Biblically-Based Definition and Description

The Centrality of Forgiveness in God's Revelation and Salvation

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 18, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Forgiveness. Nothing is more foreign to sinful human nature, and nothing is more characteristic of divine grace. These are the words with which a contemporary author begins chapter 1 in his book on the subject of forgiveness.

0:40 Forgiveness. Nothing is more foreign to sinful human nature. Is that true? Yes, it is.

0:52 For in Titus chapter 3 and verse 3, Paul describes his and the Cretans' condition. Conditioned by nature with these words, we ourselves were one time foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. For our souls were like a magnet drawing hate towards us. And we're...

1:31 We're like a fountain pouring hate out from us. And while it is true that nothing is more foreign to sinful human nature, it is equally true that nothing is more characteristic of divine grace than is forgiveness. And so to address the need of our hearts and to magnify the God of grace, I embarked several weeks...

2:02 And so to address the need of our hearts and to magnify the God of grace, I embarked several weeks... upon a series of sermons entitled now concerning the biblical teaching on forgiveness.

2:11 And in the foundational or introductory message several weeks ago on this profoundly important subject, I sought to demonstrate what I call the central place of forgiveness in the biblical revelation of God and of His salvation. And I did so...

2:32 And I did so... under three headings.

2:34 We looked at the central place of forgiveness in the very character and disposition of God. Secondly, the central place of forgiveness in the substance and proclamation of the gospel. And the central place of forgiveness in both the initial and continuing experience of the children of God. And in conclusion of that initial message, I sought to show how these three things are organic...

3:02 and organically related. The God in whose very disposition is this desire to forgive has sent forth through Christ a message of how forgiveness may be obtained. And in the believing response to that message, God constitutes a community of forgiven sinners who are always then forgiving. Sinners.

3:34 So what is inherent in the very heart and disposition of God is now mirrored in a people who by nature had the exact opposite disposition, hateful and hating one another, but what was in the heart of God essentially and fundamentally as a part of His very being to forgive, then embodied in the provision and proclamation of a gospel, the gospel of forgiveness culls out of the hateful and hating rank and file of Adam's lost race a community of forgiven sinners who not only revel in glory in God's forgiveness towards them, but are now marked as a forgiving community whose joy it is to be forgiving one to another. And I don't know if you...

4:34 I don't know if you've grasped that organic relationship, but it's absolutely crucial because as we will see in our subsequent studies in the opening up of several critical passages of the Word of God, the Scripture makes it clear if you are not a forgiving man or woman, you are not a forgiven man or woman. And if you are not a forgiven man or woman, you have never given a believing response to the gospel you are a stranger to God's grace in Jesus Christ. Well, having established then the central place of forgiveness in the biblical revelation of God and of His salvation, I want this morning to take up what in my judgment is the most crucial and foundational issue as we move on in this series of studies on the subject of forgiveness. Now let me ask you not to answer out loud, but in your own brain.

The Crucial Need for a Biblical Definition of Forgiveness

5:36 If you were preparing this series of sermons, what do you think would be the most critical issue to establish right at the outset? Having demonstrated the central place of forgiveness in the revelation of God and His salvation, what would be the next thing you feel you must do in helping someone to understand the biblical teaching on forgiveness?

6:04 You got the idea? What do you feel would be the next thing you would do to be the most essential building block in constructing an orderly perspective on the biblical doctrine of forgiveness?

6:19 Well, if you're not sure, let me see if I can help you and we'll all be of one mind. Suppose I were to go back and reword the headings of my first message this way. I'm going to demonstrate the centrality of forgiveness in the revelation of God and His salvation. Point number one.

6:39 The central place of um kabibab in the character and disposition of God. Secondly, the central place of um kabibab in the substance and proclamation of the gospel.

6:55 The central place of um kabibab in the initial and ongoing experience of the children of God. Now, if you're going to make sense out of that, what's the first thing I'd have to do with you? You'd say, Pastor, you'd have to define for us what the...

