IN former days, before God had revealed Himself to His people in the fullness of His forgiving mercy, the word concerning the injurious man was— “Thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” (Deut. 19:2121And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (Deuteronomy 19:21)). But with the revelation in Christ, of God’s grace, the exhortation of the Scriptures is, “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake [or in Christ] hath forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:3232And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)). Forgiveness of a wrong done to us is both noble and generous, and, when the motive proceeds from the sense of what God has done for us, it is a most excellent grace. Naturally, it is very hard to be forgiving, and some people seem positively unable to forgive.
To treat a wrongdoer as beneath our notice is not to forgive, and to forgive and not to forget is but part pardon. That kind of forgiveness which treasures up the memory of evil done is not from the heart, but by word of mouth only, and heals not the soul of the injured person, while genuine forgiveness removes the very sting of the injury, and is a balm that cures the wounded spirit! God in Christ forgives and forgets; it is His prerogative to pardon His enemies, and more, it is within His power to remember our sins and iniquities no more! Christians are exhorted to forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us, to be “followers of God as dear children.”
Where Christ is, His presence must influence those who are with Him; the grace and truth which came by Him must prevail. After the Lord had said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them,” Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”
Jesus saith unto him, “I say not unto thee, until seven times; but until seventy times seven.”
We have our limit of endurance. “Till seven times,” seems a very great amount; but the Lord gives a limit which is like the horizon of the sea, practically boundless This is His way, and He would have His people’s ways like His own, and as we thus speak, let us remember that Christ-like ways arise out of a Christ-like state of heart.
Having answered Peter’s question, Jesus spake a parable, contrasting God’s ways of forgiveness with man’s.
A certain king, who would take an account of his servants, found one of them, who owed him ten thousand talents. The sentence of justice was passed upon this servant, when he pleaded with the king for time to pay the debt, upon which the king, filled with compassion, forgave him all he owed. The greatness and the goodness of God here appear; the king forgave in truly royal sort—he forgave the whole of the debt, and he did so out of compassion.
How different is God’s way of forgiveness from our natural thoughts concerning it! When a sinner begins to realize what the debt is he owes to God, he says, “I will pay some of it off! I will make amends!” But God forgives wholly and absolutely out of the riches of His grace and the compassion of His heart. It would be beneath the honor of a king to forgive less than all, while to take part payment would be to sully his glory.
Man’s standard is a very different one! The servant, who in his own person had experienced the favor of the king, finds one of his fellows who owed him one hundred pence, and at once he lays hands on him, takes him by the throat, and demands payment of the debt. The very plea he himself had made to the king is urged by his fellow-servant, yet in vain. Out of the hardness and selfishness of his heart he acts towards his fellow-servant, and casts him into prison until the debt shall be paid. The man was willing enough to receive favor from the king, but he had no grace to show to his fellow-servant.
Now what does the king say to him? “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?”
As we read the parable, we again ask Peter’s question, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” and, in the greatness and goodness of the king, let us seek to understand the Lord’s answer: “I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”
If we are truly recipients of God’s forgiving grace, we shall govern our ways towards our fellow servants by our God’s ways towards us, or, at least, we shall seek to do so. To profess to be recipients of God’s grace, and to practice hardness and selfishness to others is but to deny the character of our Lord and Master. And such conduct will undoubtedly bring with it a bitter reward. Yet, too true is it, that some of the most eloquent discoursers on grace are men of a vindictive spirit. God has forgiven us all our trespasses and sins because Christ died for us, and bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and they shall not come up in judgment against us, but if our ways are adverse to His ways, we shall certainly suffer for it in this life. “God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”