When God forgives of our sins, He assertively initiates the process of reconciliation even before we ask His forgiveness. The essence of God’s forgiveness is that He absorbs the debt of our sinfulness upon Himself in Jesus Christ, rather than requiring us to repay the debt through our moral efforts. Because God sees us for who we are in Jesus and not who we are as sinners, we are empowered to become a community that doesn’t bear grudges, belittle those who have hurt us, or force people to carry the sins of their past with them forever.