April 2009

In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus makes the point that our sin against God is infinitely greater than anyone’s sin against us. Since God has forgiven us our great sin, the overflow of that grace to us should extend so we find the grace to forgive no matter what we think someone else has done against us.

What does it mean to forgive someone? When we forgive we make four promises to the person, the same four promises God makes to us about our sin when he forgives us.

1. I will no longer dwell on this incident – Jeremiah 31:34 – "I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Since God knows everything this does not mean that our sin is gone from his thinking. It means that whenever he thinks of our sin he chooses to remember that he has paid for it and will treat us based on that grace instead of what we deserve.

2. I will never bring up this incident to you or use it against you – Psalm 103:12 – "…as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." God is not the one who reminds us of our past sin. That is the work of our Accuser, Satan.

3. I will never talk to anyone else about this incident – Psalms 130:3-4 – "If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." When I forgive someone that incident is over as far as I am concerned and as far as anyone else is concerned. God is only concerned to bring us to repentance not to bring us to reminders.

4. I will never let this incident to stand between us or hinder our relationship – 1 Corinthians 13:5 – "Love keeps no record of wrongs." To forgive means to remove all the walls that stand between me and the repentant wrongdoer. It does not remove all consequences from God or the need to make restitution. But once a person expresses repentance, it is our responsibility to remove the penalty of separation. Forgiveness never seeks to make the other person earn or deserve our forgiveness because we can never earn or deserve God’s forgiveness of our sins. We forgive based on repentance not based on guarantees that they will never sin in that way again. Thank God for his grace to me! Apart from him I have no hope.