spot the lie: FRIENDS edition‏

So Paige and I were watching FRIENDS the other night when this gem was dropped:

Chandler: I can’t believe I did this! What an idiot!
Monica: Oh, stop beating yourself up! People make mistakes! These things happen! There aren’t any messages you’ve forgotten to give me are there? (Chandler has a disgusted look on his face.) Apparently you’re not very good at it! I…
Chandler: Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?
Rachel: Of course he will! But Chandler the most important thing is you forgive yourself!Chandler: Y’know what? I-I kinda have.
Rachel: Already? That’s pretty bad what you did.

Did you spot the lie?

I know, I know. Which one, right?

Chandler is worried that the one he has wronged may not forgive him.

Rachel reassures Chandler that Joey will forgive him, but encourages Chandler to forgive himself. Because after all, that’s “the most important thing,” right?

FALSE!

It isn’t.

It’s not even possible.

Additionally, Rachel proposes that the One wronged is somehow less important in the equation than your own processing of the wrong you have committed.

Nothing could be more religious than making my sin against someone else about my disappointment with myself in making the situation about me and my struggle to live with what I’ve done.

Acts 2:22-23

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Acts 3:14-15

¹⁴ But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

Acts 5:30

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

Peter simply slays people for their sins. It is rightly said that our sins nailed Jesus to the cross. They did. Peter’s audience, however, may have included men who literally had the hammers in the hands in addition to those who had cheered, “Crucify Him!” only months earlier. These people killed Jesus. Literally. So what is Peter’s response?

“God will surely forgive you for this. The most important thing is that you forgive yourselves.”

NOPE!

Acts 2:37-38

³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You do not have the authority or jurisdiction to forgive yourself.