Ephesians 4:31-32 CSB – Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
1 John 4:8 CSB – God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Matthew 18:21 CSB – Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times?”
Matthew 18:22 CSB – “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:23-25 CSB – “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him. 25 Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.
What Forgiveness Is NOT
Matthew 18:26 CSB – “At this, the servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything’
Matthew 18:27 CSB – Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
- Forgiveness is not ignoring reality
Proverbs 19:11 CSB – A person’s insight gives him patience,
and his virtue is to overlook an offense.
Proverbs 19:11 turned inside-out:
Insight makes a person hyper-sensitive;
so virtuous, he easily takes offense.
- Forgiveness is not quickly trusting
What Forgiveness Is
- Forgiveness Begins When We See People Through God’s Eyes
John 1:10-11 CSB – He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Matthew 18:27 CSB says, Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
Romans 3:23 CSB – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
1 John 1:8 CSB – If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
- Forgiveness Means Absorbing a Hurt
Ephesians 4:32 CSB – And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Isaiah 53:5-6 CSB –
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
6 We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.
1 Corinthians 13:4 CSB – “Love is patient. Love is kind.”
Ephesians 4:32 CSB – And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
- Forgiveness means JOY (because you desire the best for the one who hurt you)
Luke 23:42 CSB – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Luke 23:43 CSB – “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Why Forgive (esp. when forgiveness is most difficult)?
Matthew 18:28-31 CSB – “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe!’
29 “At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ 30 But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. 31 When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.
- Why Forgive? We’ve been forgiven so much!
Matthew 18:31 CSB – When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.
Matthew 18:32-35 CSB – Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”
1 John 3:16 CSB – This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Romans 7:15, 18,19 CSB – For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate…. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
1 Timothy 1:15 CSB – “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”–and I am the worst of them.
Romans 8:1 CSB – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
- Why Forgive? Withholding Forgiveness Imprisons You!
Matthew 18:35 CSB Jesus says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”
Job 21:23-25 CSB – One man dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease, his body well nourished, his bones rich with marrow. Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good.
- Physical Torture
- Relational Torture
- Emotional Torture
How to Be Set Free by Forgiveness
- Experience Forgiveness from Jesus
Ephesians 4:32 CSB – And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Oswald Chambers, Beware of the pleasant view of the fatherhood of God: God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us.
That thought, based solely on emotion, cannot be found anywhere in the New Testament.
The only basis on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ. To base our forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy.
The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, …and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ
- Forgive Quickly & Slowly
Hebrews 12:15 CSB – Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.
- Forgiveness Follows Actions, Not Emotions
Ephesians 4:31-32 CSB – Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.
