Hey guys, welcome back. We're on our 11th week together in this glorious journey of growing in Jesus. I hope that this series has been helpful for you and hope especially since last week that you've been experiencing the joy of what it really feels like to be forgiven. Like the psalm says, oh how happy is the one whose sins have been forgiven, whose innocence has been declared by the God of heaven. And I really hope you've been basking in that and enjoying the freedom of admitting to God and going to God when you blow it instead of running away from him. And I pray that that'll just continue to grow over your course of your life in Christ.
This week I want to get into the exciting thing now and the opportunity we have. Because we've been forgiven, we get to extend his forgiveness to those who have sinned against us. I know that doesn't sound like a lot of fun for some situations and I know that there's some who are watching this, you've been cut really deeply, maybe even outright abused physically, sexually, and who knows what other kind of ways. And I know that forgiveness can be a dicey subject for some. So I want to tread carefully on the one hand. On the other hand, I want to let you know that forgiveness is an opportunity and it's not an option for us.
We've received such a glorious, liberating forgiveness from God. And now we have opportunity to extend that to other people. The best forgivers alive are the ones who are always in touch with just how much we've been forgiven of by the God of heaven. It's so important a subject to Jesus that he said some of his hardest things to his disciples on the subject of forgiveness. And he really doesn't leave us an open door to hold on to grudges and to remain in unforgiveness. So let me just tell you what Jesus said and then I want to break this down a little bit today because I want us all to be the best forgivers on the planet so that we represent, we represent, represent Jesus to the world in the way that he actually is.
So you all know the Lord's Prayer. Maybe you've read the Sermon on the Mount already. It's included in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6. At the end of the Lord's Prayer, in which is the line, forgive us our sins or forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have trespassed against us or have sinned or are indebted to us. At the end of the Lord's Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus revisits one of the eight statements that we pray in the Lord's Prayer. And he says this, For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Heavenly Father will not forgive your transgressions.
That's a strong statement. It's one of what we call the hard sayings of Jesus. And it almost sounds like he's making forgiveness conditional, doesn't he? It sounds like he's putting us under some kind of a law or some kind of a legalistic framework now, where even after we've learned, as we have over the last few weeks, how freely we've been forgiven by heaven. Now it almost sounds like Jesus is saying, but there's a catch. You have to forgive other people if you want to receive forgiveness from the Father. I want to break that down for us today because it's important when we study the scriptures, when we grow in God, that we don't just kind of recreate a new kind of Jesus.
And here's how Jesus is often presented. He's presented many times like sin's not really a big deal anymore. It doesn't matter if you obey God, don't obey God, live his way, don't live his way. He just loves everybody. That's what we call greasy grace. And I believe I've introduced that to you already. Greasy grace means go ahead and keep sinning because he's going to forgive you anyway. And I pray none of us falls for that trap and that lie. So unforgiveness, I'm going to just say it's straightforward, is not an option for us.
However, unforgiveness and forgiveness are not things that we do by works of the flesh. Jesus said it even stronger in a parable that he told in Matthew 18. It's called the parable of the unmerciful servant, and I encourage you to take it in. It's basically a story about a man who owed a great debt to the Lord of his area. And the Lord was calling everybody in to pay off their debts. This man owed him such a great sum of money. There was no hope that in a thousand lifetimes he could ever pay it back.
And he pleaded with this Lord, please, you know, don't throw me in prison. Forgive me of my debt. I'll try to pay you back any way I can. He pleaded with him and the Lord had mercy on him and said, you know what? I'm going to let you go. You don't owe me a dime. He let him go scot-free. That man went out, found a man who owed him some money, shook him down, and said, hey, you owe me money. And compared to what the first man owed to the Lord, it was a trivial amount by comparison.
The man couldn't pay him back, and so he threw him in debtor's prison until he could pay it in full. Well, word got back to the Lord about this, and the Lord called him in and said to him, hold on, I forgave you of such a tremendous debt. How could you not go and forgive somebody else of the money that he owed you? If that's the system that you want to live under, then how about you go to debtor's prison until you've paid in full? And actually, he says, hand him over to the tormentors until he's paid in full. Now, what he means by that is not that God's going to torture you because you refuse to forgive somebody.
