The word forgive is a mysterious process that should cause us to pay particular attention to its cause, and its result. Because all of us are sinners, each of us need to ask God to forgive us for actions and attitude. Without forgiveness the remaining situation becomes debilitating. Without it fellowship one with another can be greatly harmed. Jesus sacrificed his life so that we might know the value of our relationship with God. Likewise, if forgiveness is absent with another person what is left is a perpetual problem. It is important that we examine the verses that address forgive, forgiveness, forgiven.
The Old Testament particularly seeks attention to God to forgive the Israelites or oneself. Hebrews repeatedly sinned by abandoning his worship in favor of idols. The Mosaic law required the priest to desire forgiveness before he interceded in behalf of the people of God. Often Bible verses in the Old Testament acknowledges needs for persons to support God’s forgiveness for another. For instance, Abraham tried to negotiate forgiveness with God in behalf of the wretched cities in Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no verses in the Old Testament discussing one person soliciting and receiving forgiveness from another.
It’s not until the New Testament Jesus taught his disciples how to pray using what we call the Lord’s prayer. He said we should ask God to forgive us as we forgive our debtors. He also said that if we do not forgive, God will also not forgive us. If we don’t forgive men, neither will God forgive us our trespasses. Peter was not singling out a particular person that he should forgive when he asked Christ how many times he should forgive. Jesus responded by saying 7×70 times we should forgive. This is still his admonition for us to have a forgiving attitude whether someone requests forgiveness or not. Christ’s emphasis was on our relationship with God and not that someone would ask us for forgiveness. He even warned us that if we do not forgive, God will not forgive us which seems that to gain forgiveness from God we must have that attitude to forgive others. (Luke 6: 37; 11: 4) In fact, if a person repents multiple times in a day, we are obligated to forgive him. (Luke 17:4)
When Jesus was dying on the cross, he interceded for his murderers by saying they did not know what they were doing. No one at the foot of the cross asked Jesus for forgiveness, but he offered it anyway. Forgiveness is an element of divine love. When God says he loves us, it is in spite of who we are and what we’ve done. He accepts us as we are while providing the means through Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven. He extends that same attitude to us in Luke 6:37 that said “forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”
The New Testament continues on from the Old about God’s forgiveness of us (Ephesians 4:32) Paul mentioned and responded to any presumption that he had committed wrongdoing as part of his ministry and that he wanted to be forgiven, but this does not confirm that he had reason to be forgiven. There is a verse that seems to contradict everything I’ve been saying. James wrote, “confess your faults one to another.” (James 5: 16) The verse also says that we should pray one for another. To confess our faults is not to request human forgiveness but to join together in overcoming sin. This is in the context that we are praying for those who have become ill and needs to be healed. Also, the Scripture in Matthew 18 is not talking about the Lord of the servant forgiving what was said or done but that the servant could not pay a debt which the Lord wiped away. Finally, this blog is best summarized in Colossians 3:13 that says, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
The conclusion of this study is that we must have an attitude of forgiveness whether or not the other person seeks forgiveness. Without this attitude, it will gnaw on our spirits hindering our own spiritual growth. Christ is the one who provided forgiveness. We cannot assume his position by withholding forgiveness or offering it conditionally. Within our thinking, within our spirits we must resolve that the other person has sinned but that cannot affect us because we will have the Holy Spirit within us to show kindness and love regardless of what the other person has done. This is a hard lesson to learn. Only through humility and divine love can we be resolved about the matter of harm done whether forgiveness is requested or not. If forgiveness is not requested, that expectation can bring you darkness to the joy you can have in Jesus. We must rise above the wrongdoing of others as Christ has done for us.
Christian Writer 