Each of us has been wronged by others. Each of us has also been shown kindness, repeatedly. Why is it so easy to remember the wounds, rather than to recall the helpfulness?
The Holy Bible has a lot to say about forgiveness. A good Bible concordance is a valuable tool for Bible study and learning the “whole wisdom of God,” rather than relying on one or two verses that seem to prove a point. A quick count from my Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible lists about 118 times where the words forgave, forgive, forgiven, forgiveness, forgivenesses, forgiveth, and forgiving can be found in God’s Word. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that God thinks it’s important.
Forgetting a wrong goes hand-in-hand with forgiveness. It is difficult to forget, but forgiveness is not complete without it.
And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
(Luke 23:34 ESV) [4]
Likewise, Steven the Martyr gave us an example of obedience to Christ when he was being stoned to death:
And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59-60 ESV) [5]
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul declared that everyone has sinned, but God has provided a way to be forgiven:
… for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace
as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put
forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans
3:23-25 ESV) [6]
I once heard a sermon by the late Pastor E.V. Hill on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Pastor Hill happened to be Black. In the sermon he said, “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.” It doesn’t help to deny that what we are doing is a sin. It is what God says it is.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1John 1:8-10 ESV) [7]
Sin is lawlessness (1John 3:4). It is disobedience to God. It is idolatry because when we sin we give the satisfaction of our base desires priority over the love, loyalty, and obedience that we owe to the Lord. Therefore, the just penalty for sin is death; whether it is adultery, theft, murder, blasphemy, unforgiveness, or any other sin. Praise God, for He has given us a way to be forgiven, and the death penalty we deserve has been pardoned:
For the wages of
sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord. (Romans 6:23 ESV) [8]
Then Peter came up
and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven
times.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15 ESV) [10]
And
whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so
that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25 ESV) [11]
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; (Luke 6:37 ESV) [12]
Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him. (Luke 17:3-4 ESV) [13]
And
everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one
who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
(Luke 17:10 ESV) [14]
And many more.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV) [15]
For I will be
merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12 ESV,
from Jeremiah 31:34, see also Hebrews 10:17) [16]
The forgive and forget verses do not contradict the assurance of salvation that we have in Christ Jesus. God’s Word says:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30 ESV) [17]
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17 ESV) [18]
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39 ESV) [19]
All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:37 ESV) [20]
In writing this post, I struggled with the seeming dichotomy between “once saved, always saved” and forgiving in order to receive forgiveness. Usually, the various commentaries available to me are a big help. In this case, I did not find the answer there. I will give you what I came up with on my own, with the understanding that I do not have formal Theological training, and other believers may disagree. Trained or not, we all need to be humble enough to admit that none of us will have all the answers until we meet the Lord face to face.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1Corinthians 13:12 ESV) [21]
Salvation brings change with it. We are no longer the same. We are given a new nature, and the old sinful person we were no longer controls us.
Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away;
behold, the new has come. (2Corinthians 5:17 ESV) [22]
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2: 1-10 ESV) [23]
If we are truly saved, Jesus Christ is in us, and His nature shines through us. It is visible in the things we think, feel, and do. From the moment we trust in Jesus, we begin to be more and more like Him.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30 ESV) [24]
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1John 2:3-6 ESV) [25]
Jesus said:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17 ESV) [26]
At the Great White Throne Judgement, unbelievers will have to give an account for everything they have done in this life before they are thrown into the lake of burning Sulphur. (Revelation 20:11-15) On the other hand, believers will stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and everything they have done, good or bad, will also be made known. However, our sins have been forgiven, and we can boldly go before the throne of Grace without fear of punishment.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. (1John 4:13-19 ESV) [27]
Then, our reward will be given to us according to what we have done. Our sins have been forgiven, but our reward will be granted according to how we have lived for Jesus. This is also consistent with what Jesus commanded regarding forgiveness.
The saved person cannot lose their salvation, but we can be chastised here in this life as well. Don’t I know that one!
Friends, forgive and forget is a tall order. If we try to do it on our own, we cannot forgive the way Jesus did. Jesus said:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5 ESV) [28]
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 ESV) [29]
Praise God! If we yield ourselves to Him, we
can forgive and forget like Jesus did. Please
pray for me, so that I can live up to what I have written.
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