Man is Never More Like God than When He Forgives...

First, some verses to consider...

"The Lord, the Lord God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin."--Exodus 34:6  

Solomon said, "It is a man's glory to overlook a transgression,

"Man is never more like God than when he forgives--Proverbs 19:11


Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.--Romans 5:5

Thoughts on Forgiveness...some paraphrased from John MacArthur.


Our God is the God of forgiveness...that is who He is.  We are to resemble Him...we are to imitate Him.  Forgiveness deflects self-pity, pride and shows mercy. Forgiveness is divine.  We are never more like God than when we forgive. That should be characteristic of every one of us. Forgiveness is the most noble act that one sinner can do for another sinner. In our heart is love and humility, not a wounded ego, not vengeance, not bitterness no matter what anybody does to us, and we hold there a loving, eager, anxious longing to forgive when that sinner comes to seek the forgiveness we offer. This is Christlike. This is Godlike.  We forgive to restore fellowship, Forgiveness produces mercy, joy, love, fellowship, purity.

"Be kind to one another, tender hearted...here's the same principle...forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

In Colossians chapter 3, He says, "We are to bear with one another and forgiving each other whoever has a complaint against anyone just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you."

Now if you pull all of these together you get the very clear idea that God is a forgiving God and you are to be forgiving people. That's basic. In fact, God has forgiven you, so you should forgive. That's one principle. The other one is God will forgive you if you do forgive.

And so, on the one hand the Scripture says God has forgiven you therefore forgive, and on the other hand the Scripture says if you don't forgive God won't forgive you and you will have violated the relationship, the fellowship that you could enjoy with God.

The Lord has forgiven all of us all of our sins and therefore Paul says we should forgive each other. And if we don't, we're going to be chastened by God. That's plain and simple the message.   How often are we to forgive...endlessly Scripture teaches. 70 x 7...Matthew 18.  Jesus goes on in the 18th chapter of Matthew to speak a parable that illustrates His point.

The next illustration is taken directly from a study John MacArthur did on forgiveness. I loved what he says here. 


"And then He tells a parable that makes the point.  And it's a parable that depicts God and the sinner. The king in the parable is God. The man who owes the big debt is the sinner. "The Kingdom of Heaven then...verse 23...may be compared to a certain king...that's God...who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them there was brought to him one who owed him 10 thousand talents." That's an unpayable debt, massive debt he could never pay. "Since he didn't 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." The debt was too much to pay but if all these people were sold into slavery at least the king could get something. The man had obviously defrauded him. Probably one of those servants who was a tax collector and who had charge over great sums of money and had defrauded the king and now had lost it all and had no means to pay. And he said, "Well, if I can't get what I owe, I'll get what I can. So sell all of his family into slavery and at least give me that."

"The slave therefore...verse 26...falling down prostrated himself before him saying, Have patience with me and I'll repay you everything." He had a right heart, he had a willing spirit even though he couldn't have done it, his intention was right. "The lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt." That's God and the sinner. When the sinner comes before God and is convicted about his unpayable debt, he's convicted about his sin and God tells him you have no means to pay me, you should be sent to hell, you should pay whatever you can pay even though you could never pay me what you owe me. And that's what hell is, by the way, it's spending forever paying what you could pay which never does pay the debt you fully owe because you've affronted God so greatly as one who rejected His Son.

But this king is compassionate and when he sees the man's willingness, he forgives him the debt. Now here comes the point. "The slave went out," he had just been forgiven, "he found his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, one of them," that's a hundred days wages, not a major debt. "He seized him, began to choke him, saying, Pay back what you owe." And the people who would be listening to Jesus tell the story at this point would be absolutely outraged. "So his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him saying, Have patience with me and I'll repay you. He was unwilling, however, but when...threw him in a prison until he should pay back what he owed."

This is unthinkable. Here is a man who has been forgiven a massive debt who turns right around and won't forgive somebody a small debt. "When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him his lord said to him, You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you asked me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow slave even as I had mercy on you?" And there's that principle. You want mercy from God, you show mercy. You want forgiveness from God, you be forgiving. "And his lord moved with anger handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart."

Boy, what a story! What a story! That parable is so severe that there are many people who conclude that the principle Jesus teaches couldn't possibly apply to a Christian. But it does. Because the man who wouldn't forgive the slave was a forgiven man, that is God had already forgiven him, he is a child of God. But what it tells us is that the Lord will sometimes deal very harshly with His own children who will not forgive someone else, whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and every son He scourges, Hebrews 12 says. And one of the reasons He disciplines and scourges us and makes life very trying and difficult is because we have an unforgiving heart towards someone. Christians then are to forgive. That is the principle taught in Scripture, that is the principle illustrating the character of God in the parable of the prodigal son, and that is the principle illustrated in this parable to be true of every believer. This is a matter, I think, not only of blessing and fellowship with God, but it's also a matter of the assurance of salvation."

We should also forgive immediately.  I love what Corrie Ten Boom has said on this subject:

"A piece of good advice is to forgive anyone immediately--and I mean immediately--if they say or do something against you.  Then the Devil won't have a chance to keep a shadow in your heart."  I love that.  Lord keep our hearts from shadows.  We are to be His lights in the world and shine His love to the world around us which is dying without Christ.  There really isn't time for our offenses. 

The love of God shed abroad in our hearts is stronger than any offense or hatred we might encounter.  God's love forgives...Surrender to it and allow it to succeed in your heart.  God's love is the answer.

"We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven. Let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we need not doubt that God has forgiven us." Someone has said "He who demands mercy and shows none ruins the bridge over which he himself must pass."