Bible Commentaries
Matthew 18

Verses 21-35

God's Forgiveness for Sins

Matthew 6:14-15 ; Matthew 18:21-35

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

The question which the words of our first text propound, is, Is forgiveness conditional? In answering this query we would say three things.

1. These words concerning forgiveness are spoken strictly to saints. Christ is not telling sinners about how they obtain pardon from their sins, but He is speaking to a covenant people; He is speaking unto those who can rightly address Him as, "Our Father, who art in Heaven."

2. Salvation is not of works, therefore, the forgiveness spoken of in these words is entirely distinct from salvation. He does not say, "If you forgive men their trespasses, you shall be saved," because salvation is of grace through faith and it is not to be obtained by doing anything. Salvation is spelled D-O-N-E and not D-O,

3. Forgiveness is a pre-requisite to fellowship. We cannot walk with Him, having sweet communion, if we are hiding sin in our heart. If the spirit of unforgiveness is separating us from fellowship with our brother, we may be assured that it is also separating us from fellowship with our God. "If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: * * 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." Sonship and fellowship are distinct. We become the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; we become children by being born of the Spirit; we have fellowship with God when we walk with God and talk with God. All believers have sonship, but not all believers have fellowship.

Now, with these three considerations, we are ready to answer the query, "Is forgiveness conditional?" and we answer positively that it is. If we forgive, we shall be forgiven.

Matthew 18:21-35 . These words tell us what happens unto the servant when he refuses forgiveness. If we forgive, we are forgiven, but if we forgive not, then, according to Matthew 18:34 and Matthew 18:35 , our Lord will be wroth and deliver us to the tormentors until we have paid that which was due unto our fellow servants. This is what our Heavenly Father does unto us when in our hearts we refuse forgiveness for our brother, concerning his trespasses.

I. CHRIST PRAYING FOR HIS ENEMIES (Luke 23:34 )

The words, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," carry us to the Cross of Christ and display before our vision the mercy and compassion of the Crucified.

Concerning this Cross there are two things we would like to emphasize.

1. The Cross as the climax of suffering. It is not customary to think of Calvary as portraying the deepest anguish that is possible among men, yet this is true. If we gathered together all the sorrows and all the sufferings of all the ages which sin has brought upon the human race, they would not more than equal the bitter cup of sorrow which the Lord Jesus drank upon the Cross.

The two thieves who hung upon the same hill with Him, suffered a similar physical anguish. They knew the pain of the piercing nails, they knew the misery of being stretched upon the wooden bars, but these men knew nothing of the deeper anguish of the Christ of the central Cross. Upon the Lord Jesus Christ hung the woes of the world.

There are dark pictures of hell in the Bible. It is described as the place where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. It was in hell that the rich man opened up his eyes, being in torments. In Revelation we read of the Lake of Fire where "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night." None of these pictures, however, can surpass in the way of suffering the "via miserable" that our Lord traveled as He went round and round the cycle of His suffering upon the Cross.

2. The Cross as the climax of mercy. This is a common note. We always delight in it. No verse is more often quoted than this one:

"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."

God Himself commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The love displayed upon Calvary's Cross surpasses any manifestation of love ever known to man. Scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but Christ died for sinners. In His dying, He cried those marvelous words of our text, "Father, forgive them." It was for this very reason that He did die, so that God through Christ's expiatory and substitutionary work might reach down in mercy and save the lost sinner.

II. THE SAINTS' ATTITUDE TOWARD THEIR ENEMIES (Matthew 5:43-48 )

1. We have before us the attitude of men toward their enemies. Christ said, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy." This is the attitude of the natural man. To carry out such a human precept is not in the least difficult. It is easy to love those who love you, and quite as easy to hate those who despitefully use and persecute you.

2. The attitude of saints toward their enemies. Saints should love their enemies; bless them, and not curse them; do good to them, and not hate them; pray for them and not despise them.

This attitude certainly goes far beyond man's ideas, or even the instructions of the Law. It carries us into the spirit of the Master Himself. The believer should do evil to none, but good to all.

Peter said, "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?" That would seem a climax of Christian grace, but Christ replied, "Until seventy times seven."

The Christian should live peaceably with all men. He should never avenge himself. If his enemy hungers, he should feed him; if his enemy thirsts, he should give him drink; if the believer is smitten upon the right cheek, he should turn also the left; if his coat is taken away, he should give his cloak also.

3. The attitude of Christ toward His enemies. Our Scripture says, "For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

There are those who read these words, who will imagine that they do not tally with other statements of Scripture concerning God, in His attitude toward the wicked. For instance, we have often heard that God is angry with the wicked every day. Did not Christ take the whip of cords and drive forth the enemies of His Father's House? Does not Christ at this very moment sit at the Father's right hand anticipating until His enemies are made His footstool?

Yes, this is all true, but it is also true that the same God, who deals in absolute justice and righteousness against the wicked, also gave Christ to die for them. He stands today with His hands extended while He says, "Come, * * and I will give you rest."

III. SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN (Matthew 18:21-22 )

In response to Peter's question as to how oft he should forgive a sinning brother, Christ gave him the royal rule for forgiveness. It was unto seventy times seven. If we are going to follow the Lord Jesus in our attitude of forgiveness, we must remember how compassionate He is. Think of God in the days of Noah and His long-suffering while He waited as the ark was a-preparing, wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Think of all those weary years of Israel's disobedience, as they tramped through the wilderness and as they passed on and on under the judges and then under the kings. Concerning these years, the Word of God remarks: "All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people."

Let us remember how the Lord Jesus, when He was moving among Israel, during His earth-life, said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

If we are going to forgive as God forgives, and be patient and long-suffering, as He is patient and long-suffering, it will be unto seventy times seven.

IV. HOW GRACE FORGIVES (Luke 7:39-48 )

A woman slipped into the home where Christ was eating with a Pharisee. This woman was a great sinner and the Lord Jesus knew it. Simon found fault with Him, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a sinner." Jesus told Simon He had something to say to him. Then He said:

"There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell Me therefore, which of them will love him most?" Of course, there was but one answer that Simon could give and he said, "He, to whom he forgave most." Christ told Simon he had rightly judged; then He turned unto the woman and said to Simon: "Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet: but she hath washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest Me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed My feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much."

How all of us should bow our heads in contrition and thanksgiving, as we thank God for the forgiveness of our so great a debt!

V. HOW GOD FORGAVE TWO SINNING SAINTS

1. David Forgiven (Psalms 51:1-19 ).

We wish to mention David first, because David had wandered far from God. His bones waxed old with their roaring all the day. He had sinned and sinned grievously. David, however, made confession of his sin; he prayed to the Lord, acknowledging his guilt, and suing for peace. Then it was that the Lord heard him; He washed him from all his iniquity and cleansed him from all his sin, God never held that sin against David, in the after years because it was blotted out and for ever gone.

2. Peter forgiven (Luke 22:31 ).

The Lord knew that Peter would sin against Him and deny Him thrice. Thus it was that He said unto Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee." Then He told Peter, "When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

The steps of Peter's downfall are known to all, so also the steps of his restoration should be known. When Peter, stood in the room cursing and swearing and saying, "I do not know the man," the Lord turned His compassionate eyes and looked at Peter. After His resurrection, a message was sent, saying, "Go * *, tell His disciples AND PETER"; then, later on, He appeared unto Peter and, finally, as they sat around the fire, He restored Peter fully to his place of fellowship and of service.

VI. THE BASIS AND REACH OF GOD'S FORGIVENESS

1. God's basis of forgiveness (Ephesians 1:7 ).

If we owe God a debt and He forgives it, He must assume the loss as He gives us credit in full for our indebtedness. There must be a ground on which God forgives. On the one hand, of course, it is our confession, but bur confession does not lessen the fact of our debt; therefore, there must be an additional basis. The Word of God says, "In whom we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." God places the responsibility, the wages, the debt of our sin over on to Christ; Christ bears them all upon the Cross; He suffers, the Just for the unjust; therefore, God, in riches of grace, finds a ground on which His forgiveness can operate.

2. God's far reach in forgiveness (Psalms 103:3 ).

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." The Lord, our God, is speaking here primarily of Israel, in the coming days, when they shall be restored to the land, inheriting the earth. Then it is that all Israel's iniquities shall be forgiven and all her sicknesses healed. There is, nevertheless, a glorious application of this Scripture to us. It does not matter how great the sin, He is a greater Saviour; if sin abounds, grace will much more abound. The reach of God's forgiveness includes all sin.

AN ILLUSTRATION

The following item was clipped from a recent American publication and it tells its own story one of magnanimity.

"Love your enemies, * * and pray for them which despitefully use you." How impossibly ideal that seems at first! As a matter of fact, it is the most practical and rational for daily living that could be laid down.

In the course of the Armenian atrocities a young woman and her brother were pursued down the street by a Turkish soldier, cornered in an angle of the wall, and the brother was slain before his sister's eyes. She dodged down an alley, leaped a wall and escaped. Later being a nurse, she was forced by the Turkish authorities to work in the military hospital. Into her ward was brought, one day, the same Turkish soldier who had slain her brother. He was very ill. A slight inattention would insure his death. The young woman, now safe in America, confesses to the bitter struggle that took place in her mind. The old Adam cried, "Vengeance"; the new Christ cried, "Love." And equally to the man's good and to her own, the better side of her conquered, and she nursed him as tenderly as any other patient in the ward.

The recognition had been mutual, and one day, unable longer to retain his curiosity, the Turk asked his nurse why she had not let him die; and when she replied, "I am a follower of Him who said 'Love your enemies and do them good.'" he was silent for a long time.

At last he spoke: "I never knew there was such a religion. If that is your religion tell me more about it, for I want it."

One is haunted by the idea that if, on any large scale, Christians should exhibit magnanimity as the Sermon on the Mount enjoins, there would be stirred up in the heart of this very bitter and vindictive world a wistful response like the Turk's.