Does Forgiveness Require Repentance
PPT 1 Series Title
PPT 2 Message Title & Text
Mt 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Last week in teaching on this text I made and illustrated the point that if we want God to take care of our big pile of sins He requires us to give Him our little notebooks of offenses that we have concerning what others have done to us.
Several people spoke to me after service with questions, so I came to the conclusion this subject needed more discussion.
One of the questions asked was, do we have to forgive people who don't repent? That is a good question, many people have struggled with.
Here are a couple of scriptures that support the position that repentance is required for forgiveness:
PPT 3 Text
Lu 17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
Lu 17:4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Luke seems to be pretty clear if your brother repents forgive him, and as a matter of fact if he repents 7x's in a day forgive him.
Barnes commentary notes: The Jews taught that a man was to forgive another three times, but not the fourth. I wonder if three strikes and your out goes back to way before baseball? Jesus however expanded the amount of times we should forgive people who repent.
Now look also at this text:
PPT 4 Text
Mt 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Mt 18:22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
I don't think Peter liked the idea of having to forgive someone 7x's in a day, so he asks Jesus about it, in an almost, is that what you really meant? kind of way. Jesus probably blew him away when he told him, not merely 7x's a day but 70 x's 7 a day!
Here are 2 more passages people use to say they others have to repent before we forgive:
PPT 5 Text
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Col 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye.
The text does not say that a person has to repent to be forgiven, but the thought is, that we are to forgive others even as Christ forgave us. How did He forgive us? When we repented. They also note that Jesus doesn't forgive everyone, only those who repent. Which is biblically correct.
Again from one of my commentaries:
the offended party is not called actually to forgive, till the offender, with sorrow, acknowledges his fault. (Clarke)
Case closed, they must repent to be forgiven, right?
The passages in Mt. & Luke say if they repent forgive them, but what it doesn't address at all is if they don't repent what should we do. It doesn't say you are only to forgive those who repent.
Also the passages in Ephesians and Colossians say we are to forgive even as Christ has forgiven us.
The question then becomes what did Paul mean when he said even as Christ has forgiven us?
Is he saying Christ forgave us because we repented and therefore we should forgive others when they repent? But if they don't repent, you don't have to forgive them, because Jesus doesn't either. That sure seems like a lot of reading into the text if you ask me.
As we begin to break it down let's start with the fact that we cannot forgive others in the same way Jesus forgives us.
When Jesus forgives us, it changes our status for eternity, delivers out of the kingdom of darkness and transfers us into His kingdom. The wrath of God no longer abides on us, heaven is assured, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside us. Our citizenship, and eternity are changed. That is not what happens when we forgive someone. When Jesus forgives us, all sins past, present, and future, that we have committed against anyone have been dealt with. When we forgive, we can only forgive what they have done to us, but that does not get them into heaven. So in that sense we cannot forgive as Jesus forgave.
Next question is does Jesus forgive only those who repent? Because if we can show that He forgave people who didn't repent then we can say to forgive as Jesus forgave means you also forgive those who don't repent.
So lets look at some people Jesus forgave:
1st up Zacchaeus
PPT 6 Text
Lu 19:8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore [him] fourfold.
Lu 19:9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
Pretty clear he repented and he was forgiven. Next the thief on the cross:
PPT 7, 8 Text
Lu 23:39 And one of the criminals who were hanged [there] was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!"
Lu 23:40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
Lu 23:41 "And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."
Lu 23:42 And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!"
Lu 23:43 And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Well that seems to settle it, Jesus forgave those who repented. Before you say case closed let me ask you, is the thief the only person Jesus forgave at the cross?
PPT 9 Text
Lu 23:34 Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; they don't know what they're doing." Dividing up his clothes, they threw dice for them.
He said this about the soldiers who punched and said prophesy who hit you. Who mocked Him and said if you are the king of the Jews save yourself. He said this about the people who mocked and said if You are the Christ come down, others He saved Himself He cannot.
None of those people exhibited the smallest degree of repentance, and yet He forgave them.
In Luke 5 a man is let down through the roof and Jesus says, "your sins are forgiven you." Not one whisp of repentance.
PPT 10 Text
Mt 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
Further the bible is very clear, and I won't go into it now, but the bibles teaching is that by grace through faith we are saved. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Repentance is part of the work of God in our life, but salvation is a free gift that we receive, and not one we deserve because we earned it through repentance.
So the answer is people don't have to repent for us to forgive them.
Now I want to give you some practical reasons why we should forgive those who haven't repented.
1. The sin may only be in our mind.
We interpret the way people look at us and make conclusions.
Maybe they just realized a bill is overdue, and that is the look you got, that you thought was some attack on you.
We make false assumptions about peoples attitudes and motives all the time, and often charge them
With sin, when no sin was ever committed or intended.
2. If we wait for them to repent, you may be in for a long wait. How long do you want to carry anger and bitterness with you for?
3. They may be completely unaware they have done anything wrong. Or they may look at the situation completely different, if you tell them they need to repent for what they have done they may get very angry with you. That won't achieve anything useful.
4. When you refuse to forgive till they repent, you tie unnecessary weights around your spirit. (Heb. 12:1,2 I think unforgiveness is a weight that hinders) Illus: with bricks, and using theology to reinforce it binding to our spirit.
5. When you forgive others it does more for you than it will ever do for them.
So forgive others.
One last thing. You do not treat a wound the same way you treat unforgiveness.
If you had a heart condition and tried treating it with medicine for a kidney infection, you will see no improvement in your condition. The medicine must be appropriate to the situation. Often times when an old hurt is stirred up we confuse that for lack of forgiveness. A hurting wound cannot be treated by reforgiving someone you already forgave.
If someone has done something bad to you and hurt you. There is a good chance it may resurface even though you have forgiven them. Memory may stir it up, a conversation may bring it to mind, an anniversary date may stir it up. If you try to treat it as unforgiveness when it is in fact just an old wound, you will not feel forgiveness and you won't deal with the wound. Tell yourself I already forgave them, and what I am dealing with is the hurt they left in their wake. God heal my hurts. That will take better care of the situation. Just because you forgave someone doesn't mean it won't ever bother you again, but when it does make sure you apply the right medicine.
Close: Prayer for those who need to let go of something, and pray for those who are steal suffering from old wounds.
Possible questions for care groups:
Pastor taught that forgiveness doesn't remove the damage the hurts of others have caused. What can we do to heal those hurts? Remembering the mother of pearl illustration I used how do we coat the hurts of life with the grace of God?
Pastor stated that forgiveness doesn't equal reconciliation, what do you think he meant by that?
What hurts are the hardest to forgive, and how can you get past unforgiveness.
