Forgiveness is our Policy

“Peter came up and said to Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”  Matthew 18:21-22

I once saw a sign hanging in a bank that said, “To err is human; to forgive is not our policy.”  For many of us, forgiveness is not our policy.  Instead we tend to hold grudges that can sometimes even last for years.  It is not easy to forgive and forget.  Jesus tells us that tells us that forgiveness should be our policy.  In Matthew chapter 18 Jesus tells Peter to forgive not just seven times, but seventy times seven.  This section of God's Word tells us a great deal about forgiveness.

Peter’s suggestion of forgiving someone who sinned against him seven times is commendable.  The rabbis back then taught that you had to forgive someone three times and then you could retaliate.  The fourth time you could do whatever you liked.  In fact, they mistakenly taught that God only forgives three times.  Peter doubled that and added one more for good measure, probably thinking it would impress Jesus. 

Jesus answer must have surprised Peter, not seven times, but seventy times seven times.  That’s 490 times.  Now, 490 is not an exact number of times that we are to forgive someone.  We do not need to keep track of how many times we have forgiven someone.  Jesus does not mean for us to actually go out and forgive people 490 times.  Instead, seventy times seven means that there is no limit to the number of times we are to forgive someone.  Actually, if you were to count, by the time you reach 490, you would be in the habit of continual and unlimited forgiveness.  That is exactly the point that Jesus is making for us today; you don’t keep score when it comes to forgiveness.  He wants us to be in the habit of forgiving others without limits.

Forgiveness is very difficult because it calls for a renewed personal relationship where things are as though nothing happened between the people involved.  We hold grudges all the time, sometimes it takes us years before we are able to forgive someone who has hurt us.  Another reason why it is hard for us to forgive others is that we have a hard time seeing the big picture.  All we see and focus on is how we have been hurt and the immediate consequences of that.  We don’t see the main picture.  We don’t see how something that we are upset and angry with someone about now won’t really mean anything in the future.

As Christians we need to see the example of forgiveness that Jesus has given to us.  C.S. Lewis once said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has completely forgiven the inexcusable in us.  Colossians 3:13 says, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  Because of the forgiveness that we all have received we can tolerate those who irritate us, and we can forgive our friends and family members when they do wrong against us.

It is in the cross that God wants to be known and where He reveals His forgiveness and Himself for our good.  Jesus went to the cross for all of our sins.  He died for the sins that we still hold grudges about today, yet he forgives us of those sins through his death and resurrection.  From the cross Jesus even showed us true forgiveness when he prayed for God to forgive the sins of those who mocked him and crucified him because they did not know what they are doing.

Our response to God’s great gift to us through the cross is one of praise, repentance, and forgiveness.  Because Christ paid the ultimate price to forgive our sins, our response to others should be one of continual forgiveness.

Forgive continually; don’t hold on to those grudges you have been holding onto for years.  Forgive them and forget them.  Don’t let disputes between friends and family members go on without forgiving the hurtful things being said and done.  Instead of holding on to grudges, hold on to the example of continual forgiveness that Christ showed us on the cross.  Hold on to the promises that we have that God is always there with us, and that he has a perfect plan for our lives that is far better than we can ever imagine.

It’s often difficult to forgive, yet the remarkable thing about Jesus is that he forgives us even for the times we don’t perfectly forgive others. This forgiveness in turn gives us a remarkable strength to forgive others. God gives you the strength and ability to forgive. Do you need help forgiving? Jesus gives us the help we need to get into the habit of continual forgiveness.

No matter what kind of sin someone has done to you, God calls us to forgive because we have been forgiven.  We have been forgiven by a God who holds no record of our many sins, but instead loves us unconditionally.  Psalm 103:11-12 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” 

God delights to love us and to forgive us, and wants us to have that same attitude towards others.  We have been forgiven in order to forgive one another.  As forgiven brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s make it our policy to forgive continually in the name of our forgiving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!