Forgiveness

Matthew 6:9-15 – 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

FORGIVENESS - “The act of excusing or pardoning others in spite of their slights, shortcomings, and errors. As a theological term, forgiveness refers to God’s pardon of the sins of human beings.” (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

FORGIVE - to give up resentment of, ‘forgive an insult’ : to grant relief from payment of, ‘forgive a debt’ : to cease to feel resentment against (an offender) : pardon, ‘forgive one’s enemies’. (Meriam-Webster.com)

One of the hardest tests we face as followers of Jesus is that of forgiveness. There’s two areas we are met with this test: forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. Neither of these is necessarily easy.

Many people have difficulty forgiving themselves because they have a hard time accepting God’s forgiveness. They think their sin was so bad that God couldn’t possibly forgive them. We won’t be able to forgive others until we can learn to accept God’s forgiveness for ourselves. In addition, we have trouble forgiving others because we have been hurt so bad by them and we don’t think they deserve it.

Forgiveness is One of the Great Battles in Our Spiritual War

Our greatest hindrance to being able to forgive ourselves and others is due to a lack of understanding the truth, God, and the battle we are in.

Attack on the Mind

The enemy attacks our mind. All of us have a past of some kind, some of us much worse than others. For some of us, the enemy has a big opportunity to hold us back because we have a tainted past. Satan knows this, and he works overtime to exploit it.

It’s easy, when there is a shameful past, to allow Satan to haunt us continually with guilt and shame. Satan tries to make us believe that we have to work to obtain forgiveness by doing good to make up for the bad, and that we are not even close to doing enough good to make up for the bad we’ve done. And he lies saying that we will have to pay for our past by not experiencing God’s blessing in our lives. I remember thinking that I would never have the godly wife I’d always prayed for because I had so dishonored God in the relationships I did have. I thought my punishment would be that I would never be blessed with the wife I longed to have. This was a lie from Satan. God certainly blessed me beyond all I could have imagined!

The lie he tells me now is quite similar. He says that since I allowed myself to be prideful and self seeking in my ministry before, that now I will never experience the great ministry that I have always believed God has destined me for. I’ve known that God has a special call upon my life, along with special blessing and favor. And I’ve been believing that that would lead to a ministry that is far reaching and with much fruit. The devil now tries to get me to believe that this dream will never come true now because I was so off-base before chasing the wrong things. Each time these thoughts come to my mind, the Holy Spirit brings a verse to me: “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).” So I have to chose whether I’ll believe the devil or the word of God.

How do we know when it’s the enemy talking and not us? It’s in third person, “You’ll never have that, God won’t do that for you now,” and etc…. We must understand that we are in a spiritual war and it is fought with spiritual means:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

The only way we can take every thought captive is by learning and knowing the Word of God, and learning to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit knows when something is a lie, and He prods us that we might know. There have been times in my life when something was being said to me that was a lie. My mind might have had no proof that it was a lie, but my spirit was quite uneasy. Later I would find that the uneasiness was the Holy Spirit warning me of the lie, which later I would find truly was a lie. This is a skill that every believer must develop in their walk with God. It’s absolutely necessary in this war we are in:

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Attack on the Heart

When it comes to forgiving others, the enemy likes to attack our heart. He doesn’t want us to be willing to forgive. If our hearts remain bitter towards a person for what they’ve done to us, then we won’t be able to forgive them. So the enemy tries to keep our hearts hard towards the person or people that we need to forgive.

As long as our hearts stay in this condition, it will impact our entire lives. It will keep us from experiencing the fullness of joy that God desires for us. It will keep us from experiencing the fullness of God’s forgiveness for us, and it will keep us from experiencing the freedom of forgiving others.

A hard heart is a painful and devastating thing. Life stinks when you have a hard heart. Every little thing that happens is just one more bad thing on top of all the other bad things. It is a bad attitude waiting to pounce at any moment. It hinders our ability to have quality relationships with others because of the tendency to believe the worst in everything.

