Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
No forgiveness is impossible, we are simply unwilling.
Friday, March 19, 2004
To keep a count means that you do not forget and you bring up the situation again, therefore, you really did not forgive.
A person in forgiving aother gave up a right which he might under certain circumstances exercise.
The purpose of this parable – when God calls on a member of His kingdom to forgive, He is not calling on him to renounce or give up a right, but in reality he has no right in the matter at all.
Verses 23-27 – vertical forgiveness, God’s forgiveness of people.
Verse 28-34 – horizontal forgiveness, you and me as we forgive fellow people, fellow Christians, even non-Christians.
This one was brought to him, he would have never come of himself!
It was customary in the ancient world that if someone could not pay what they owed you, you could not only take all of their property and attach it, but you could even take them and their family and sell them as slaves, 2KI 4:1, NEH 5:8.
2KI 4:1 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.”
Compassion motivates forgiveness.
1. The compassion of the king – the lord of the slave felt compassion.
2. He released him, so there is the release of the sinner.
3. He forgave him the debt, there is the forgiveness of the wrong
Forgiveness is not really a relational problem, it is first a theological and spiritual problem.
You do not adequately forgive a trespasser unless you see that it is linked to how God has forgiven you.
One church went back to its trespasses, and the other returned to its debts.
It is because we go out from the presence of the Lord that we are in danger of acting like this servant with an unforgiving heart!
The small sum is mentioned to show how little man can offend his fellow man compared with the amount in which every one of us has offended God.
No forgiveness is impossible, it is simply unwilling.
To do less than fully forgive is hypocritical.
The guilt laid upon him is the fact that having received mercy and forgiveness, he remains unmerciful and unforgiving towards others.
The torturers represent the 3 enemies of the believer; the flesh, the world, and the devil.
Not to forgive inflicts inner torment to the one who does not forgive.
It is an accurate description of tormenting resentment and bitterness, the awful animosity of hate or envy.
DAN 9:9 “To God belongs mercy and forgiveness.”
It is through occupation with TLJC that we develop a capacity to forgive.
This means the ability to forgive yourself for the things you do and forgive others for the things they have done to you.
Our Lord not only prayed for forgiveness for His enemies, but our Lord actually argued on their behalf.
They were ignorant of His Person.
They parted His garments, LUK 23:34, and that fulfilled PSA 22:18.
They gave Him vinegar to drink, LUK 23:36, and that fulfilled PSA 69:21.
He was crucified with the transgressors, LUK 23:33, and that fulfilled ISA 53:12.
When TLJC said “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” He was at that moment enduring the first pains of crucifixion.
Neither the weakness of the past, nor the pain of the present, could prevent Him from continuing in prayer and praying for us.
He had not a word to say in His own defense to man, but He continues in His heart crying unto His Father for us.
Our Lord’s prayer to his Father was not for Himself.
He does not say, “I forgive them” – that is taken for granted – He does not focus in on the fact that they were doing any wrong to Himself, it is the wrong which they were doing to the Father that is on His mind.
The prayer was not just for His friends, it was for His cruelest enemies.
MAT 27:54 the Centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”