Forgiveness Is the Rule, not the Exception.
length: 80:45 - taught on Jul, 20 2025
Class Outline:
Sunday July 20, 2025
Title: Forgiveness Is the Rule, not the Exception.
Offenses against me can only be earthly and material.
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
It would always be the case that those who harm the children of God without remorse would not know what they are doing.
Peter sees forgiveness as the exceptional thing. It is on earth, but in heaven it is like the law of gravity.
The text: MAT 18:21-35
Individual response to personal injury. “Against me” is different from someone going astray (MAT 18:15-17).
Rather than about the spiritual well being of another, this question moves us into the problem of personal animosity that will poison a community. What rights do we have when someone sins against us and what redress is allowed?
It is not clear whether this idiom means seventy-seven or as the Revised Version has it (490 times).[Robertson's Word Pictures in the New Testament].
Counting misses the point.
Christ may be referring to the boast of Lamech:
If Cain is avenged sevenfold,
Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." [same Greek in LXX]
In other words, Lamech brags of unlimited revenge and the Lord demands unlimited forgiveness.
It is hyperbole, not a calculation.
The parable, like 2SA 12:1-7 is designed for the hearer to react with fury.
Keep in mind, the Lord’s words are “the kingdom of heaven is likened to” and this is a parable - Jesus is conveying a truth about the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore, we must be careful not to read too much into it, and at the same time not dismiss its message to us:
"My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."
Jesus is not teaching all of soteriology. There is much more revelation to come in that important subject.
He picks up the idea of the debt for sin needing forgiveness in MAT 6:12 as well as the need to reciprocate God’s mercy to others and the consequences if we don’t (MAT 6:14-15).
10,000 talents (7.5 billion) is hyperbole. No one person could ever owe this much, not to mention, a slave.
This represents the total depravity of man. All of us are born in Adam and born separate from God. There is no person less sinful than another, though we commit different personal sins. Only the gospel tell human beings the truth about themselves.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.
The point: What God has forgiven is beyond human calculation. Add to that what He has given and it is all too marvelous to comprehend, but you can accept it by faith.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
5 You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
The man’s promise to repay everything is impossible considering the amount. We would easily see this as the truth that no one could work for his salvation.
The king felt compassion.
The parable highlights the generosity of the king. Can you or I calculate how much we have been forgiven?
Therefore, the parable highlights total unmerited grace.
Jesus’ attitude of generosity when confronted with those who cannot help themselves, over and over in the Gospels is: “He felt compassion for them.”
so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
There was that in God which no created being had ever seen in its fullness - His grace.
Doctrine of Redemption: To save the lost, their sin must be forgiven.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And using the Lord’s teaching that sin is debt:
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God.
Slave 2’s debt is not insignificant (3-4 months wages; akin to Peter’s “7 times”), however is it 1/600,000th of what he owed the master.
Slave 2’s groveling is close to identical to slave 1, in which he should have heard his own words.
We are not to miss the parallel. The Lord forgave you and now your brother sins against you.
Slave 1 is violent and implacable. He cannot sell the other slave (he doesn’t own him) but debtor’s prison is not illegitimate in their world.
Slave 1 has no fear of God.
But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.
We will not want to get the fear of God wrong.
Servants have sorrow, not anger or vengeance. Vengeance is sinful, pity is legitimate.
“All that debt.” We, the hearers, are to reflect on the extent of our own indebtedness to the grace of God. The master did not have to have mercy and he expected the same from the first slave.
“Mercy” MAT 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
The characteristics of God are to be the characteristics of His people.
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."
In this age He has given this eternal life to people before they get to the kingdom. So then, we can see why Christianity is both being and doing.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
The key to the characteristics of God in you is to see Him through His word. Seeing in the Word of God all that He has done for you, forgiven you, and how He did so; just for starters.
Jesus intimates that if we do not show mercy we will not receive it.
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
The solution to a problem of not being merciful is simple. Put your faith in the reality of God’s mercy to you. It will change your heart. How could it not?
The master forgave the huge debt but he will not forgive the slave's refusal of generosity. If he is determined to get justice, then he will have it.
The punishment is worse - instead of being sold, he is tortured (language is clear, it should not be softened).
God’s generosity is beyond measure, but He will not show mercy to the unmerciful.
Some think that Jesus clashes with Paul here, but if that is true, Christianity is not what the Lord says it is. The seamless and sufficient truth of the Scripture does not contradict itself.
He is teaching us that He takes our transformation into mature disciples very seriously. He is also teaching us that neither our salvation nor our transformation comes to us by human strength or merit, but only by the grace of God.
Application:
Go to the Father in prayer and ask for revelation on who you have not forgiven and then ask Him to impress upon you the magnitude of the debt you own Him, which He has forgiven you.
The solution is quite simple for a believer. Knowing something of the magnitude of your debt to God makes you a forgiving person. Often people will not forgive something that is not a weakness in them. “I’d never …”
"For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little."
Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.
The summary of the law is to love God and then love your neighbor. You love God because He loved you.
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. 26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
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