Matthew 18:21-22, clearly teaches that we should. Peter, impetuous and always ready to ask questions, says, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Seven times seems a big stretch, denoting a forgiving spirit. But our Lord replied, “I say not to thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven”—four hundred and ninety times—a prodigious number.
Did our Lord mean that we should forgive up to exactly four hundred and ninety times, and that would mark the extreme limit? Surely not. It is a number that no one would equal in a particular case. It just means that we should go on forgiving. Long before four hundred and ninety acts of forgiveness were registered there would be no counting. No, it sets forth an attitude of mind, very foreign to the flesh that cries, “Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Ex. 21:23-25). The law principle we can understand as men in the flesh; fatal as it would be for our blessing, if that were all. But grace, how slow we are to understand it, and still slower to practice it, though we owe everything to it!
Scripture, however, let it be carefully noted, indicates a condition. An easy going forgiveness would do grave moral injury. We read, “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4).
There is a condition necessary to forgiveness, and that is repentance. That is, indeed the principle of divine forgiveness. There is no forgiveness with God except through repentance. It is very evident that one who trespasses, and who is not repentant, has no desire for forgiveness, is not in the right spirit to receive it. Repentance is the moral foundation on which forgiveness can be rightly given and rightly received.
The attitude of the injured one should be that of forgiveness—a forgiveness forthcoming the moment repentance takes place. The attitude of the injurer should be that of repentance.
This is, indeed, a very serious matter. In the prayer of Luke 11:4, we read, “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.” That means our attitude to others has a serious relation to ourselves. Doubtless in this passage forgiveness is looked at from a governmental standpoint. And it is just on the lines of government that the matter assumes very serious proportions. Do I forgive? Then I can call upon God to forgive me. Am I hard and unforgiving? I shall reap what I sow. We see it in the parable of Matthew 18:23-35. The man who owed ten thousand talents, a sum approaching two million pounds, was forgiven his debt. Relieved of this terrible incubus, he discovered a fellow-servant who owed him one hundred pence, a paltry sum. He seized his fellow-servant by the throat, and demanded payment, throwing him into prison, there to stay until the debt should be paid.
When the servants, shocked by all this, informed their lord, he was righteously angry, delivering the wretched man to the tormentors till all should be paid. Little did the unrighteous fellow know that he was throwing a boomerang, that would hit himself, and hit him hard. “So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also, to you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses” (Matt. 18:35).
Have we not been forgiven far more than ten thousand talents, more than tongue can say? Shall we be hard and unforgiving? If we are, we shall find we injure ourselves more than those we are harsh towards. It is a very serious matter. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 2:7). Sowing to the flesh, corruption is reaped.
Righteousness on our part consists in acting towards others according to the way God has acted to us.
All this is very practical. Let us practise it, helped by the Spirit of God, for we cannot do it in our own strength.