The Key in My Hand

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. EPHESIANS 4:32

The Key in My Hand is Evans’s best-known book, and the teaching in it has travelled further than anything else he has written. He taught it to youth groups and retired people, to liturgical congregations and free churches, to Bible colleges and men’s retreats, and he says that almost everywhere it drew an emotional response. Its subject is the healing of wounded souls and broken relationships, and its key, as the title says, is forgiveness.

A new creation, and a wounded soul

Evans begins with a question that troubled him as a young Christian. If anyone in Christ is a new creation, why do so many believers still struggle with the same fears, compulsions and hurts they carried before conversion? He had been made to feel guilty that old things had not visibly passed away.

His answer uses a simple framework of spirit, soul and body. At conversion, he says, the human spirit, once dead to God, is made alive; that is the new creation. The body is plainly not made new; it goes on ageing and will be redeemed only at the resurrection. And the soul, by which he means the mind, will and emotions, is not instantly healed either. It carries into the Christian life the wounds of the past, and those wounds become a battlefield where the enemy loves to work.

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:23

He sees here the three tenses of salvation. Justification has saved us from the penalty of sin; sanctification is saving us from its power; glorification will save us from its presence. The healing of the soul, he suggests, is a large part of that present work of sanctification.

He describes such wounds in the language of physical injury, from the bruising of years of criticism to deep wounds of abuse that are buried, and the fractures of trauma from which some have limped ever since. He tells his own story here too, of how a long illness in 1990 led him to discover a wound of abandonment going back to his mother’s death, which he had never grieved.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. PSALM 147:3

The key

What is the remedy? Evans respects good counselling and has used many Christian books on inner healing. But he is troubled that so much of it aims only at helping wounded people cope, and that so little of it speaks of the releasing power of forgiveness. The Lord, he believes, intends not merely to help us manage our wounds but to heal them, and the key is in our own hands.

He finds that key in Jesus’ words about binding and loosing. Many interpretations have been offered of Matthew 16:19, but Evans notes that Jesus repeats the words to all the disciples in Matthew 18, in a chapter wholly about restoration, reconciliation and forgiveness.

Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. MATTHEW 18:18

He links this with Jesus’ words to the disciples on the evening of the resurrection:

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. JOHN 20:23

We cannot forgive sins as God forgives them, Evans says; only God can remove sin as far as the east is from the west. But we can forgive the sins committed against us, and in doing so we can release those who wounded us from our own claim against them. He always speaks of forgiveness and release together. His great example is Stephen, who as he was stoned prayed that the Lord would not lay this sin to his murderers’ charge.

And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. ACTS 7:60

Evans wonders aloud whether Saul of Tarsus, standing by that day, would ever have become the apostle Paul had Stephen not prayed as he did. Forgiveness, he believes, opens a door through which God can reach the one who has wronged us. And it frees the one who forgives, who has been bound to the offender by the pain of the wound as surely as by a rope.

Walking out healing

Evans’s practical counsel is gentle and unhurried. He tells readers to ask the Holy Spirit to direct their thoughts, and to take their time; healing rarely comes quickly. He encourages them to talk through their past, to recognise honestly where they were wounded by another’s sin, without either blaming others for their own failings or excusing those who hurt them. He suggests writing a letter, never to be sent, setting out specifically how they were hurt and what they longed for, so that buried pain can be brought into the light. Then comes the choice to forgive each thing written, and to pray a prayer of release like Stephen’s; then to destroy the letter as a sign that the matter is settled; and then to pray daily for blessing on the one who caused the wound, and to remain open to reconciliation when it is possible.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. MATTHEW 5:44

He tells a number of stories, with names changed, of people who took this path and found not only their own healing but a changed relationship with a parent or teacher who had wounded them. They are moving stories, and he tells them as testimonies to the goodness of God.

Weighing the teaching

The heart of this teaching, that believers must forgive from the heart as they have been forgiven, and that bitterness binds us while forgiveness frees us, is plainly taught throughout Scripture. Many have found freedom through it, and the church needs it urgently.

Some parts ask for care. Evans’s reading of binding, loosing and remitting sins is one of several held by faithful interpreters; others understand these words as belonging to the proclamation of the gospel and the discipline of the church, rather than to private acts of release. His stories of offenders whose hearts were changed after a prayer of release are testimonies of God’s kindness, not guarantees; some who forgive will never see the other person change, and their forgiveness is no less real. Forgiveness does not require a wounded person to return to someone who is still dangerous; reconciliation depends on repentance on both sides. And where deep trauma or abuse is involved, the help of a wise and qualified counsellor is a gift, not a failure of faith. Evans himself encourages his readers to find a good counsellor to walk with them, and warns that not every recovered memory is accurate. His purpose, he insists, is not recrimination but freedom.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask the Holy Spirit gently to show you any wound you have carried from the past. Do not rush; write down what comes.

2. If a particular person comes to mind, consider writing the kind of unsent letter Evans describes. Be specific. Take your time.

3. When you are ready, forgive each thing you have written, and pray in your own words that God would not lay those sins to that person’s charge.

4. Begin to pray daily for God’s blessing on the one who hurt you, and notice how it changes your own heart.

5. If your wound is deep, find a mature, trustworthy Christian counsellor or pastor to walk with you, and do not be ashamed to ask.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You were wounded for my transgressions, and by Your stripes I am healed. You know every wound I carry, for You were there when it happened.

I bring You the hurts I have buried and the people who caused them. By Your grace I choose to forgive them, and I ask You not to lay these things to their charge.

Loose me from the bitterness that has bound me to them. Heal my soul, restore what was broken, and teach me to walk in freedom.

And make me a peacemaker, so that others may find in me the forgiveness I have found in You. Amen.