What it means is that you're now going to live in torment. And if you've experienced holding on to a grudge, or you've lived in a place where you've been in unforgiveness towards somebody, you know that it's a pain in your heart that never goes away. And one thing I'd like to communicate to you about forgiveness today is that it's as much about you as it is about the one that you're going to set free from their debt against you. It's about, as somebody said, unforgiveness is like drinking poison, hoping that the other person will die. The reality of when somebody sins against us, and we choose to extend forgiveness to them, is that we've relieved ourselves of the burden of carrying their sin against us.
And that's one of the reasons why Jesus takes it so seriously. It's just as much about our heart's freedom as it is about the other person also having freedom from their sins against us. So this is the first of several rubber meets the road lifestyle issues that we're going to cover together as we walk. And forgiveness comes first because it is the most important thing on God's heart. Freely we have received His forgiveness. Freely we ought to be able to extend His forgiveness. So what I want to go back to what Jesus said about that phrase from the Lord's Prayer, for if you don't forgive the sins of others, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you.
Your trespasses is not so much a command, thou shalt do this or else. It's not a threat. It's an invitation. Whenever Jesus gives a command, and if you read the Sermon on the Mount, there's some pretty hard statements in there, and a high calling that's in there that really feels impossible in many ways. And He kind of upped the ante on whatever the Law of Moses said. Jesus said, oh no, no, no, it's even more than that. You think that, you know, you shall not commit adultery means don't sleep with a woman who's not your wife.
But I'm telling you that somebody who looks at a woman lustfully, he's committed adultery in his heart. Everything that Jesus put out along those lines, humanly impossible. And that's why I say it's an invitation. It's Jesus calling us into the way He lives life with the statement and with the reality that we have Christ living on the inside of us now. We have the best forgiver who has ever walked the planet, and the best forgiver who's ever existed in all of God's creation living inside of us. And Jesus is saying, let me show you how to use this new heart I gave you. So when it comes to forgiveness, it's Jesus saying, imagine if somebody would give you a 65 Mustang.
Now, I don't know, you may not be into cars and that might mean nothing to you, but it's a, that thing's a beast. And He's letting you get in the driver's seat and saying, let's take this thing for a spin. Let me show you what this thing can do. Consider the commands to forgive like Jesus forgives, to be an invitation for you to take your new heart for a spin. And you're going to find it's amazing what the new heart's capable of that our old heart was incapable of doing. That's what forgiveness is. And so I know probably already for some who are watching this, you're saying, I can think of two or three people already and some situations where I would have previously said, that's unforgivable.
How can I forgive the unforgivable? How can I forgive the rapist, the murderer? How can I forgive the Adolf Hitlers of the world? And what I want to say first is, let's not go all the way to the end of the road. Forgiveness, just like any other choice to follow the Lord, begins with a choice of setting direction. Remember, we looked at how we repent and then we have faith toward God. It's a turning of the heart instead of staring at the person or the situation that caused us harm. Instead of gazing upon that, it's a turning of the gaze toward Jesus.
And forgiveness is us getting inside of Jesus Christ. Remember, we looked at that scripture and the reality of our life now. Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. This life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the first thing I want to share with you about forgiveness, when it's difficult, let's face it, there are some sins that are easier to forgive than others. Some hurts that cut deeper than other hurts. And so there are going to be some things that we're going to need heaven's help to forgive.
So the posture for forgiveness is a turning of the gaze toward Jesus on the cross, but then remembering we are in Christ on that cross. That Christ on that cross looked over the crowd of his accusers, the crowd of his crucifiers, the ones who are spitting on him and cursing him, the ones who were cheering his demise, thinking that they were doing the will of God all along. And Jesus could look over that crowd and call out, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. That's a loaded statement. First, he says, Father, forgive them. So there's a thought about forgiveness sometimes where we could say, well, I forgive you because I know God's going to get you.
And that is a posture of the heart. And that might be a good beginning for forgiveness. But here's the trap in that. When we say I forgive them, but the father's going to get them. You remember what I shared with you about Jesus's favorite way of dealing with sin? Jesus's favorite way of dealing with sin is to find opportunity to show mercy. And all that's going to take for them, just like it was for you and me, is for them to turn their heart toward God and plead the blood of Jesus for their forgiveness of sins.
