During one of our Guinea-Bissau furloughs, the six of us were offered free accommodation in a beautiful annex of a stately home in a village called Ightham in Kent. It had extensive grounds with areas of woodland and even a tennis court. We all loved it. We also loved the dear Christian couple (Charles and Liz Raven) to whom it belonged. We were even allowed the use of their luxurious car and camper van. Isn't God good!

But there was a great sadness to it all. Liz, only in her forties, was dying of cancer. She was handling the situation incredibly well. I can picture her now waving to me from her kitchen window as I came up the drive. She had a radiant smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes. I thought "you would never imagine that she was facing a rapid decline and a painful death". I was deeply impressed. I thank God for having known her. She didn't want visitors when things got bad, but before that she had said to me, smiling reassuringly: "Don't worry about me. I know I'm forgiven".

Forgiveness is what it is all about. It is as simple as that. The Son of God took on our humanity in order to rescue us from the horrendous consequences of our sin: eternal separation from the Father. He defeated Satan as our representative. He died on the cross to bear the punishment for our sin. He offers us his righteousness in exchange. Only two types of people have ever lived in this world: the forgiven and the unforgiven, or to put it another way: the repentant and the unrepentant. Jesus preached a very simple Gospel: "Repent and believe the Good News".

I have just read the story of the friends who lowered a paralysed man on a mat through the roof into a crowd right in front of Jesus. "Seeing their faith, Jesus said to him: 'Young man, your sins are forgiven.'" The Pharisees judged this to be blasphemy. Jesus said to them: "'I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.' Then turning to the paralysed man he said: 'Stand up, pick up your mat and go home.'" And that is precisely what happened.

"Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them" (Rm 4:7-8).