On Quora a person asked this:

“A Christian meditation today said that I must forgive those who hurt me, because my sins against God are worse. Yet I repent, while the ones harming me don’t. They double down, gaslight, and tear me appart. How can I authentically forgive?”

MY RESPONSE:

” ….WE MUST ASK OURSELVES
How did Jesus manage to forgive us despite our betrayal, lies, and gossip?

How did He forgive the people who tortured Him to the point where no man had ever been beaten as brutally, by the very people He had come to save?”

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“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you… -Matthew 5:43-44

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As Christian believers, it is imperative that we ponder these facts. God did not come down to give us an opportunity to be saved; His word never says that.
He came down to save sinners in need of repentance.
He came to save those who did not deserve it.

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“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” -Isaiah 53:5

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He would not have needed to die if He was to save people that could make the decision on their own or be good on their own.
If we really think about this, it puts things into perspective.

God, who is perfect, came down to save a wretched, mean group of humans. He lowered himself to our position, lived a life in a body of flesh that dies, and suffered one of the most horrendous tortures ever enacted upon man.

His bones were showing, his organs were bursting, and water was coming out of his spleen. He was unrecognizable; the skin was almost completely off of his body.

Why did He do this?
Not because we deserved it.
No, no, no.
He did it because He is merciful.

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The Bible says, “Be merciful, for I am merciful.” Luke 6:36

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And when we are Christians, we have the Holy Spirit, who imparts the attributes of God into us.
So if you’re not merciful, you don’t have God in you, because God is mercy.

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Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

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Our two requirements are plain and simple:

First, we must love God with our entire being.
Second, we must love our neighbor, regardless of who they are, just as we love ourselves.

It is a truth that Jesus harbors no ill will towards anyone.
Therefore, we too should endeavor to learn to forgive and forget.

Let us reflect that Jesus, who was tormented with a pain that far surpassed mere slander, forgave his tormentors.

We should feel fortunate that we have not been through such ordeals.
We must consider the magnitude of Jesus’ capacity for forgiveness, despite our wrongdoings.

As Christians, we have a responsibility to both love God with our entire being and to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves.
Jesus never held any grudges, and we should strive to do the same and forgive those who wrong us.

We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus, even after enduring incredible suffering, was able to forgive his persecutors.

We should be thankful to not have experienced such hardships.

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James 2:13 says, “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

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More Verses:

Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.”
Psalm 22:16-18 – “Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”
Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Philippians 2:7-8 – “But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Mark 8:31 – “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”

1 Peter 2:24 – “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by his wounds, you have been healed.”

A beautiful song I want to share on the topic of MERCY: