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Matthew 6:12
These verses are easy to read, yet they can be one of the most difficult parts of a Christian's walk! If we want God to forgive those things that we have done to incur the death penalty, we have to forgive the sins of others. By way of definition, the word "forgive" comes from the words "from" and "give." It began as "from-give," but over time, it turned into "for-give." From this we can see that the basic meaning is "to give away from," in the sense of sending an offense out of our presence. Thus, it means to overlook an offense, to treat an offender as not guilty, or to consider a debt to be paid. Forgiveness is not a feeling that washes over us, but rather a conscious choice. It does not mean that the offense will never come to mind again, nor does it mean that all the pain suddenly goes away. It also does not mean that we are required to remain in a circumstance of abuse. But forgiveness means that we no longer hold that sin against the sinner. As I Corinthians 13:5 says, love "keeps no record of wrongs" (New International Version). The forgiving we do is not at all equal to the forgiving that the Father does. To begin with, any sin against us is first and foremost committed against a transcendent God. We can understand this in the example of King David. He committed a whole slew of sins that affected many people, yet when he prayed to God, he said, "Against You, You only, have I sinned" (Psalm 51:4; emphasis ours throughout). It is God's law that is broken when someone sins against us, so the primary offense is against the divine Lawgiver. The sin is against a vastly superior Being, and thus He has the sole claim on the life of the sinner. The sin of one mere mortal against another is essentially inconsequential compared to the fact that the sin is against the perfect Creator. The sin may have utterly destroyed lives, as David's did, but that matters far less than the fact that the essence and nature of the Most High God was disregarded, despised, and defied when the sin was committed. For this reason, the forgiving that takes place between two created beings is on an almost infinitely lower level than the forgiving that takes place when the Creator forgives the sin of a person He created, especially when He has every right simply to end the existence of the sinner. A second point about human forgiveness is that, while God's forgiveness can pardon the death penalty, ours cannot. Again, God has first claim, and only He has the authority to uphold or remit the death penalty. His forgiveness is overwhelming in its effects, while ours is of a considerably smaller scope. Nevertheless, if we want Him to overlook our sins and to treat us as guiltless when we wander off the path, He requires that we do the same thing for others.
David C. Grabbe
Sins in the Balance (Part One)
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