And if that person will do that, but you're hoping that God's going to exact justice on them, guess who you'll be offended with now? Yeah, it's going to be God. Because you wanted God to punish them for what they did for you. That's the trap of unforgiveness. On the cross, that trap is released. Father, forgive them. In other words, not only do I forgive you, but I pray that the Father in heaven will not hold this sin against you. I'm sincerely praying that God will show mercy for you. Now, I lay that before you right now as a goal.
And I recognize that if you're carrying a deep wound from somebody, they cut you hard. They stole from you. They ruined your life legitimately in some kind of a way. This is going to be a tall order. Again, hold on for a second because you're not being commanded to do this without heaven's help. But it is a goal that at some point, you're going to be able to look at that person with eyes of compassion because you'll see them as Jesus went on to say, for they know not what they do. Jesus not only said, Father, don't punish them.
He came with understanding. I understand that they're deceived right now. I can see that although they're shouting, crucify him and spitting and cursing at me right now, it's because they're deceived. They've had something get a hold of them because in their right mind, they would never do this. And that's the truth about everybody who sins against everybody else. In their right restored mind, as you're beginning to experience in Christ, they would never have done that to you. And nobody would ever sin against somebody else when they've been restored to being the image and likeness of God.
So forgiveness begins from that place. We are with Christ. We are in Christ on that cross, extending the mercy of heaven that was purchased on that cross. Hebrews 13 has an interesting phrase speaking of Jesus' blood. It says that it cries out better things than the blood of Abel. Now, I don't want to go too long and deep into this, but Abel was the first murdered person and his brother killed him because of jealousy. Abel's blood, God said, was crying out to him from the ground. What was Abel's blood crying out from the ground?
Justice. Abel's blood was crying out vengeance. I was killed and the one who murdered me deserves death himself. That's what Abel's blood would have cried out in that day. What does Jesus' blood cry out? With every drop of that precious blood that fell from that cross, it's crying out mercy, mercy, mercy. That's what Jesus' blood cries out. That's what's alive on the inside of you. So if it's any help to know the apostles themselves, when Jesus was teaching them about forgiveness, he said to them, be on guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him.
And if he repents, forgive him. And then he goes on to answer a question that Peter had just asked him according to Matthew's account of the same story. And Peter asked him, hey, so if somebody sins against me seven times in a day, should I forgive him all seven times? And Jesus responds, and here it is. If he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him. In Matthew's account of that story, Jesus went a step further. He added some more detail not included in Luke's account.
And he said, no, I'd say to you, Peter, not seven times, but 70 times seven. In other words, don't even try to math that out. You're going to forgive him every time he comes to you. Do you know what the apostles said in response? They said, Lord, increase our faith. They knew that it's a tall order to command forgiveness. Every time it's asked, they knew right away, this is going to require faith. This is going to require something different than what I have at work in me. Because my heart wants justice.
My heart wants somebody to pay for the sins against me that they've done. I want them to repay me the debt that they owe. And that's the context for sin and forgiveness. It's like a debt. We talked about this, about our own forgiveness. It's like we owed an amount of money that we could never repay. We had a debt and that debt was canceled. The slate was wiped clean. We got to begin with a brand new start without the weight of a burden of, I have to repay God for all the sins I've committed against him and those he loves.
And sin in the first place is a release from the debts owed to us. And the disciples knew we're going to need faith for this. So in John 20, here was Jesus' answer to that question. He rose from the dead. And in John 20, he says this to them, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, I also send you. How did the father send Jesus? Well, we looked at this not to come to judge the world, but that through him, the world might have forgiveness. That's how Jesus was sent into the world, not to judge, but to extend forgiveness, to open the door to the mercy seat where we could find the help we need in our time of need.
That's how Jesus came. And he's saying to his apostles, the first sent ones among whom we are now, go as the father sent me. So I send you. What are you being sent to do? Make sure the whole world knows that there is an offer of forgiveness and all they have to do is repent and come boldly before the throne of grace, the same way you and I did. Then he goes on and it says, he said this and he breathed on them and he said some things to them. Now he breathed on them for a reason.
