Seventy times seven

Matthew 18:21-35

Forgiveness

²¹ Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

²³ “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴ When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵ But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. ²⁶ So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ ²⁷ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ ²⁹ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ ³⁰ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. ³¹ So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. ³² Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. ³⁵ My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

In yesterday's text Jesus gave a teaching about how we are to confront a brother who is in sin. That teaching yesterday dealt with some one who is living a sinful lifestyle and the purpose of the confrontation was to restore the brother, to reconcile him to God and the church. In today's text Jesus teaches about our responsibilty, what we need to do when some one has sinned, hurt or offended us. Peter probably thought he was being very righteous and merciful when he asked Jesus if we should forgive up to seven times. Jesus response though goes well beyond what Peter expected. Jesus says  “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."  If we are to take this literally and forgive each person up to 490 times, we are going to have to do some pretty extensive record keeping. Certainly Jesus didn't actually mean for us to keep track of how many times we forgive. Biblical scholars say seven is God's number of completion or perfection. So what Jesus is saying here is that we are to forgive completely, perfectly x(times) 70.

Jesus then give an example through a parable. The principle of the parable could be summed up by the scripture

Matthew 6:14-15  For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.      This follows Jesus teaching of the Lord's Prayer, where it says in verse 12: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Another scripture reference to this is found in Mark 11:25-26   "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.   "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions."  That is a powerful truth we need to grasp. If you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.

We need  to forgive the sins against us just as God has forgiven our sins. That means we need to do it once for all, past, present and future. We need to determine that we will live in forgiveness of whatever comes against us. There are two vital aspects of living in this type of forgiveness that we need to grasp before we can even try to live it. First we need to understand that in order to forgive the sin against us we need to be completely dead to self. We need to let go of our need to justify ourselves and accept the justification we have in Christ. If we are truly dead to self, what can anyone do to harm us? A dead man feels no pain and can not be offended. That brings us to the other key to this type of forgiveness. We need to ackowledge that it is beyond our human capabilities to forgive this completely. It is only in and through Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit in us that we can forgive. Human forgiveness does have limits and conditions. The forgiveness we are called to 70 x 7 forgiveness is only found in Christ, who as He was crucified said “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

One final thought I would like to leave you with regarding sin against ourselves. It is a truth we learn from David in Psalm 51. This is David's prayer of confession and repentance after he was confronted by Nathan the prophet for his act of adultry with Bathsheba and his part in having her husband Uriah killed. Psalm 51:1-4

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
³ For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge   

Remember David had caused Bathsheba to commit adultry with him and he had a part in killing her husband. Yet in verse 4 he says " Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, " David recognizes that despite who the victims of his actions might be, in truth all sin is against God. If we truly understand that and we are obediant to forgive others as God has forgiven us, we would never want anyone to stand judged by God for their sin. We would want for them the same gracious justice  that we have in Christ. In yesterday's text we read Matthew 18:14 "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish. It says also in 2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

That's the heart's desire of 70x7 forgiveness. It is the Father's heart, His perfect forgiveness, that none should perish.

“Pray, then, in this way: