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Matthew 6:12-15—Obtaining God’s Forgiveness
Forgive Us … As We Have Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.—Ephesians 4:32{1} Thomas Gilbert Forgiving our departures from the “paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3) is one of the ways that our heavenly Father displays his grace—unmerited favor, undeserved kindness—toward us. Jesus made this forgiveness possible by voluntarily giving his life to satisfy the requirements of divine justice that fell upon Adam for his disobedience, and through Adam upon all of his descendents. “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:18,19). In providing a way of forgiveness through his son, God hoped that we would appreciate this release from guilt and the penalties of sin so much that we would imitate it in our own lives, copying his generous and forgiving character in our dealings with others. “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). “And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you” (Colossians 3:12,13). God regards a heart attitude that is ready and willing to forgive others as so important to those who would be “fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:16,29), the ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) in Christ’s kingdom, that he made this rule—that he would be as forgiving toward us concerning our offenses against his standards of righteousness as we are forgiving toward others who commit offenses against us. Our Lord Jesus put that lesson into the model prayer he taught his disciples, so that in praying, or in modeling our own prayers on that prayer, we would repeatedly, continually remind ourselves of this important lesson. He said, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” He expanded on this two verses later: “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:12,14,15). Jesus used a parable to forcefully illustrate this lesson to his disciples: “Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants’ accounts. He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!’ The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go. “Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said. His fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt. “When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. So he called the servant in. ‘You worthless slave!’ he said. ‘I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.’ The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount. And Jesus concluded, ‘That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’ ”—Matthew 18:23-35, Today’s English Version We might be tempted to regard Jesus’ conclusion as being a bit harsh, but it merely emphasizes how essential this lesson is from his Father’s perspective. It is as if God is saying, “I am kind to the unthankful; I have been very gracious to you in the forgiveness of your original sin and in accepting your consecration to be my servant and in bringing you into my family, but I have called you into this position for a special purpose and you will not be fit nor be prepared for the service I desire for you unless you learn the lesson of forgiveness and generosity; hence, for your sake I make the rule that I will be no more generous to you and your imperfections than you are toward your brethren and their imperfections. I do this in order to teach you a great lesson which cannot be so well learned in any other way. What I am seeking in you as my servant is perfection in my character likeness.” (Reprints, p. 4651) Having a “forgiving heart” is a crucial part of the divine character and we must have this part of the divine likeness, if we would be part of the divine family. In the parable of the two debtors, the king represents God, and we are his servants. The debt that we owe to God for the sacrifice of his son to purchase our redemption, and for the many privileges and blessings we receive each day, is a debt that we could not repay any more than most of us could repay a debt of millions of dollars. So God forgives that debt and says, instead, “Give me your heart and follow my son.” By forgiving us, he creates a set of circumstances designed to engender overflowing gratitude from our hearts and a desire to be more devoted to him than ever before. Those who respond in this manner to the good news of redemption through Christ, God invites to become his adopted children—full-fledged members of his spiritual family (Galatians 4:4-7). It seems almost inconceivable that, as in the parable, someone could be treated so generously and kindly—forgiven such a large debt —and then demand immediate satisfaction of a minor debt from another. Obviously, the forgiving of that servant’s large debt did not produce overflowing gratitude to the king nor kindness and graciousness toward others. The contrast between the forgiving king and the unforgiving servant is so stark that we are forced to ask ourselves, “Are we as quick and generous of spirit to forgive others as our heavenly Father is toward us?” Based on the strength of Jesus’ conclusion to the parable, we need to be continuously examining and cleansing our heart of any sentiments like those of the unmerciful servant. Jesus gave this parable because Peter had just asked an important question: “Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’ ” (Matthew 18:21,22). From Jesus’ answer, we understand that we should forgive others an unlimited number of times. Certainly God’s forgiveness of our transgressions does not end at the 490th offense—God does not have an accounting department ready to inform him when he no longer needs to forgive us. Neither should we keep track of how many times we have forgiven another. When someone commits an offense against us, how do we deal with the matter? We have the guidance from Ephesians and Colossians, cited above, to guide us. We must forgive one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven us. But is there more to it than that? What else do the Scriptures say? In Luke 17:3,4 Jesus said: “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” This seems to say there should be no forgiveness unless there first is repentance. But does this apply in every case of an offense against us? Pastor Russell gives the following comment on this passage: “The transgressions to which our Lord refers are not trivial affairs of no consequence, are not evil surmisings and imaginings, are not rumors, are not fancied insults, but positive wrongs done us, which are susceptible of proofs, and on account of which it is our duty, kindly and lovingly and wisely to give some proper rebuke—some intimation that we recognize the wrong and that it has grieved us and hurt us.”—Reprints, p. 2296. Of the occasions when we find ourselves offended by the words or actions of another, probably few fall into this category of positive wrongs done to us. Most are unintentional. In those cases, Pastor Russell counseled: “In trivial affairs he [a Christian] is to have so much sympathy and love that he will take no notice, just as God for Christ’s sake deals with us and does not impute sin to us, except as it represents knowledge and willfulness. With such a rule operating amongst Christians, a determination not to recognize as an offense anything that is not purposely done, or intended as an offense, would be a great blessing to all, and the proper God-like course.”—Reprints, p. 2296 We all have the freedom to choose to not be offended by the actions or words of another, even when we suspect the offense was intentional. But one might ask, what about the role of justice when someone has wronged us? Isn’t justice one of the four principal attributes of God? Wouldn’t it be wrong to let the offender “just get away with it?” Pastor Russell advises: “Since we are transgressors ourselves and objects of divine grace, and since our fellow-creatures are in the same pitiable plight through the fall, there is no room for us to take our stand upon justice. He who stands upon justice will fall before the sword of justice.” (Reprints, p. 2294) The Parable of the Gracious Father (of the Prodigal Son) teaches that we can forgive another in our hearts even before they come to the point of repentance or ask forgiveness. The father of the son who left home and squandered his inheritance was not interested in justice or an admission of wrongdoing. He was interested in only one thing—that his son would return from his unwise course. He eagerly scanned the horizon in hope of seeing his son returning, probably from the day he departed. This indicates how willing the father was to forgive his son. It is not a stretch of the facts to consider that the father had probably forgiven his son before he even exited the gate of his estate. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And so should it be with us. The willingness to forgive should be with us always and our manner and face should display that willingness. We should never harbor any other feeling than that of forgiveness and good will toward all, no matter how seriously someone may have offended us. One of the reasons we want to learn this lesson of mercy and forgiveness so well is because it is such a powerful tool for reforming hearts—our hearts as we forgive others, and others’ hearts as they are forgiven and relieved of the burden of their imperfection and guilt. That is the work we hope to do in Christ’s kingdom, but we are to learn and practice it now. Jude 22 and 23 encourage us to reach out to, and show mercy and forgiveness to, those who are doubting and wavering in their faith, those who have fallen prey to seductive, fiery temptations and sins, and those who are mired in patterns of serious sin and degradation, such that their robes of righteousness are stained and soiled. “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:19,20). Jude closed his letter with a benediction of praise to God: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy …” (Jude 24). The only reason we can ever hope to be able to stand blameless before God is because he has forgiven us our transgressions. Let us be God-like in our dealings with others—those who have offended us in some way—by forgiving them, so that they are as blameless in our eyes as we rejoice to be blameless in God’s eyes.
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