touchpoints between the Gospel and the surrounding culture. If we are going to reach the culture, it is helpful to understand the culture, revealed in a person’s worldview. In saying this, I acknowledge that the Gospel cuts through culture and that we do not need to understand the culture completely in order to reach the people within a culture. But it is helpful–extremely helpful–to know potential inroads into a person’s belief system. These inroads are numerous for most people, apparent in inconsistencies and holes within people’s worldviews. It is one of those “holes” within our own culture that I want to briefly address in this article.

Where is that hole? Let’s let a cultural phenomenon from almost a decade ago reveal it. Do you remember when the Broadway show Hamilton took the nation by storm? Everywhere you looked, Lin-Manuel Miranda seemed to be giving another interview on the inspiration and message of the play. In the play, there is one line in one song that captures the hole in our culture–a hole that the Gospel fills. This line comes to us towards the end of the play, after Hamilton’s son Philip suffered a fatal wound from dueling with George Eacker. Philip challenged Eacker to a duel in defense of his father’s honor and lost the duel because he listened to his father’s advice. Alexander believed this duel was a mere formalism, not an actual fight to the death, thereby encouraging his son to fire his shot into the air. Unfortunately, Eacker did not feel the same way and delivered a fatal shot. You can imagine the blame that lay at Alexander’s feet.

After this event in the play, he and his wife Eliza sing in duet, “It’s Quiet Uptown.” The song explores the dynamics of grief, especially a grief related to “moments that the words don’t reach.” Imagine the guilt Hamilton must have felt for his advice, let alone the hurt and anger Eliza experienced. Yet at the end of the song, the company pipes in with the line: “forgiveness, can you imagine?” When the company repeats the line two times, it becomes apparent that this line is working on two levels in the play. For Eliza, could you imagine offering that type of forgiveness to her husband; and for Alexander, that he could ever experience such forgiveness for what he had done.

Therein lies the gap in our culture: forgiveness. Take a few sections to think about our culture. Although it champions tolerance, kindness, and compassion, what dominates is judgment, condemnation, and bitterness. Consider cancel culture. We decry its pervasiveness, yet contribute to its existence. True, actions have consequences, but the immediacy of condemnation reveals an underlying lack of forgiveness in our culture. Cancel culture pervades regardless of political persuasion. Those on the right (e.g. Jason Aldeen, J.K. Rowling, and Gina Corano) and on the left (e.g. Lizzo, The Chicks, and Chrissy Teigen) are subject to its power because of the US zeitgeist. Every person in every home can now express their condemnation with fervor and precision on whatever social media platform they desire–all from a place of anonymity. The mob is judge and jury, delivering a guilty verdict with a sentence of public shame. Although we resonate with the line “forgiveness, can you imagine,” we live in a world that resembles the earlier score, “One Shot.” Hamilton had one shot to make it in the world; the colonies had one shot to determine their fate; and it only took one shot to radically alter Hamiton’s life. Unfortunately in our culture, we live by that “one shot.” It takes only one shot to forever destroy our reputation, destiny, and image. When that shot is taken, we are left reeling in utter failure.

This “one shot” cancel culture society impacts everybody. We have the internet to thank for that. We don’t grab the pitchfork and gather in the public square anymore; rather, we grab the keyboard, pull up a chair, and gather with the mob on social media platforms, in public forums, and in the comments section. No one’s safe. One mistake, and you will find yourself on the wrong side of history, being dragged through the internet highway and strung up as a spectacle for all to off their own thoughts of outrage. Even potential employers scan your past out of self-protection. Put this all together, and you have 21st century life in the US–a place void of forgiveness, focused only on the “one shot” we have. It’s a harsh place to live, full of judgment, condemnation, guilt, and shame. The hole is obvious. We need forgiveness.

The lack of forgiveness in our culture provides Christians with a unique opportunity. God offers what our culture won’t: a chance for a fresh start, a new beginning. He offers forgiveness. This is the message of the Gospel. Ephesians 1:7 declares, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,” and Colossians 1:14 says of Christ, “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus poured out his blood “for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:28). We proclaim a message of forgiveness, commanded by Jesus: “And he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:46-47). 

What our world needs now is forgiveness, sweet forgiveness. 

As I finish up this article, let me just make one more point: a forgiving spirit stands out in this culture. When we reflect our Savior through forgiveness, we create a platform to point others to the underlying reason why we forgive. We forgive because we have been forgiven (cf. Matt 18:32-33). His pattern of forgiveness becomes our pattern of forgiving others. The result? A platform to share the Gospel of forgiveness. 

We live in a harsh and unforgiving world where judgment and condemnation abound. In this world, forgiveness seems beyond our imagination. The world asks, “Forgiveness, can you imagine?” We respond with a resounding yes!

Your servant in the Lord,