Matthew 18: 21-35
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.””
Let me take you on an internal heart journey:
Someone says something to you or treats you in a certain manner. You react with some type of internal pain. It’s an impact to something that you hold dear to yourself. Your emotional reaction is then typically some element of anger and then often transitioning to bitterness, resentment, or retaliation of some level and form. Somewhere in our hearts, we create a balance sheet. And that balance slips quickly to the red when we feel affected by others. In our sin and lack of Gospel realization, we desire justice and a balancing of the scales. This can be with anyone– spouses, friends, strangers, and those in your workplace.
Have you ever wondered why other’s behaviors have this impact on you?
Some of it could stem from our God-given desire for goodness and justice. People can sin against us. But often, we have known or unperceived idols lurking in our hearts. Someone does something that attacks our idol, such as our identity, our value, our trust, our security, or even our sin. All of these can be important and meaningful, but they can also expose what we are holding on to or where we haven’t allowed the Gospel to take root. And often, as believers, we have Gospel forgetfulness. We hold grudges and we desire others to apologize and make amends. And in some ways, we can perpetuate a legalistic redemption and reconciliation for others– a grace balance sheet.
Why Forgive?
Why is Jesus telling us we should forgive for what really is an unlimited number of times? Some translations say seventy times seven. Essentially, Jesus is using hyperbole to demonstrate unlimited grace.
The quick answer to why we should forgive would be because Jesus says so, but that isn’t really a deep Gospel-heart answer.
Let me give you three important heart-affecting reasons:
1. Jesus has forgiven you.
In this life, we can easily be distracted. In our hearts, we can also get caught up in the balance sheets of others. All-the-while we forget about our worksheet on page one. You know, the sheet that has a tally of every sin that we have and will commit against God. It’s a balance sheet that should wreck us and also send us pleading to our knees in desperation until we see the blood of Christ that says “Paid in Full” in bold letters that cover up all of our sins.
Jesus uses the parable to demonstrate that in our lives we try to collect on debts that we feel others owe us, but we need to see and remember the greater forgiveness that has been given to us– by NOTHING we ever did. The Gospel should inform us of the vast mercy we have been given and can now give.
A question I have to ask myself is whether the Gospel is a treasure? Do I see the incredible grace of Christ? If the Gospel isn’t valuable to me, then forgiveness has no meaning or true foundation.
2. Jesus has paid for those sins against us.
In 1 John 2:2, John says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
This propitiation means that Christ has regained the favor of God by taking on our sins. Our sins are forgiven and paid for by Christ when he willingly died on the cross and suffered the wrath of God for sin. Not just ours, but for every sin that will be committed against you by others. Do you grasp the totality and impact of that?
Although those that sin have or haven’t believed in Jesus as their savior and received this awesome gift of forgiveness, Jesus has still paid for those sins. His sacrifice is fully sufficient for all sin. Before we believed in Christ, He had already paid for our sin.
This has a two-fold reality. One, that we can glorify God and be eternally elated that we are forgiven in spite of our ourselves. And, two, that we are to have the mind of Christ that even the sins against us by others have been taken care of. That balance sheet that we tend to have of others should also be marked as “Paid” in our hearts.
When I saw this reality it was mind-blowing. This mind of forgiveness frees us to show grace all the more. Not only have we been forgiven so greatly, but all the sins against us have been served and dealt with by our loving Savior! This allows us to go in love to even those we perceive as enemies and act in outrageous ways of forgiveness.
This is how we can love because we see the full and incredible love of Christ.
3. You have a hope and foundation that can’t be hurt.
Earlier, I discussed how the behaviors of others can impact us. Much of that hurt comes from our idols being exposed. We might find our identity and hope in other things, such as our career, leisure, sports, success, sex, marriage, or family. We can see our value or worth in our physical appearance, work, losses, gains, our viewpoints, and from the opinions of others. We can find our security in objects and situations.
The problem with all of these is that they will fail us. We also will falter. And people can infringe upon those idols to cause us pain. But with the Gospel, we have a hope and foundation in a savior that is unbreakable. Our identity isn’t found in earthly things and especially no longer in ourselves, but in Christ– the creator of all things and the one that IS worthy.
When we place our trust, hope, and identity in Christ, then it becomes harder for our feelings to be hurt, for us to be offended, or impacted negatively.
That said, it doesn’t mean that we won’t falter. We are currently in a dual nature and our sinful flesh and the enemy will try and play tricks with our faith and minds. But in those times we should rely on God and others in the church to direct us back to the grace and identity of Christ– The God of forgiveness.
So, the next time you feel that twinge of negativity, hurt, or wrong being done to you by friends, coworkers, your boss, or even so-called enemies, cause your aching heart to remember the Gospel and the incredible grace and identity we have been given. Allow that Gospel reality to soak your heart in grace and forgiveness seventy times seven.
