“Total Forgiveness- Part 1”
Text: Ephesians 4:30—5:2 & Matthew 18:21-35
8-25-2024
In the name of our loving God, who forgives us all of our sins, dear friends in Christ. Today we’re going to begin looking at a very important and essential doctrine of the Christian Church: Forgiveness. The reason why we need to examine it more closely is because if you take away the doctrine of forgiveness, then is there really any reason for us to gather as Christians? I mean, that is what we mainly come to this place to receive; God’s words of forgiveness, right? Take that a step further. If you remove the doctrine of forgiveness is there any reason left to keep believing in Jesus Christ? If you don’t want or need forgiveness, then you don’t want or need a Savior who died to forgive all your sins. And if you don’t need a Savior, then you don’t need Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, God has shown us our desperate need for a Savior. The Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see our hopeless, sinful condition and its damning consequences. And He has led us to believe in Jesus who died so that all our sins and offenses could be forgiven. That is beautiful and freeing news to people who recognize that they were slaves to sin. When God says to us, “You are forgiven,” it lifts a crushing burden from our minds and our souls. It reconciles us with our heavenly Father and unites us with Him. Now we can live in peace with Him, knowing that we are not enemies of His anymore. And we have the peace of knowing that His wrath and punishment have been taken away from us.
That’s why I say that the doctrine of forgiveness is so important and essential to us Christians. But forgiveness is not just vertical between us and God. The Bible makes it very clear that the Lord’s forgiveness must also extend horizontally between us human beings. Quite frankly, this aspect of forgiveness is probably one of the most neglected and misunderstood doctrines in the Christian Church. That’s the reason why we need to plumb the depths of this precious truth and see where we’re missing the mark on God’s command to forgive just as He has forgiven us.
Consider what St. Paul says in our Epistle Lesson. He starts off by saying, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God...” How do we “grieve” the Holy Spirit? Paul explains by giving us a list of harmful things we are to get rid of in our lives: “bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander… along with all malice.” All of those behaviors are the result of not forgiving others. And it grieves God just like an earthly father when his children refuse to forgive and live in peace with each other. So, Paul encourages us to jettison that sinful behavior by being “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Forgiveness will wipe out the mean and hateful attitudes in our lives.
Jesus put this doctrine of forgiveness into perspective when He told the parable in our Gospel. Peter asked Christ about how we are to forgive one another. And Jesus explains that we are to be willing to forgive others, repeatedly, out of gratitude for the huge debt of sin that we have been forgiven. That first servant in the story had been forgiven a debt that was so large that he could never repay it. But his master graciously forgave the whole thing. Sadly, that servant was not willing to treat his fellow servant the same way when it came to the tiny debt this guy owed. When the master found out, He was furious. And rightly so. Jesus ended that parable with a warning, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The application should be obvious. We had a debt of sin to God that was so large that we could never have paid it. We deserved to be punished endlessly for it. But when we ask our heavenly Master to forgive that huge debt, He does. Not just partially, but totally. So out of gratitude we ought to be willing to totally forgive others for the tiny debt of sin they might have committed against us. If we refuse to, then like that servant, we’ll face the Master’s anger. God has every right to say, “I forgave you for millions of sins. So how dare you refuse to forgive others for the small debt of sin they might owe you?!?”
This ought to humble us as Christians. How many times has God forgiven the sins that we have repeatedly committed? It’s difficult to comprehend how God can be so patient and kind to us. He forgives us, without hesitation, because of His grace and mercy. So how can we even think of not forgiving someone the way God has forgiven us? It’s true, none of us is perfect like God. We will always struggle with forgiving others the way He has forgiven us. But even though we’re imperfect at it, we should never stop striving to forgive like God forgives us. By the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we can learn to forgive others His way. What is His way? Well, the Bible gives us some clear instruction on that.
First of all, Godly forgiveness is not necessarily forgetting. The old saying goes, “Forgive and forget.” But that’s not possible for us sinful humans. Can we ever totally forget when someone has hurt us, especially when they’ve hurt us deeply? It’s not possible. But it is possible to choose not to dwell on that hurt or nurse resentment. That’s what God does when He forgives us. Psalm 103:12 says: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” God knows our many sins against Him, but He chooses to not recall them. And He promises that once those sins are forgiven, He’ll never bring them up again.
Is it possible for us to do the same? By faith and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we can choose to not recall an offense that has been forgiven. I can tell you from my own life that this has to be a conscious effort where you turn to God in prayer whenever you feel the resentment building up inside you. Ask God to remove it from your mind. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that this is what true, Godly love does. He says it doesn’t keep a record of wrongs committed against us. Now, why would someone keep a record of wrongs? It’s because we might want to use them someday as a weapon. I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “I may forgive, but I can never forget.” What they’re really saying is, “I don’t want to forget so I’m not even going to try putting it out my mind.”
Friends, that’s not how God forgives us and that’s definitely not how He wants us to forgive each other. He wants us to forgive that person and wipe their record clean. Maybe a real-life illustration would help. I can recall an incident from a long time ago where Gayleen wrote me a note, asking me to forgive her for something. It was something minor and I forgave her right away. But for some reason, I hung onto that note. Maybe it was my sinful nature thinking, “I may just need to bring this up again and use it as leverage.” Later, when I came across that note, that passage from 1 Corinthians 13 came to mind. I literally had in my hands a “record” of someone’s wrong against me. Then it dawned on me: What would it look like if God had kept my letters of apology for every time I sinned against Him. There ain’t enough paper on the face of the earth to write all those sins down. So, humbled by that thought, I took that note and literally burned it. I didn’t want to keep that “record of wrongs.” As the flames went up, I prayed that God would burn the record of it in my mind, which He did. And that’s the way He wants us to forgive anyone who sins against us whether it was a minor offense or if they hurt you deeply.
Well, we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface on this very important doctrine of forgiveness. So, let’s stop here for today. And next week we’ll dig further into it. Before we close though, I’d like you to notice something from our Epistle Lesson. St. Paul says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” In other words, God’s loving forgiveness is to be our model for forgiving those who sin against us. In fact, Paul goes on to say in Chapter 5 verse 1 that we are to be “imitators of God” in this respect. Like I said before, none of us are perfect like God is. But ever since He poured out His Spirit upon us in Holy Baptism, He has been working to shape and mold us to be more and more like our perfect Savior, Jesus. We have received His righteousness and our sins are forgiven. That changes us. He has given us the desire and ability now to forgive others the way we have been forgiven. He leads us to forgive them completely while pushing the memory of those sins out of reach in our minds so that we can live at peace with one another even as we now live at peace with our loving and forgiving Father in heaven. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!