Hanningfield Green
Lawshall
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP29 4QD
Luke 15:11-32
Matthew 6: 8-14
Of all of the human qualities that make mankind in any sense like God, surely none is more divine than forgiveness. As God is a God of forgiveness. In fact, in Exodus 34, God identifies Himself in that way as Verse 6 says, “Then the Lord passed by in front of Him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth, who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” He is saying, “I am the God of forgiveness, that is who I am.” And Solomon said in Proverbs 19:11, “It is a man’s glory to overlook a transgression,” Surely, man is never more like God than when he forgives.
Now, the theme of forgiveness is emphasized throughout Scripture, but there are some high points where we see the forgiveness of God more apparent. One of them, and probably the most familiar, is the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15. I will only remind you briefly of the story as it is so well known.
A father had two sons and one of the sons was tired of being in the father’s house and wanted to take his share of the inheritance and seek his independence. As the son wasn’t entitled to this inheritance until the death of the father, the son is more or less saying that he wished his father was dead so that he could get his hands on the money. And we are told that the father granted his wish. So, the son left the house and wasted everything in sinful living. That son was not unlike many who we see today, families divided because of greed, anxious to get their hands on wealth they have not earned. He was so foolish in the way that he spent his inheritance on fast living with those who exploited him and who quickly left him in misery when his money ran out. But slowly he came to his senses because he was dying of hunger in a pig sty that actually mirrored his life. And then when he reached that low point of life, he reflected on what he had previously had, and he wanted to go back and be only a servant in his father’s house because being a servant in his father’s house would be better than being what he had become. Then came the awakening. He said, “My father’s servants live far better than I, and I will arise and go to my father.”
It seems in the story of the prodigal son that the young man did not expect forgiveness. He only expected some kind of mild tolerance. All he wanted was the chance to say to his father
§ I’ve been an idiot and I’m not worthy to be your son any longer.
§ I’ve embarrassed you.
§ I know I forfeited the right to ever be a son, but could I just be a servant?
§ All I really want is a roof over my head and all I want is a little better food than the pig swill that is before me.
And so, he started on the road back.
And it is then that Jesus teaches us how to forgive.
The father didn’t even wait for the son to get there. He ran to the son when he saw him in the distance. The Bible says he fell on his neck and kissed him repeatedly with words that were not unkind, but loving. And so, Jesus tells us what the heart of forgiveness is like. It is eager, not reluctant. It doesn’t even wait for the sinner to arrive. In fact, when you see him coming far away, you run to meet him, and you embrace him and kiss him. And when he starts to say he’s sorry, you hardly listen because you don’t even give him time to finish. You just embrace him, love him, put him in your best outfit, put a ring on his finger, get the best meat out of the freezer and cook the best meal you can. Then rejoice with your friends, and proudly invite everybody to come to the celebration of your son that has come back. That’s how God forgives.
And that’s how He wants us to forgive.
The Lord warns us also from that story that such forgiveness will be unappreciated. Such forgiveness will be misunderstood. As his brother if you remember, who being the eldest would have already received a double portion of the inheritance when it was divided between the two sons. He had stayed, but now he resented the fact that his brother had returned, and furthermore was angry with his father for being so forgiving. And his unforgiveness reflects the wickedness of the pharisee’s and the mindset of a lot of people today who will make a cynical face and call you a fool for such forgiveness. And they will tell you that you ought to send him back to the pig sty where he belongs. But the forgiving father can only say that he loves, and he will always love even the one who has no deserving for such forgiveness.
From that story we learn how God forgives – eagerly, lavishly and totally. Is it any wonder on the basis of that that when Jesus taught us to pray, the best words that He could think of for us who have so great a need to be forgiven were the words “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? Surely, those words should really plant our feet on the ground. They tell us that God’s forgiveness to us is based on our forgiveness of others. James put it this way in Chapter 2:13: “There will be judgement without mercy for those who have not been merciful themselves.” Or to take it in a positive note, the Beatitudes say, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” In other words, if You want mercy. You must give it.
The apostle Paul wrote several letters, namely Ephesians, Colossians and Philippians which collectively are called the prison epistles because his first imprisonment in Rome was the location where Paul wrote these letters. In both Ephesians and Colossians, there is a major emphasis on the matter of forgiveness. In Ephesians 4: 32, the apostle Paul speaks to the Ephesian believers – and to the wider churches because this was a circular letter that went all over Asia Minor. And he says to all of them and indeed also to us, “Be kind to one another, tender hearted forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
Colossians is another letter written this time to the church at Colossae but also circulated to the church at Laodicea, he says in Chapter 3:13, “We are to be bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Now, if you put all of this together, you get the very clear idea that God is a forgiving God, and you are to be forgiving people. That’s one principle. The other one is God will forgive you if you forgive. And so, on the one hand, the Scripture says God has forgiven you; therefore, forgive, and on the other hand the Scripture says if you don’t forgive, God won’t forgive you, and you will have violated the relationship, and the fellowship that you could enjoy with God. The Lord has forgiven all of our sins and therefore, Paul says, we should forgive each other. And if we don’t, we’re going to be chastened by God. It’s a plain and simple message isn’t it?