If you've read the book of Genesis already, you know that the first man was formed out of the dust of the earth. He was shaped into a human as we look now, maybe better than what we look like now. And God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul. So it was the breath of God, the breath of life that made Adam who he was. Now the resurrected Jesus will breathe a second time on the sons of Adam them and give them something that they've never had before. And that's to be restored to the image of God as we were before we brought sin into the picture. He breathed on them.
And here's the first thing they'll learn about it. Receive the Holy Spirit or the breath of God. If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. But if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. In other words, the first thing I want you to know, Jesus is saying about this power I'm giving you as you have the capacity to forgive sins. You have the capacity to live and love like I live and love, not by your own strength and by your own discipline. Remember, there's nothing that we do in Christ that comes about just because of our own human effort.
It all comes as a work of grace. It all comes as empowered by the Spirit of God. So why does he care so much about forgiveness? Because we've been sent out to represent him to the world. So let's learn how to tap into this power, shall we? Let's learn how to tap into the love of God that's been written on our hearts and live out of the forgiveness that we now live in and live as freeborn citizens of heaven, not bound to the sins of others against us. The reason why this is so important is because there's a choice.
And that's why the parable of the unmerciful servant is so important. We have to choose which world we want to live in and therefore which world we will create around us. So if we live in the world of, let's call it what Romans calls it, the law of sin and death, which simply means if you do something, you have to pay for what you did. That's one world. That's the world that goes back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You're either, this is good or this is evil. Evil must be punished.
We can live under that law, but we can't live in the freedom of forgiveness that heaven gives us on the one hand and require everybody else live under the law of sin and death. So we can live in the world of grace. We can live in the world of freedom. We can live in the world of Psalm 32 that you read last week and always be willing to extend forgiveness and grace and mercy to all who repent. Or we can live in this world and require others to live in this other world where they have to pay for what they did. The reality is we can't have it both ways. God will not permit that world.
He cannot allow a people who want to live in this world of sin and death to build a world that's based on grace and love. It just doesn't work that way. And so it begins with a choice. Forgiveness begins with a choice to remain in this world and extend love and mercy and forgiveness from this world. That's what forgiveness really is all about. So to close out here, let's just talk about what forgiveness is and what it is not. And that may help kind of set a framework. We will come back and revisit this.
We'll do a more extensive study on how to walk the process of confronting somebody when they've sinned against us, involving others in it, other believers in the occasion if that person's a believer, how to really walk through the process of repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and then there is such a thing as restitution where somebody actually says, I'd like to fix what I broke. That's the beautiful ending that we all hope for whenever we confront somebody in their sin. But let's just start with the basics here of what forgiveness is. And the first thing I want to say is it's not a feeling, it's a choice. And I say that because forgiveness, when we say I forgive you, you ever, if you have kids, you tell them you need to go and ask them to forgive you for what you just did and go, I'm sorry, you know, forgive me, their heart's not in it. The reality is we're required to forgive, but we can't make our heart do anything it's not ready to do.
That's why we need the help of the Lord. We can't force our heart to feel something. Sometimes our feelings follow our obedience. And so the first step of forgiveness is not, I feel fine towards you. I feel love towards you. I feel trust. I feel acceptance towards you. No, the first step of forgiveness is a choice. And the choice is this. Will I, if I had opportunity, will I take vengeance on you? Will I make you repay me for what you did? Will I be God's instrument of justice if I have opportunity to do this?
Or can I release that person and trust them to the hands of God who is both merciful and just all in the same being? Can I do that? Can I release somebody and just say, God, they're yours now. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on you until my heart catches up to where I can then do what you say my new heart's capable of, blessing those who curse me, forgiving the unforgivable that's been done against me. God, I need your help to do that. But in the meanwhile, I am choosing to turn my heart away from carrying their sins on myself and I'm releasing them to you. So you can forgive even if you're still hurting.
You can forgive even if you're not ready to reconcile with somebody. It's the beginning of reconciliation. But as we'll talk about in a moment, reconciliation requires two. Forgiveness is done just on our part. Reconciliation requires two. You can forgive even if you still feel the need to keep a safe distance. That's especially true. Let's say you're in an abusive relationship and I've counseled many a woman in an abusive marriage or an abusive relationship. It's safe. It's good for you to keep a distance and to say, I'm not, I can't be near you right now, but I'm also not wishing for judgment to fall upon you.
