by Ken Green<\/p>\n
“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, “‘ do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times’<\/em> ” (Matthew 18:21-22, ESV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Before we can take forgiveness seriously, we have to grasp what forgiveness means. Forgiveness is the decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when he or she injured you. When you injure others, knowingly or unknowingly, you create an obligation.<\/p>\n
You take something from them: their time, money, pride, or dignity. And if you take something from your brother, then you owe him. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that nobody pays that price. It actually means that the one granting forgiveness pays. He covers the debt.\u00a0He’s the one who takes care of it.<\/p>\n
If I choose to release someone through forgiveness, I pay the debt. I absorb it. I cover it. I forego what is rightfully due to me. I release the person from what he owes. I pay. Not unlike how, when God forgives, God pays. That’s the story of the gospel. I have a sin debt I can never pay, and Jesus pays it for me.<\/p>\n
This extravagant, divine forgiveness sets the stage for human forgiveness, but that doesn’t make it easy. Since the debt was unfair in the first place, we instinctively hesitate to pay it ourselves. But our reasons for not forgiving all turn out to be rationalizations.<\/p>\n
If we hold out for an apology, we are missing the point. An apology doesn’t pay the debt; only forgiveness can. In the same way, if you’re six months behind on your mortgage, a sincere “sorry” to your bank won’t cancel the debt or the added interest. The apology is irrelevant to the crisis of forgiveness. Forgiveness necessitates a decision point, a true crisis: Will you choose to release the person from the obligation?<\/p>\n
For fallen creatures like us, unforgiveness feels like power. Forgiveness surrenders the power to send any more “bills” to that person. Forgiveness foregoes the power to hold the debt over him.<\/p>\n
The crisis to choose to forgive feels ugly and messy, but it’s worth it. By releasing someone else, we also release ourselves from the chains of self-destructive unforgiveness.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Ken Green “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, “‘ do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times’ ” (Matthew 18:21-22, ESV). Before we can take forgiveness seriously, we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1571],"class_list":["post-36180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56286,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/forgiveness-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":0},"title":"Forgiveness (North)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Phillip North via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 8, No. 8, Aug. 2008. Much has been preached and written on how mankind, especially Christians, should and must practice forgiveness. No doubt it is a command, not a mere option. Jesus said, \"But if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24049,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-forgive-even-though-the-elders-refuse-to-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":1},"title":"Do we forgive even though the elders refuse to change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, \u2018I repent,\u2019 you shall forgive him\" (Luke 17:3-4). After reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60416,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-quotes-on-forgiving-a-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":2},"title":"Three Quotes on Forgiving a Brother","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From Questions Answered, Lipscomb and Sewell, Kurfees, pg. 260 Question: If a brother in the church offends us, is it right for us to forgive him whether he comes and asks us to or not, or must we hold it against him until he comes and asks our pardon? Would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34688,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-you-forgive-someone-are-you-required-to-continue-talking-to-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":3},"title":"When you forgive someone are you required to continue talking to them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When you forgive a Christian brother or sister who hurt you are we required to continue to talk and be friends with them like old times, like nothing ever happened? Or can we forgive and move on? Answer: \"And forgive us our debts,\u00a0as\u00a0we forgive our debtors\" (Matthew 6:12). \"And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-wasnt-satan-and-his-angels-offered-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":4},"title":"Why wasn’t Satan and his angels offered forgiveness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I just stumbled into your website. I have a question. God commands us to forgive and this I accept but my question is: Why did God not forgive Lucifer, the devil? We need to follow the examples of God. Is there a reason why God refused to forgive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32426,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":36180,"position":5},"title":"What Is \u201cForgiveness?\u201d","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant We are all familiar with the New Testament's teaching on \"forgiveness.\" The book has many exhortations, examples, and commandments concerning this practice. I'm sure we would all agree that the greatest example of forgiveness would be the words uttered on the cross as Christ is about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Brandt-Jean-300x269.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}