Forgiveness and punishment

There is nothing that test your faith as a Christian more than being faced with a great wrong and then wrestling with forgivenss. The Christian soul wishes to forgive almost at once while the intellect says "What are you nuts? Eye for an Eye!" The Christian approach is the only approach that leads to lasting peace. However the desire for punishment of the offender is strong too. I harken back to Calvery when Christ was hanging on that cross and the two men were haning with him. The one man tells Jesus that if He is the son of God then why doesn't he get down off the cross. The other man says that Jesus is an inocent man while both of the men are being crucified as they deserve. Then he asks Jesus to remember him. Jesus of course tells him that he will be with Jesus in Paradise. However at no time does Jesus get the dude off his cross. He lets the man hang there and die along with him. So I guess the moral is just because you get forgiven your sin, and will be with Jesus in Paradise, doesn't mean you get out of your earthly punishment, whatever that happens to be.

The other great thing about forgivness of sin is that as a Christian I can help redeem a mans soul by that act. God alone redeems souls but forgiving my neighbor I redeem myself. That is a pretty powerful position to be in. Conversely to withold forgivness for those who wrong me is a blight on my soul and I would not wish to meet God and answer for why I could not forgive another's transgressions. We set ourselves up for getting punished in the hearafter if we try to hold onto the sins of those who wrong us. We become the sin eater taking on the punishment we wish to levy on them. I would certainly rather leave eternal punishment to God and not tell the divine whom He should punish and whom He should not.

For the aetheist I would argue that Christain forgivness is the only true path of healing since to not forgive is to keep the wound alive thus propetuating and transfering the wrongs of others from generation to generation. Punishment is another matter. Punishment for a wrong comitted is appropriate in this life. Proper punishment preserves the order of systems. Without it the order breaks down and people feel as though they can get away with anything.