Lewis's Essay 'Forgiveness'

The overall thesis is that we are forgiven like we are willing to forgive others; if we expect God to forgive us then it necessitates that we forgive others. “We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us.” (Lewis, 2001, p.178) The argument was that true forgiveness from God means admitting our sin and not trying to excuse our sin, also the same thing is true with others. When we forgive others, it is not finding excuses for their sins but truly forgiving their sin and not holding against them. I believe the arguments were set up logically, however his personal appeal made it emotional. Because we all sin, it is our human condition to sin again and again; so it is easy to excuse our self for the sin we committed to self satisfy ourselves with our own
179) This stude out to me because when we forgive we are basically supposed to put everything behind and as if it didn't happen, which I think is almost impossible to forgive. I think if we are heart by the sin we could perhaps forgive but it would be hard to forget. One major method the author appeals to the its audience is that he makes it very personal and helps us to understand each one of our own human condition. Because we all sin, we can each relate and identify to the human conditions. So each one of us knows our sins and we are all guilty of trying to excuse our sins. So it is the personal nature of it that makes it very relevant to the audience. I would say early in the chapter his writing was informative, later followed by persuasive. I think on my paper perhaps I could inform my audience what happened in the past then persuade then what kinds of decisions and steps we could use in the far