Now, this principle is given very clear perspective in Matthew 18, and I want to show how this principle is illustrated in a parable. A very familiar passage of scripture which is easy to read, but one that I would suggest is hard to complete. Peter says to the Lord in Ch18:21, “If somebody sins against me and I forgive him, how many times do I do that? Seven?” The rabbi said three, so Peter thought he was being very generous. But Jesus answers “not seven times, but up to seventy times seven”. Jesus is not giving us a literal total number of 490 times, but He is saying ‘do it indefinitely’. You want forgiveness? Give it constantly and unconditionally. And forgive like God for you are never more like God than when you forgive.
Just to reemphasise this, listen again to the words of Jesus in His disciples’ prayer in Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” And then he says in v14, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your trespasses”.
He then in Matthew Ch18:23 tells a parable that makes the point, and it’s a parable that depicts God and the sinner. “The Kingdom of Heaven then may be compared to a certain king” – that’s God – “who wished to settle accounts with his servant – that’s us. And when he had begun to settle accounts with them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents.” That’s an unpayable debt, “Since he didn’t have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he had and repayment to be made.” The debt was too much to pay but if all these people were sold at least the king could receive something.
“The slave therefore” – verse 26 – “falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I’ll repay you everything.’” He had a right heart; he had a willing spirit and even though he could never have been able to repay that debt his intention was right. So, “The lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” That’s God and the sinner. When the sinner comes before God and is convicted about his unpayable debt, he’s convicted about his sin, and God tells him, “You have no means to pay me, you should be sent to hell, you should pay whatever you can pay even though you could never pay me what you owe me.” And that by the way is what hell is, it’s spending forever paying for a debt that you fully owe but can never repay because you’ve affronted God so greatly as one who rejected His Son.
But this king is compassionate and when he sees the man’s willingness, he forgives him the debt. Now, here comes the point. “The servant went out,” he’d just been forgiven, “he found his fellow servants and one who owed him a hundred denarii” – that’s a hundred days’ wages, but not a major debt. “He seized him, and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’” And the people who would be listening to Jesus tell the story at this point would be absolutely outraged. “So, his fellow servant fell down and began to beg him saying, ‘Have patience with me and I’ll repay you.’ The first servant was unwilling, however, but went and threw him in a prison until he could pay back what he owed.”
Surely, this is unthinkable. Here is a man who has been forgiven a massive debt who turns right around and won’t forgive somebody a small debt. “When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you asked me. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant even as I had mercy on you?” And there’s that principle. You want mercy from God, you show mercy. You want forgiveness from God, you must be forgiving. “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
That parable is so severe that there are many people who conclude that the principle Jesus teaches couldn’t possibly apply to a Christian. But surely it does. Because the first servant who wouldn’t forgive his fellow servant was a forgiven man; that is, God had already forgiven him, he is a child of God. But what it tells us is that the Lord will sometimes deal very harshly with His own children who will not forgive someone else. Hebrews 12 says, “Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and every son He scourges,” and one of the reasons He disciplines and scourges us and makes life very trying and difficult is because we have an unforgiving heart towards someone. Christians, then, are to forgive. That is the principle taught in Scripture, that is the principle illustrating the character of God in the parable of the prodigal son, and that is the principle illustrated in this parable to be true of every believer.
The character of God’s forgiveness is seen in the parable of the prodigal son – eager, lavish, and loving forgiveness. And the severity of chastening for one who doesn’t forgive is seen in the parable of the king and the servant. This is a central theme in all of Scripture.
And so, there is a principle in Scripture and that is this: you are never more like God than when you forgive. And such forgiveness should come easy because you have been forgiven. And if you do not forgive, then you’ll put yourself in a position to be chastened by God – possibly severely.
Now, the priority of forgiveness is not only given in Scripture in principle, it’s not only given in Scripture in parable, but it is given in Scripture in personal terms. And it’s in the book of Philemon.
There is just this little isolated out-of-sync, obtuse, vague little letter stuck in the middle of these great sweeping epistles to talk to one man about forgiving one slave. You may ask yourself the question: Of all of the subjects that Paul could have written about, why in the world did he pick the subject of forgiveness? Why all this fuss?
Surely, it is because never is a believer more like God, more like Christ, than when he or she forgives because that’s the nature of God and the nature of Christ, which is most wonderfully applied to us in salvation.
Surely, we are to be like Christ. And what does it mean to be like Christ? It means to be forgiving. Because that’s how we know Him, as the one who forgave us for all our sins.
Let me say again, the character of God’s forgiveness is seen in the parable of the prodigal son – eager, lavish, and loving forgiveness. And the severity of chastening for one who doesn’t forgive is seen in the parable of the king and the servant. These are central themes in all of Scripture.
But here in the shortest letter of Paul’s inspired writings we have the major issue of forgiveness laid out, not in principle, not in parable, but in a personal case. The prodigal son was not a true story. The king and the servant was not a true story. They were simply parables spoken by Christ to make a point. This though is a true story and through it we see the principle of forgiveness being worked out as Paul asks Philemon to forgive Onesimus.
Forgiveness is a matter, not only of blessing and fellowship with God, but it’s also a matter of the assurance of salvation. Thomas Watson the Puritan Preacher wrote many years ago: “We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven. Let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we need not doubt that God has forgiven us.” And Thomas Adams the English clergyman who was called ‘the Shakespeare of the Puritans’, wrote: “He who demands mercy and shows none, ruins the bridge over which he himself must pass.”
May I ask, how strong is your bridge? How forgiving are we? What are our hearts like when it comes to forgiving others as we have been forgiven?
Because, of all of the human qualities that make men in any sense like God, none is more divine than forgiveness.
As we remember that God forgave my sin in Jesus’ name!
