Isaiah 55:6-7
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him;
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
How much should you forgive?
Should you forgive your brother the most heinous sin or crime you can think of? Or just the little sins that don’t really hurt anybody.
What if your brother, sister, spouse, child, parent doesn’t repent? Should you still forgive them?
God blesses us abundantly in so many ways. He is abundant in His love, His grace, His mercy.
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think to ask.
And, according to our scripture in Isaiah, he abundantly pardons.
Is our forgiveness of our brothers and sisters the same?
Is it abundant? Or is it reluctant?
Are we like the little boy who is dragged by his mother by the ear in front of his playmate and told to say, “I’m sorry.” And he does it with a pout just to get mom off his back.
Or do we justify our own sin and say, well, we’re not like those really bad sinners out there! We’re the good sinners! We go to church every Sunday, put some money in the plate, and we bring lunch, too!
Forgiveness is the very essence of Christianity. It is the reason Jesus came to earth.
He came to die for our sins, so we could be forgiven by a righteous and holy God.
But, forgiveness is not easy for us.
It is costly. It costs us something to forgive. We have to bear the hurt that someone caused us.
It was costly to God, too. It cost Him His son Jesus Christ.
So, it’s hard for us to forgive, but God forgives abundantly.
Philip Yancey in his book What’s So Amazing about Grace? said, “I never find forgiveness easy, and rarely do I find it completely satisfying. Nagging injustices remain, and the wounds still cause pain. I have to approach God again and again, yielding to Him the residue of what I thought I had committed to Him long ago. I do so because the Gospels make clear the connection: God forgives my debts as I forgive my debtors.”
God forgives in 2 ways:
- Eternal forgiveness
- Daily forgiveness
Our eternal forgiveness was accomplished on the cross by Jesus when he died and said, “It is finished.” He meant that the work of redemption was complete. The sins of all of the elect, all of the children of God, were forgiven for all of eternity, based only on the shed blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:13-14 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
There are NO conditions on eternal forgiveness of sins. Jesus did everything that was necessary. He took all of the sins of all of the elect on himself, he died for those sins, and he gave all of the elect his perfect righteousness in exchange, so that they could be accepted by a holy and righteous God, and live forever with Him someday heaven.
Our daily forgiveness is described in the Lord’s prayer when Jesus taught us how to pray.
Matthew 6:9-15 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We know this is not talking about eternal forgiveness of sins, because there is a condition on it.
We will be forgiven of our sins, in this sense, if we forgive others their sins.
We’re to ask God in this prayer to forgive us our sins against Him, the same way we forgive others who have sinned against us.
I’m calling this daily forgiveness, because we need forgiving daily. We’re sinners. Even if we’re God’s child, we still sin.
This forgiveness is God giving us the peace of knowing and feeling that our sins have been forgiven, to relieve our guilty consciences. When we confess our sins to God and repent, He is faithful to forgive us and restore the peace and joy we have in a good relationship with Him.
1 John 1:9-10 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
When David sinned with Bathsheba, and God punished him, David wrote in
Psalm 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
David’s eternal salvation was never in doubt, but the peace and joy he had in his relationship with God could only be restored by confession and repentance for his sin.
It’s very important to note that true repentance is not just saying the words, it is a change in heart and behavior. When you truly repent, it is an action, a turning about face and going the opposite way, the good way.
And there is another condition on this forgiveness besides repentance. You have to forgive others, too. God will only forgive you and give you peace and a clear conscience, if you forgive others.
Matthew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
God is very clear at the end of the Lord’s prayer: if you forgive men their sins, God will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive them, God won’t forgive you either.
Not only that, but you do yourself a lot of harm harboring unforgiveness.
Someone once said, “Unforgiveness is taking poison hoping someone else will die.”
So, how much should we forgive?
Jesus gave Peter an answer to that question:
Matthew 18:21-22 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times:but, Until seventy times seven.
Now, Peter was a good Jew and the Jewish teaching was that you should forgive 3 times and then you were done.
So, Peter probably thinks he’s really going to impress Jesus. He takes the 3, doubles it and adds 1. That ought to be enough!
But, no. Jesus says, no Peter, not 7 times, but 7 times 70 times. Now, of course Jesus doesn’t mean exactly 490 times He means abundant forgiveness!
It’s not a performance to do a few times and then you’re done. It is forgiveness from the heart that knows no bounds. Just as God forgives as abundantly, we should forgive abundantly.
God forgives us for so much. How can we not do the same?
May God Bless You.
0 Comments