Reflecting God’s Forgiveness
To forgive is to be like God.
‘Nothing makes us so like God as our readiness to forgive’ - Chrysostom.
At the heart of Christianity is forgiveness. The Gospel is that in his mercy and love God sent his Son to die for our sins.
In acts of forgiveness we reflect this mercy and so imitate the cross. When we forgive there is an aspect of laying down our life. The cancellation of a debt comes at a cost to the one who is owed the debt. To pursue a debt from another means to extract what is ‘rightfully’ yours. To cancel that debt is to choose peace at a cost to the ‘rights’ of self - it is a death to the claim of self.
To give freely what you could have rightly withheld is a sacrifice. God freely gave his Son for us, when he would have been justified in condemning the whole human race. What wonderful love and divine forgiveness! It is only right that we imitate this love.
The Unforgiving Servant
In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus describes a parable of forgiveness:
“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.”
I want us to take a look and reflect on this parable for a moment.
The amount of ten thousand talents that the servant owed is equivalent to millions of dollars in today’s currency. Of course Jesus is not discussing literal money, but forming an expression of the vast debt of our sin towards God.
Which begs the question: what is the true price of sin?
Jesus posed this same question when he asked ‘what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?’ (Mark 8:36).
Scripture answers and says ‘the wages of sin is death.’ (Rom 6:23).
Therefore, sin costs a person their life and soul.
The Value of the Soul
And what amount of value can be placed on a human soul? If a person gains the world and yet loses their soul, what has been gained? Jesus showed us that one soul is worth more than the entire world.
Thank God that he has so highly valued our souls that for our sake Christ died. The true cost of sin can only be shown in the cross - it cost the Son of God his life. In the cross we see the forgiveness and sacrifice of God - the perfect payment for our debt. Seeing we could not cleanse ourselves of our sins, he paid what we owed out of his love.
God shows that forgiveness is an act of compassion and love in the form of a cross.
If sin cost God the life of his Son, we ought not to take sin lightly. We should not be so flagrant about sin as to disrespect Christ’s precious death. We ought to reverence and respect this great love and mercy of God by fleeing sin. Not simply for the sake of our own soul, but for the sake of Christ. The more we esteem Jesus and what he has done for us, the more we will fear and flee all sin.
Cyril of Alexandria makes an observation regarding this parable that:
‘the forced sale of his wife and family portrays metaphorically utter separation from the joys of God.’
Not only does sin bring death, it brings separation from God. For light can have no fellowship with darkness, as John says ‘If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.’ (1 John 1:6).
That darkness is sin, and that light is holiness. Jesus spoke to the people, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12). Those that follow Jesus need not walk in sin, for Christ came to not only forgive our sins, but to free us from the tyranny of sin. Here Jesus declares that we can walk in his light and be cleansed from all sin. The light is opposed to darkness, life is opposed to death and holiness opposed to sin.
Conditional Forgiveness?
What is interesting to note is the condition of forgiveness that Christ places at the end of the parable. Likewise he adds this condition at the end of the ‘Our Father’ prayer. The forgiveness of our sins is based on whether we also choose to release the debt of our fellow servants. Here our debt to God is measured in thousands of talents, but the debt others have incurred to us is a few small denarii. For the faults committed against us are by comparison nothing to the faults we have committed against God.
John Wesley commented on this passage saying:
‘The debtor was freely and fully forgiven; He wilfully and grievously offended; His pardon was retracted, the whole debt required, and the offender delivered to the tormentors for ever. And shall we still say, but when we are once freely and fully forgiven, our pardon can never be retracted?’
He raises a good point; Christ clearly speaks in this parable of the necessity of forgiving others to receive forgiveness from the Father. Some may take issue with this, but I find it best not to trifle with the words of Christ. We should not make excuses and room for any unforgiveness, but instead to take the moral of the passage which is this: ‘So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.’ (Matt 18:35).
Chrysostom makes a valuable comment on this parable; he states
‘the text does not simply say they “delivered him” but “in anger delivered him.” For when he had earlier commanded him to be sold, his were not the words of wrath but, rightly understood, a moment of great mercy. He did not in fact show wrath at that point. But in this case it is a sentence of great anger, punishment and vengeance. So what does the parable mean? “So also my heavenly Father will do to you,” he says, “if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Note that he did not say “your Father” but “my Father.” For it is not proper for God to be called the Father of one who is so wicked and malicious.’
Uprooting Unforgiveness
We need to treat unforgiveness as a deadly sin. Not only does it stain the soul so as to blind the heart from the light God, it causes blockage of blessings. Many diseases and illnesses are caused simply by unforgiveness. During healing ministry, it is often seen that the root problem stopping those with sickness from receiving healing is unforgiveness. Unforgiveness is a poison and a lie, for it does not even so much as cause harm to the other has caused the wrong, but instead only serves to hurt the one holding it.
Not only for the sake of our own soul should we forgive others, but for the sake of Christ himself. To hold unforgiveness in our hearts is to act contrary to the confession of our faith in the one who whilst on the cross cried out “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34).
It is in forgiveness that we most reflect God. He has shown us such great mercy when we were enemies, let us reflect this same mercy to all.
And if God has forgiven us so greatly, how should we not forgive others for their much lesser trespasses?
