Why does the Bible focus so much on forgiveness? The answer goes back to the very nature of God, to the beginning of relationships between man and God, and between man and man. It touches on the God who is Love, desiring relationship with His creation. Even in the garden of Eden, we can see disobedience leading to the need for restoration; and in those like David whom God saw as a man after His own heart (1 Sam 13:14) there was later recognition that he had sinned against God (Ps 51:4).
But the first mention of forgiveness in Scripture is when Jacob, before he died, wisely sent a note to Joseph asking him to forgive his brothers for selling him into slavery in Egypt (Gen 37:28) – the result of jealousy between brothers.
Forgiveness is needed because of sin. Ecclesiastes 7:20 tells us that there is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. We know how unconfessed sin can cause health issues in man (mental, physical, and spiritual). God knew that all mankind needed release from the effects of sin, against Him and against each other. So He determined the one way that would be effective for all mankind, for all time. We need forgiveness; He has placed that need within each one of us.
Forgiveness by God
The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples included the request to be forgiven by our Father in Heaven for sin against Him (Matt 6:12; Luke 11:4). Sin (including not doing what we know is right), and transgression (deliberately doing what we know is wrong) separate us from the holy God. The way to restore relationship with God is by confession - saying the same as (in agreement with) God.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just that He might forgive us (1 John 1:9), and restore our relationship with Him. The Hebrew and Greek words for 'forgive' (nasa, aphiemi) both mean to lift, to bear away, remit, let go. It is a complete, permanent, total removal of the offence (Isa 43:25). But God does this only on the basis of the sacrifice of His sinless Son, Jesus, upon the Cross, because there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22).
God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that by His obedience we might, in Him, be made righteous with His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21; Rom 5:19). That is the power of God's forgiveness. He not only forgives us but removes our sin from us.
It is interesting that Matthew’s record of the Lord’s Prayer uses a slightly different phrase. He recorded Jesus saying, “Forgive us our debts” (appropriate for a tax-collector!). When we sin, we place ourselves in debt to God because Jesus has paid the price of our release from death, which is the product (the wages) of sin (Rom 6:23). A debt is something we owe.
Some years ago I saw a Christmas Card which captured the essence of this truth:
Jesus came to pay a debt He didn't owe – Because we owed a debt we couldn't pay.
Only He could pay the price, a life for a life. Only His perfect life and His shed blood at the Cross could atone for our sin, and pay our debt. The Hebrew letters of His Name Yeshua describe perfect justice and perfect mercy.
Forgiveness by Man
But there is another part to this prayer. For we must also forgive those who sin against us – those who are our debtors. There is an equivalence. We are to reflect the forgiveness that God offers us through the shed blood of Jesus, by willingly forgiving those who sin or trespass against us and without holding onto conditions (e.g. if they say “sorry”) or resentment.
Remember that forgiveness is total lifting or bearing away of the debt that is owed – cancelling the debt, however large, completely (Matt 18:27). Unforgiveness is a luxury we simply cannot and must not afford. May we be as merciful to others who are in debt to us.
Do you remember Colin Parry or Bud Welch, whose children were killed in bomb attacks in Warrington (1993) and Oklahoma City (1995) respectively, and who found eventually that they could forgive the bombers? Reconciliation with God in such situations brings His special gift to be able to forgive man's evil, and release them from debt. Jesus showed us how: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). God's forgiveness of our sins is dependent upon our obedience to forgive anyone for anything we have against them (Mark 11:25-26). There is no forgiveness for the one who does not forgive.1
The Very Heart of God
When Peter asked Jesus, “How many times should I forgive one who sins against me? Seven times?” Jesus said, “Not seven, but seventy-times-seven”; some translations have just ‘seventy-seven’. The number is less important than the meaning of the word-play (Matt 18:22). Jesus was saying, ‘Forgive, and keep on forgiving, because that is what your Father does for you every time you confess and repent of your sin.’
The only other place the number 77 is used is in Genesis 4:24 where Lamech tries to outdo God in his lust for vengeance. God had told Cain that whoever killed him would suffer vengeance seven times over. Five generations later, Lamech, who had inherited Cain's violence, said “If Cain was avenged seven times, whoever kills Lamech will be avenged seventy-seven times”. Maybe Jesus was saying in allusion to this passage in Torah (that His listeners would have known), ‘Be much more excessive in your forgiveness to one another then Lamech was in his excessive vengeance.’
We cannot outdo our Father in His loving desire to forgive. This is His Name, as He proclaimed to Moses (Ex 34:6, the most repeated verse in the Tanakh):
The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (KJV)
God freely forgives those who come to Him in Jesus, but only the injured man can forgive and release the man who sins against him. Our forgiveness of others is a decision; it proceeds from our will. It is a choice to speak it out and not hold onto the hurt. We are blessed when God forgives us (Ps 32:1) so we can then bless those whom we forgive.
The words “I forgive you” are three most powerful words.2 They are a step into the supernatural, the equal of any miracle, and they release, heal, bless, and restore us to the very heart of God.
Author: Greg Stevenson
Scriptures: Matthew 6:12, 14-15; Mark 11:25-26; Luke 11:4.
References
1 Kendall, RT, 2002. Total forgiveness. Hodder & Stoughton, p71.
2 Prince, D, 2006. I forgive you. Derek Prince Ministries.