When we don’t forgive, it only hurts us. We think we’re hurting the one we’re not forgiving but all it does is cripple us and ultimately robs us blind.

How To Treat Those Who Hurt You

The Bible commands us to do good to our enemies and to help them when the opportunity presents itself.

4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him. (Exodus 23:4-5)

17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, 18 lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him. (Proverbs 24:17-18)

21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)

Jesus modeled this type of forgiveness while He was on earth. He washed Judas’ feet along with the other disciples although He knew of his betrayal. And then we see this while He was on the cross:

32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” (Luke 23:32-38)

Stephen modeled this kind of forgiveness as well:

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:54-60)

One of the greatest examples of forgiveness and being nice to your enemies is from Joseph. After his brothers had sold him into slavery causing him years of pain and disappointment, he was willing to forgive them and bless them greatly. Here’s the episode right after his father, Jacob had died, when his brothers became worried that he would seek retribution thinking maybe he had only been nice to them for their father’s sake:

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died, 17 ‘Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:15-21)

If anybody could have reason not to forgive, it was Jesus, Stephen, and Joseph, yet they all modeled a grace and mercy that seems crazy to our world and beyond what we’re used to seeing.

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Reason Why We Should Forgive

Because God has forgiven us.
To lead others to repentance.
Because God is sovereign.

Reasons We Don’t Forgive

We want retribution or revenge.
We don’t understand the forgiveness, grace, and mercy of God.
We don’t understand the sovereignty of God.

A Few Extras on Forgiveness – (Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

- No religious book except the Bible teaches that God completely forgives sin (Ps. 51:1, 9; Is. 38:17; Heb. 10:17).
- The initiative comes from Him (John 3:16; Col. 2:13)
- because He is ready to forgive (Luke 15:11-32).
- He is a God of grace and pardon (Neh. 9:17; Dan. 9:9).
- Sin deserves divine punishment because it is a violation of God’s holy character (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Pet. 1:16), but His pardon is gracious (Ps. 130:4; Rom. 5:6-8).
- In order for God to forgive sin, two conditions are necessary. A life must be taken as a substitute for that of the sinner (Lev. 17:11, 14; Heb. 9:22), and the sinner must come to God’s sacrifice in a spirit of repentance and faith (Mark 1:4; Acts 10:43; James 5:15).

Why Can We Be Forgiven?

- Forgiveness in the New Testament is directly linked to Christ (Acts 5:31; Col. 1:14),
- His sacrificial death on the cross (Rom. 4:24), and His resurrection (2 Cor. 5:15).
- He was the morally perfect sacrifice (Rom. 8:3), the final and ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament sacrifices (Heb. 9:11-10:18).
- Since He bore the law’s death penalty against sinners (Gal. 3:10-13), those who trust in His sacrifice are freed from that penalty.
- By faith sinners are forgiven-”justified” in Paul’s terminology (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 3:8-9).
- Those who are forgiven sin’s penalty also die to its controlling power in their lives (Rom. 6:1-23).

Christ’s resurrection was more than proof of His deity or innocence; it was related in a special way to His forgiveness. Christ’s resurrection was an act by which God wiped out the false charges against Him; it was God’s declaration of the perfect righteousness of His Son, the last Adam, and of His acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice (1 Tim. 3:16). Because He has been acquitted and declared righteous, this is also true for those whom He represents. Thus, Christ’s resurrection was a necessary condition for the forgiveness of human sin (1 Cor. 15:12-28). To be forgiven is to be identified with Christ in His crucifixion and resurrection.

Christ has the authority to forgive sins (Matt. 1:21; Heb. 9:11-10:18). This forgiveness is an essential part of the gospel message (Acts 2:38; 5:31).

- God’s forgiveness of us demands that we forgive others, because grace brings responsibility and obligation (Matt. 18:23-35; Luke 6:37).
- Jesus placed no limits on the extent to which Christians are to forgive others (Matt. 18:22, 35; Luke 17:4).
- A forgiving spirit shows that one is a true follower of Christ (Matt. 5:43-48; Mark 11:25).