The Greatness of Forgiveness

The year was 1947, almost two full years after the liberation of Auschwitz and the release of Jews from the concentration camps following WWII.

Corrie Ten Boom, who was a survivor of that terrible concentration camp, stepped forward in a German church to share her testimony. As she stepped forward, she prayed that God would use her words to bring about healing, forgiveness, and restoration.

When she finished her message, a man stepped forward, moving his way through the crowd of people there to talk to Corrie.

He looked familiar… like she’d seen him somewhere before. As she looked into his eyes, it all became crystal clear.

She recognized him. She could see him in the uniform, holding a whip.

She remembered her sister dying a slow and painful death at his hands.

The memories came flooding back to her – memories from Auschwitz and this man who had been a guard at the camp.

He spoke with his eyes looking sadly into hers.

He said, “I’m a Christian now. I know that God has forgiven me, but will you forgive me?”

He stretched his hand to receive hers. Corrie stood there for what must have seemed like an eternity, although it was only a moment or two.

She knew that she needed to make a choice. Would she forgive the man at whose hand she experienced so much pain, hurt, and humiliation?

Would she? Could she? She silently prayed, “Jesus, I need your help. I can lift my hand, but you need to supply the feeling.”

She slowly raised her hand, reached out to the man, and took his hand in hers. As she reached out, a warm sensation filled her heart.

God was indeed faithful. She said, “I forgive you, brother – with my whole heart.”

It is important to Let Go of Grudges.

1. It is Not Easy – but Do-able with the Holy Spirit.

2. An unforgiving Spirit is a subtle sin we are not always aware of.

3. It is Dangerous – An unforgiving spirit it may not cause accidents or overdoses or any number of unpleasant events. But grudges will divide spouses and families and even churches.

4. But, being willing to let go gives us freedom.

Forgiveness is almost never easy. It is most often a challenging thing to do.

Forgiveness means three things:

1.    Forgiveness means that the innocent person resolves his own wrath over the sin of the guilty one and lets the guilty one go free.

2.    Forgiveness means that one genuinely loves, and that love can move beyond the issue to the person, and that one cares more about the person than about what he or she has done.

3.    Forgiveness also liberates – it frees the persons for the options of living – for both the forgiver and the forgiven.

Refusal to forgive is a power play that limits the offender, who holds the guilty “under one’s thumb” or power.

Such forgiveness is always in relationship with repentance.

It is not a package that one accepts and runs away with. It is only known in reconciliation.

The goal of forgiveness is reconciliation.

The act of forgiving and the receiving of forgiveness must be followed by reconciliation.

That means that the relationship should be restored.

There is always the question – How often should we forgive? Look again at verses 21-22.

Peter asks:

“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Is 7 times enough – or should I shake the dust off my feet after forgiving him 6 times?”

Peter, in his question to Jesus, went beyond the Rabbinical rule of 3 times, extending it to 7 times. Peter thinks that 7 times would be a very liberal gesture since the Rabbis said that three times was the limit.

Now, Peter maybe did not really understand the extent of repentance and forgiveness that is available through Jesus Christ.

Jesus answered,

“Not 7, but 70 times 7”.

Even in that answer, Jesus did not place a limit on the number of times one should forgive another.

What He was doing there was teaching that forgiveness is measured in quality rather than quantity.

Forgiveness is not a matter of a specific number. Rather, it is a matter of love and character.

Also, He was teaching that forgiveness takes the place of revenge.

A man in Christ never reaches the limits of love – Romans 13:8, where Paul says,

“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” We are always in debt to love one another – without limits.

In verse 24, Jesus mentions a man who was owed 10,000 talents. 10,000 talents in today’s money would be 10-20 million dollars.

There was no conceivable way the man could repay that amount. One day’s wage was one denarius.

But, you know, it is not about the amount of money that the man owed. What Jesus is illustrating is that our debt to God is totally beyond our ability to pay.

God’s willingness to forgive us was given to us because of His attitude, not His ability. He is, of course, able to forgive. But it is because of His attitude of His great love for us that He is willing and, in fact, He is desirous to forgive us.

In the example in our Scripture reading - The guilty man was liberated – he was set free – because the innocent person, the King, paid the debt. He crossed 10,000 talents off his accounts.

This is Jesus’ illustration of forgiveness.

Human nature is inclined to resent rather than release --- inclined to be demanding rather than forgiving.

The moral sense of responsibility will call one to express forgiveness towards others that they have experienced from God.

Look at Matthew 6:14-15 – “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Human nature is inclined to resent rather than to release and forgive. Human nature wants to react with revenge rather than with forgiveness.

The sin of pride very often accompanies the lack of forgiveness or the complete rejection of forgiveness.

The moral sense of responsibility will call us to express the forgiveness towards others that we have experienced from God.

We must never forget that the greatest example of forgiveness was exhibited by our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness of our sins can only come from Him – the only sinless person who ever lived. He is our Pattern – our Example to follow.