God Forgives You

If you’re a Biblical “legalist,” Jesus’ parables might not work for you. Maybe you’re the type of person who wants to know exactly how much faith equals a mustard seed that will grow into a great tree or move a mountain. Or possibly you’ve wondered whether the older brother of the prodigal son had a legitimate gripe with their father, who welcomed the wayward sibling home with a feast on the fatted calf. Even the disciples found their perceptions of fairness and logic challenged as Jesus’ simple stories exposed the intentions of the human heart. For me, I know that one particular parable is a spiritual speed bump in my life, a pride-breaker that God often uses to keep my heart from hardening. It’s the parable of the unforgiving servant, where Jesus introduces us to His grace in the form of a seemingly simple equation: “seventy times seven.”

In this story, we hear of a poor servant who is so in debt to his king that he, his wife, his children, and all his worldly possessions are to be sold to pay what he owes. Seemingly desperate, on his hands and knees, he begs for the king to have patience and let him pay back the money in time. The king, moved with mercy, forgives the servant his entire debt and lets him go free.

The servant, at this point, should have gone out from the king’s presence with his burden lifted and his heart rejoicing. We could picture him to be like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, waking up on Christmas morning after the previous night’s horrible dreams of retribution and condemnation. The repentant Scrooge becomes a changed man, filled with newfound love and appreciation for others. Not the servant, however. He immediately finds a fellow worker who owes him a pittance compared to what he had owed the king. He physically attacks the man, refuses the man’s plea for patience, and has him thrown in prison until the debt is satisfied.

His behavior, however, does not go unnoticed or unpunished. When the king is informed about the servant’s actions, he angrily rebukes the man for his lack of compassion. The king recalls his pardon, sending the servant to the torturers until the original debt is paid in full. Jesus closes this story with the admonition that we must forgive others just as God has forgiven us. He uses the phrase “seventy times seven” to represent not a calculable number of offenses, but a Spirit-filled willingness to give others unlimited grace, even as we have received it from God.

Every time I read this story, I am humbled. I know how much I’ve done in my life to warrant God’s righteous judgement. I also know that as long as I live on earth, I will sorrowfully continue to sin because my redeemed spirit and renewed mind are still trapped in a sinful body (Rom. 7:15-25). The sin debt that we all acquire in our lifetime is so hopelessly huge, it is only by God’s grace and mercy through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross that we are forgiven and justified in His sight. Through His forgiveness, God promises to blot out like a thick cloud our transgressions (Is. 44:22), remove them as far as east is from west (Ps. 103:12), cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9), and remember our sins no more (Is. 43:25). We are assured that He will not deal with us or punish us according to our sins (Ps. 103:10), that His forgiveness is a blessing to us (Ps. 32:1), and that His mercy is new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23). This complete and total forgiveness is nothing we can ever earn or feel entitled to; it is only a grace gift born out of God’s love for us. Paul puts it this way in His letter to the Ephesians:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence...” (Eph. 1:3-8)

I especially like the last part of verse 8 because it asserts the fact that God’s forgiveness is extended to us in His wisdom and prudence. This means that God foresaw everything we would ever do wrong, and forgave us anyway. From the beginning of creation, God chose us, knew us, and made us His own through Christ’s sacrifice. His knowledge of our sins never deterred Him in His plan to love us and be with us for all eternity. He made His forgiveness available before we ever knew we needed it or asked for it, and He never denies it to us. He would rather we be obedient (I Sam. 15:22) but when we fall into the dark pit of sin, we can repent knowing that He will raise us up and bring us back to the light of His righteousness (Micah 7:8-9).

So why is it sometimes so hard to give that grace to others, not to mention to ourselves?

The forgiveness that we have received from God through Christ should flow from Him to our own hearts, and on to those around us. So often, however, our bottles are corked, preventing us from feeling or sharing His forgiveness and causing a backlash of bitterness, resentment, and suffering that He never intended for us to experience. For me, uncorking my spirit usually requires that I face the two great enemies of grace: Pride and fear. Pride says, “I won’t forgive” or “I won’t ask for forgiveness”; fear says “I won’t be forgiven.” If we’re consumed by pride or fear, there is only one way out: Faith.

Faith is the key to our understanding of how forgiveness really works. God’s word tells us in Ephesians 2 that “by grace we are saved through faith.” We first must believe God and accept Christ’s death as the sacrifice for our sins. From that moment on, our standing in God’s eyes has nothing to do with us; He now only sees us according to Christ’s righteousness (Phil 3:9), a position we can’t earn but can accept by faith. The life God desires for us is one where we don’t equate ourselves with our sins and shortcomings, but, as it says in both Habakkuk and Hebrews, “the just shall live by faith.” (Heb. 10:38a, Hab. 2:4) This is one reason why the Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please Him.” (Heb. 11:6) If we can’t accept Jesus for Who He is, what He’s done, and who we are in Him, we are refusing God’s love, grace, and forgiveness, and in the end those who do so will be judged as His enemies.

Faith also plays a critical role in forgiving others. No matter how badly we have been hurt by someone’s sin, if we’ve accepted Christ’s death on the cross, then we’ve also accepted the fact that it was what we all did that put Him there. And just as God reconciled us to Himself despite our wrongdoings, (II Cor. 5:19) we are to freely forgive as well. (I John 5:4) We may not feel merciful, but we can choose to please God and trust that what He asks of us is the best thing for us–and for others. This can definitely be a time where we “walk by faith, not by sight,” (II Cor. 5:7) moving beyond our feelings into resolved obedience of the will. We must believe that when we act in faith, we will have spiritual victory (I John 5:4), and that God promises to reward those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). By abiding in Him and doing His will, we receive the Father’s grace to forgive, the Holy Spirit’s healing of our hurts, and the Son’s fullness of joy that remains.


We also need to remember that the act of forgiveness is first conceived out of love. Just as faith without love equals nothing (I Cor. 13: 1-3), forgiveness without love is an empty shell devoid of the Lord’s intention. If we forgive with a hard heart, God cannot be glorified because we do not allow Him to redeem the wounded relationship between us and the offender. This prevents the other person from seeing the true nature of Christ, Who was willing to lay down His life in order to restore us to Him. This action was a choice born out of His great love for us, and because of this He can ask us to do the same for others. I John 4:10-11 states,

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Forgiveness is not an option for believers. If we love God, if we have received His mercy, we are compelled to act as He did and give mercy and love with no strings attached. To be unforgiving means we remain burdened with the sins of others (John 20:23) and put ourselves in an idolatrous position, serving ourselves instead of the One Who forgave us. Can we afford to do that? Not when we’re honest with ourselves, just as the writer of Psalm 130 was when he wrote,

“If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness
with You, that You may be feared.” (Ps. 130:3-4)

We need to embrace grace, not legalism, to experience the fullness of His forgiveness. Jesus’ words to His disciples were, “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matt. 10:8) If we’re also His disciples, those words are meant for us as well.