That's, that's the choice to forgive. So Jesus can change your heart toward that person as long as we posture ourselves and desire it. So in other words, if we harden our heart and say, I will never forgive that person, we've just set ourselves ourselves up in a dangerous spot. And all I'm urging you to do for now, turn toward the Lord, get inside Jesus on the cross and ask God to give you heaven's eyes toward that person. While you remember that he was crucified for you too. He was crucified for me too, because we owed a debt that we could never, never have repaid. Second, forgiveness really is about a choice to set someone free from our right to justice.
We're servants of the Lord. We are crucified ones. We're the community of the crucified. That's, that's one way of viewing who we are and understanding who we are in Christ. And so we gave up all of our rights. We said, Lord, I'm just here to serve you. God is able to restore to you everything that was taken from you. He can restore your purity. He can restore your innocence. He can restore the things that were stolen from you. Everything that the enemy stole from you. He can give it back to you many times over if you're willing to trust him with that situation and not be the instrument of vengeance.
When the Lord says, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. It's an invitation to leave the desire for vengeance. Now that may happen through civil authority. If there's a crime that's been committed, it may happen through another person's hand. Forgiveness is simply saying, I don't need to be the instrument of justice. I'm willing to say, I forgive your debt as my debts have been forgiven. So the old covenant was an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, right? If you sinned against me, I have a right to get back everything you took from you.
The new covenant says, leave that, dispense with that. We have that, you know, the scales of justice and a debt would be if you were to buy something at the marketplace on this side of the scale is how much that person owes you for the goods that they're buying. And you put a weight on here and until the other person can give you the gold or silver or copper, whatever it was, and until the scales balanced, then they can't, they still owe you a debt. What we're saying is I'm removing the weight from this side. You're free to go. You don't owe me a thing. That's forgiveness.
And what we're doing is trusting God to restore to us everything that that person stole from us and in every way. Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation. That's the third thing I'd like to make sure we understand. Forgiveness is a one-way street. I release you. I'm not going to hold this against you. I'm not going to continually bring this up. But, since you, unless you repent, if you don't change and stop the hurtful behavior that you're doing, we're not reconciled yet. Reconciliation involves both parties, just like it was with us in God.
From the cross, Jesus extended a one-way street of salvation and forgiveness, but not everybody takes that and therefore not everybody is reconciled to God. That's our message. Be reconciled to God, but not everybody will be because that requires both parties to face each other. The reconciliation isn't also just as simple as the other party who sinned against us saying, oh man, my bad. I'm sorry I did that. Because depending how severe the sin was, there's a need to rebuild trust. Let's take a marriage where the man has committed adultery on multiple occasions and lied about it.
It's not enough to just come back and say, oh Lord, oh sweetheart, please forgive me. Okay, we're all good. It's like it never happened. There's going to need to be a rebuilding of trust. So there is repentance, there's reconciliation, and then there's something called restitution, which we'll get into when we revisit this subject later on. There's this one saying, now what can I do to put your heart at rest, to heal what I broke, repay what I stole, even though you're not requiring it of me. That's for later on and we'll get into that.
And the last thing, I just want to make sure that we remember this. It's for the benefit of the one doing the forgiving, as much as it is the one who's been the offender. For your sake, I plead with you to walk toward the Lord in a path of forgiveness. For the time being, if there's been severe hurt and you're going to struggle with unforgiveness, leave that person to the side and let the Lord take care of them. For your part, go to the Lord. Lord, make sure that this isn't becoming a barrier between you and him because justice is holding off and for whatever reason that person's not being punished for what they did.
Let this be an opportunity for you to say, Jesus, I need you to teach me how to forgive the way that you forgave me because I'm struggling. Let me pray for you. Father, I pray for your son, your daughter. I pray in the area of forgiveness that you will make your yoke easy and your burden light, even through this teaching and the scriptures that we've read today. I pray none of them will come as a legalistic weight of law, but all of it will come as an invitation to enter into the power of the spirit of God to extend love and grace and mercy and forgiveness to all those who've sinned against us.
I bless your son. I bless your daughter. And I pray that they'll find in you the capacity to forgive even the unforgivable. Make it so in the glorious name of Jesus. Amen. I love you. I'll see you again next time.