Forgiveness Is An Extreme & Important Part Of The Spiritual Life.
The Christian Attitude Of Forgiveness Is Found In Matthew 18:21-35.
First Of All, We Begin With A Principle That The Believer Must Have An Unlimited Attitude Of Forgiveness...Not Only Toward Others But Also Toward Himself.
Not A "One More Chance" Attitude, But An Unlimited Attitude.
With God Future Obedience Cannot Make Up For Past Disobedience.
- They were going to face the problem of subjectivity, which is occupation with self, which is always prone to self-centeredness.
They are "security conscious" but they are not "freedom conscious."
- Their attitude ignored the manifestation of divine power and the 10 plagues of Egypt.
Why would God go to all this trouble to free the Jews from the slavery in Egypt just to take them out in the desert to die?
Frightened and emotional people make all kinds of accusations.
Before you can apply doctrine under pressure you have to stabilize your life, you have to organize your thinking when things are normal.
You can't organize your thinking unless you have something to think, like the problem solving devices.
If you can't concentrate in Bible class, you'll never concentrate when disaster comes, so hello panic palace.
One of the main reasons is simply because they do not want to admit their own failures and their own mistakes.
Many believers say that they believe in the Word of God but as far as applying what they believe in times of pressure they discover that certain mental blocks exist.
All they had to do was simply admit that they were wrong and trust in the deliverance of the Lord.
Isa 44:22 I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Heb 8:12, For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Heb 10:17 And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
Mic 7:18 Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession?
Mic 7:19...Yes You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Isa 38:17c For you have cast all their sins behind their back.
Jer 31:34c For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
Psa 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psa 65:3b as far our transgressions Thou dost forgive them.
Col 2:13 .....He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
It is compassion which motivates forgiveness.
Psa 78:38 "But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; and often He restrained is anger, and did not arouse all His wrath."
Psa 130:3-4 "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou may be feared."
Feared in the Hebrew means reverently worshipped.
Eph 1:7 "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"
Isa 43:25 "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake [because of my honor and integrity]. Furthermore, I will not remember your sin."
1Jo 2:12 says "I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake."
Because God has forgiven us, believers are commanded to forgive one another in Eph 4:32 which is an imperative mood.
Eph 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has also forgiven you."
Forgiving others allows God to handle the situation rather than self.
Rom 12:19 "Beloved, do not take your own revenge, but defer to the wrath of God. For it stands written [Deu 32:35], `Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.'"
Col 3:13 "Bearing one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone else, just as the Lord forgave you, so also you should forgive others."
Psa 103:3 The Lord pardons all our iniquities; and heals all our diseases.
The Christian attitude of forgiveness is found in Mat 18:21-35.
The believer must have an unlimited attitude of forgiveness...not only toward others but also toward himself.
The word forgive is the Greek verb aphiemi which means to completely cancel, to send something away without even discussing it, never bringing it up again.
Because to forgive someone up to 7 times means that you must keep count -- and to keep count means that you do not forget and therefore you really did not forgive.
When Peter used the number 7 as the number of times that an offending brother should be forgiven, he thought that he was certainly doing some great thing.
Because Jewish Law stated that a person should be forgiven up to 7 times according to Amo 1:3,2:6.
In suggesting a limit to our forgiveness, Peter implied the principle that a man in forgiving gave up a right which he might under certain circumstances exercise.
When God calls on a member of his kingdom to forgive someone, that he is not calling on him to renounce some right that he has or to give up a right, but really he has no right in the matter at all.
They could not only take all of your property and attach it but they could take you and your family and sell you and your family for slaves.
This statement shows the extreme fear of the moment which made him promise impossible things...."I will repay everything!"
With God future obedience cannot make up for past disobedience.
Notice the word compassion again which motivates forgiveness.
The more innocent we are in a situation the more power we have to heal the conflict.
He went out, it is one of the key words in the parable.
He went out from the presence of the Lord and found someone who had owed him something.
Prin-It is because we go out from the presence of the Lord that we are in danger of acting like this servant.
He has forgotten the benefits that he received from the Lord.
The small sum is mentioned to show how little man can offend his fellow man compared with the amount in which every man has offended against God.
The guilt laid upon him is the fact that having received mercy he remains unmerciful still.
The torturers represent the 3 enemies of the believer; the flesh the world and the devil.
The flesh with all its defense mechanisms,
The world with all its evil people,
The devil is a liar from the beginning.
You will end up blaming other's for your own personal failures in times of disaster.