Demands for Forgiveness

MEMORY SELECTION: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.” —Matthew 6:14

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Matthew 18:21-35

THE Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 3:20, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Not only does the law give us a knowledge of sin because of the lofty standards held out before us, but the law makes us aware of our weaknesses and frailties in every way. Continuing this line of thought the apostle states, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”—Rom. 7:18

Where is the escape from this dilemma? The apostle continues, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind [will or desire] I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”—Rom. 7:25

It is by the gracious provision of God that through Christ our past sins which came about as the result of adamic inheritance are covered by the blood of Christ. This represents a massive forgiveness of sin on the part of the Heavenly Father. He made arrangements for this in his plan long beforehand. But this is only half of the gracious provision made by God! For even our subsequent sins and transgressions will be forgiven if we approach the Heavenly Father in meekness and contriteness of heart and request forgiveness in the name of his beloved Son. There is no limit to the number of times that we are permitted to ask forgiveness from the Heavenly Father, even for the same transgression, provided we are truly repentant and have sincerely endeavored to overcome the weakness.

So when Peter asked Jesus if he should forgive his brother seven times, Jesus (Matt. 18:22) admonished him thus: “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” The obvious lesson for us is that we are to be very thankful for God’s tolerance and long-suffering toward us, therefore we should, or rather, must exercise the same mercy toward our brother.

This, of course, is the lesson of the parable recounted in verses 23-34. The king forgave his servant a massive debt, but when the servant was set free, he immediately called to task his fellow servant, who owed him a small debt. The servant had his fellow servant cast into prison, with no show of mercy, until the debt should be paid. When the king heard of this, he called the servant before him and said, “Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”—vss. 33-35

This principle was fundamental to the Law Covenant. Jesus, in Matthew 7:12, states, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

In Matthew the 6th chapter, we have recorded our Lord’s instructions concerning prayer, and we find this principle enunciated as one of the things that it is proper to bring before the Heavenly Father, asking him to forgive our sins as we have forgiven those who have transgressed against us. Our Lord’s remarks concerning this principle were, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”—vss. 14,15

And so we would conclude that the thought of demanding forgiveness is contrary to the spirit of the provision by which all forgiveness of sin is made possible. The real spirit behind this arrangement is expressed by the Apostle John: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”—I John 4:9-11

Love, if developed along the proper lines, will find expression in the forgiveness of our brothers’ transgressions.

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