Forgiven and Forgiving
The fourth and final presentation I gave at the TRYAD camp was drawn from Matthew 18:21-35 and focused on forgiving. Rather than reproduce that presentation here, I want to simply focus on two aspects of forgiveness, either received or given.
The first aspect is personal responsibility. I begin with one of several of the LORD’s self-revelations:
Numbers 1418 ‘The Lord is slow to anger
and abounding in steadfast love,
forgiving iniquity and transgression,
but by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children to the third and the fourth generation.’ (NRSVUE)
This revelation, like others, is paradoxical. On one hand, the LORD forgives iniquity and transgressions, but on the other hand. “…by no means clearing the guilty.” We may want to ask, “Okay, Lord, which is it?” Though paradoxical, these two dimensions of His character are not contradictory. Rather, they necessarily go together. Without personal responsibility, there can be no forgiveness.
As a young man, I could not be forgiven for running slowly. Why? Polio made running quickly impossible. I was not responsible for contracting Polio! Moral decisions are another matter. Polio does not excuse lying, stealing, or cruelty. Yet, we live in an age of seeking to be excused. “It’s not my fault,” stands in stark contrast to, “the buck stops here.” However, it’s not just politicians who try to escape responsibility when things go sideways and try blame-shifting. We do it too. Yet without responsibility, there can be no forgiveness. We do not need to be excused; we need to be forgiven! “All have sinned,” is Paul’s foundational assertion in Romans, that leads to his claims about God’s gracious forgiveness in Christ. We may be victims of much in life, for which love, and sympathy, are to be given. But we are human beings and are morally responsible.
To a lame man whom Jesus healed, Jesus said, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” (John 5:14) The once lame man was not responsible for his lameness, but his lameness did not excuse unbelief, ingratitude, or cowardly betrayal.
The second aspect of forgiveness is the source of our forgiving others. The Lord’s Prayer is not only beautiful, but it is also deeply challenging.
“Our Father who is in heaven,
may your name be treated as holy.
10 May your kingdom come,
may your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
14 For if you forgive people their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive people, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
(Matthew 6:9-15 NIV)
Our forgiving others is linked to God forgiving us. It may seem in that prayer that God waits to see if we forgive in order to offer forgiveness to us. No, the point is only that they are linked. The parable of the unmerciful servant that closes Matthew 18 makes this point. It is a greatly exaggerated parable on purpose. The guilty servant is shown mercy but refuses to forgive a relatively paltry debt owed to him by a fellow servant. Who could possibly be forgiven an utterly enormous debt and yet show no mercy to another? Jesus’ point is that WE can be that servant. Our showing mercy and forgiveness flows from the experience of God’s loving kindness. Our failure to forgive others is willful blindness to the forgiveness we’ve received.
Before that parable (Matthew 18:21-22), Peter tried to make forgiveness a math test—7 times? It’s not about numbers, it’s about loving kindness. For those of us who have been forgiven so much, the task, although not easy, is simple. We cannot forgive those who hurt others, but we can keep forgiving those who hurt us without counting. Jesus speaks of forgiveness as removing a debt, and that tells us that it is ultimately a matter of our wills, shaped by God’s love, not our feelings.
There is much more to be said about forgiving, but this is a blog, not a book. I simply close with the title of my presentation, “Forgive, Forgive, Forgive.”
Tim Kelley