Forgiveness Part 1

Like confession it’s good for the soul… and it’s required.

What a day! About 2/3 of the way through, I concluded that Satan must really have me in his sights. First I got out of sorts with my daughter over some little thing and the whole day was down hill from there. “Good day to write about forgiveness,” was the Lord’s advice.

Some one once said that if we ever realized just how much the Lord has forgiven is us, we’d not hesitate a moment in forgiving others. I wonder. I think He pretty much nailed us in His parable of the unmerciful servant. It’s in Matt 18:21-35. Peter began the dialogue by asking how many times we’re required to forgive a brother who sins against us, “seven times?” “Not seven times but 70 times 7,” replied the Lord, and then He gave them and us the parable.

The Unmerciful Servant

A servant owed his master a debt he could never hope to repay. Asking only for more time to pay, he is completely forgiven, the debt cancelled. Upon leaving his master’s office he chances upon a fellow servant who owes him a small sum. He demands payment but the fellow servant also asks for more time. The request is refused and the newly forgiven servant has his debtor thrown into prison until he can pay in full. Upon learning this, the master is enraged. “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?” He then has the servant turned over to the jailer to be tortured until he can repay all he owes. The Lord concluded with this admonition. “This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

Each subject and object in the parable is symbolic. The master represents the Lord, the servant is you and I, the debt is our sin, the prison is whatever emotion locks up our reason, and the jailer who tortures us is Satan.

Please understand that failure to forgive doesn’t suspend your salvation. Salvation is not behavior driven like this parable is. What’s being suspended until the debt is repaid is the relationship. The servant doesn’t stop being a servant. He no longer has access to the master, and the jailer now has access to him, but the implication is that once the debt is repaid he’ll be restored to good graces.

Union and Fellowship

It helps when you see that there are 2 levels of forgiveness; one that is not behavior driven and one that is. The first is the forgiveness that the Lord purchased with His life. You received it simply by believing that He died for you. At that moment you were forgiven once and for all, and your salvation was assured. Like the servant, your debt was cancelled but unlike him you were also given irrevocable union with the Father (Ephe 1:13) and became as righteous as He is (2Cor 5:21). This union is forever and carries eternal blessings for every believer. So why did John in his letter to believers counsel us to confess and be restored every time we sin (1 John 1:9)? It’s because of the other level, fellowship. Fellowship is temporal, carries earthly benefits, and is subject to interruption. He can’t relate to us while our hearts are full of anger, lust, envy, greed, or any other of the destructive human emotions that imprison us, because during those times we’re like the unmerciful servant, needing discipline. In the context of the parable, He’s still our Master and we’re still His servants, but we can’t enjoy the full benefits of the relationship. Something’s come between us that has to be resolved before we can go on.

It’s Our Choice

Depending on the intensity of our emotions, and the determination with which we justify and cling to them, we may lose out on blessings, and experience other deprivations like the limited loss of protection from our enemy. Justified or not, these emotions are called sin in the Bible. They make us impure, and give the enemy access to us. The Lord permits this (Job 1:12). Being unable to tolerate the presence of sin, and unwilling to interfere with our choices, He can’t do otherwise. But as soon as we ask, we’re forgiven and the sin forgotten, the price having been paid at the cross, and we’re back in fellowship. Then the Lord turns that which Satan had intended as torment into a blessing, showing that all is forgiven (Job 42:10-17).

It’s Not a Suggestion

The Lord often commanded forgiveness in His teaching. In Matt 5:23 He said to be reconciled to our brother before offering a gift to Him. In Matt 6:9-15 where He taught the Lord’s Prayer, He warned we would not be forgiven unless we forgive. And in Mark 11:22-25 we learn that forgiveness adds power to our prayers. Something this important to Him better be important to us. Forget justification. He would have been justified in condemning us all to Hell forever, and besides your brother’s sin is between him and the Lord.. Since He’s forgiven us everything, can’t we forgive each other these little things?