Lawyers' Christian Fellowship                         

Reflections on grace and forgiveness

This year the fellowship's annual Christmas dinner was privileged to be addressed by Richard Gee, who until July of this year was a judge of the Family Court of Australia. Richard reflected in his address on grace and forgiveness. Many members will recall that Richard was appointed to the Family Court in 1984 after the tragic death of Justice David Opas who died as a consequence of a bomb attack by a person who is believed to have been a disgruntled litigant before the Family Court and who has not to date being brought to justice. In 1984 the residence of His Honour Justice Gee, as he then was, was decimated by a bomb, presumably planted by the murderer of Justice Opas. By the grace of God his wife was not home that day and Richard Gee escaped with relatively minor injuries. Though as Richard remarked he is still waiting for the jar of glass that they removed from his leg after the explosion that he had been promised by hospital staff

Richard reflected, in a very honest way, about that time and what God had taught him through that trial and how in the words of Romans 8:28 "all things" had worked out for good. He reflected how he had sat there in the hospital room afterwards and forced himself, as a conscious act of the will, to say out loud that he forgave his assailant. Why did he do this? Because he believed that if he was to be "fair dinkum" about his faith then he had to be "fair dinkum" about forgiving because forgiveness was not an optional extra of the Christian faith but a command that is at the heart of the gospel message and at the heart of becoming more Christ like and at the heart of being a co-heir with Christ. God expects us to forgive our enemies - the Lord's prayer says "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us". Christ on the Cross prayed for his enemies - Christ on the Cross died for those who were the enemies of God. Romans 8:28 says that all things work for the good of those who love him, but Richard went on to the words that follow that verse, that answer the question "what good do they work for? The reply of Scripture is that they work for good so that we may be "conformed to the likeness of his Son". Fifteen years later Richard could see, what at the time he could not, that through this experience God had showed him more of what it means to become like Christ, and more of the grace and forgiveness of God.

But it was not easy. Richard shared how it had taken five days of soul searching to come to the point where he could say out loud from his hospital bed that he forgave his assailant. He did not feel like forgiving him, as he still felt the complete outrage at the invasion of privacy, and just by articulating the words the emotions did not overnight disappear. But as time passed (3-4 years) he found that he could pray for this man that he would come to Christ, even though in all his time on the bench his assailant remains one of the most repulsive people to be represented before him and has not been brought to account by the civil authorities for his crimes.

It was important he said that we take the initiative in forgiveness because it was God in Christ who took the initiative in forgiving us. That we as followers of Christ must take the initiative to end the cycle of what the author Philip Yancey calls "ungrace" - the cycle of bitterness, "unforgiveness" and revenge.

We must remember the words of Romans 12:19 "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"
says the Lord. The only way forward is to leave justice to God, who is Lord of the past, present and future. Richard encouraged us in the words of Philippians 3:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which#12; Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

If you hold on to the bitterness of resentment and revenge, you will not press on to what is ahead.
Richard challenged us that forgiveness is an indispensable and necessary concomitant of being a joint heir with Christ. He challenged each of us to ask our ourselves "how good am I at forgiving?". It is not easy but it is also not a choice.

Richard concluded with the words of Peter Marshall, the former chaplain to the US Senate, may we, as we have forgiveness, in our heart have "Christmas in our hearts and in our homes."

In thanking Richard for his address Graham Ellis, the new chairman of the Fellowship, presented a token of the Fellowship's appreciation to Richard noting that it was being given to a former judge (Richard) who replaced a judge who had been killed by a former judge (Graham) who replaced a judge who had been stabbed. Graham also recounted how he had been called into the chambers of the Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea to be informed that a litigant before him had taken out a contract on his life which made objectivity difficult. He indicated that he had forgiven the litigant and, when he returns to Papua New Guinea next February, for the first time in seven years, he may find out whether the litigant has forgiven him.

This is a report of the address given by Richard Gee at the Christmas Dinner of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship held on 5 December 1999, the report is written by Steven Nicholson