7:11 what that word um kabibab means. That's right. Otherwise, it's just a nonsense collation of syllables. And that's exactly what...

7:21 Now, there may be among the thousands of the languages of the world someone for whom um kabibab means something, but it didn't mean anything for me sitting at my desk. When I was praying, Lord, help me to show how critical it is that we begin with definition. Lord, help me to make it plain. That's the only thing that came to my mind.

7:43 And um kabibab came to my mind. I don't know where it came from, but there it is. Um kabibab. Spelled phonetically.

7:51 We've got to define um kabibab. Well, in the same way, when I've asserted from the Scriptures that forgiveness inheres in the very character and disposition of God, forgiveness has no more meaning for you than um kabibab unless you are attaching to it what the Bible means by the word, forgive and forgiveness.

8:19 You can be as skewed in your understanding of the word forgive and forgiveness as I would be trying to work with um kabibab. It is vital that when we pick up our Bibles and we read such words as these, be it known unto you, brethren, that through this one is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Acts 13.48.

8:46 What is it that is preached in Christ? What is this forgiveness of sins? If I gave you all a pad and a pencil or a pen and said, I want you to write down in one sentence, what is the forgiveness that is central to the gospel blessings preached in that text? How would you define it?

9:04 Forgiveness is.

9:07 Or when we think of the text familiar to all of us, Mark 2.5. Jesus says to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. What actually happened when Jesus said your sins are forgiven?

9:23 What happened to the sins? What happened to the sins in relationship to that man? What happened to the sins in relationship to God and in God's relationship to the man? Do we have a firm grasp upon a biblical definition of what forgiveness is?

9:41 Or, take the well-known passage, we'll be expounding down the road, Luke chapter 17. If your brother sinned, if he sinned against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.

9:55 Now, what are you to do when you forgive him? What do you do? What actually happens in your mind, in your soul, in your words? What are you doing when God says, forgive him?

10:09 Better know, because that's an imperative.

10:13 It's not an option. And so, in my judgment, the most critical issue, having established the importance, of forgiveness in biblical revelation, is for us to wrestle together to come to some clear understanding of a biblical definition and description of forgiveness. And so that's my one goal this morning. If you were to ask me, before I got up into the pulpit, Pastor Martin, what do you hope to accomplish in your preaching this morning?

10:45 I'd say one thing. One thing. By God's grace, I want to construct in the presence of God's people, a biblically-based definition and description of forgiveness, both divine forgiveness, that is, the forgiveness God extends to us, and human or relational forgiveness, the forgiveness we extend to one another. That's my goal.

Linguistic Overview: The Family of Words for Forgiveness

11:13 Now, how am I going to pursue my goal? Well, first of all, by engaging with you in a brief overview of the linguistic family, of the words rendered in our English Bible, forgiveness. A brief overview of the linguistic family of words rendered in our English Bibles as remission of sin, forgiveness of sin, forgive, forgetting, whatever terminology may be in our English Bible. I don't know that forgetting is.

11:46 This is what we must start with. And why must we start there? Well, for the simple reason that God, thoughts are revealed in God's words. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul makes this explicit. Notice what he says in chapter 2 in verse 11. For among men, who knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? If I stand here in 30 seconds of silence and I say, do you know what I'm thinking? You say, no. And you're right. Who knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man? I would know what I'm thinking because my spirit is in touch with me. That's me. I know. But you won't know unless I do what? Unless

12:33 I articulate my thoughts in words that communicate them. Now notice. Who among men knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the things of God none knows save the spirit of God. But we received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. He's speaking of his unique place as an apostle, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the spirit teaches. The thoughts of God locked up in the mind of God are revealed to the servants of God in words. Chosen by God himself. And therefore, for me to start with you in any definition of

13:33 forgiveness that doesn't begin with the words which the Holy Spirit has chosen to convey the concept of forgiveness would be absolutely irresponsible. Now that means you're going to have to sit and think. I'm not going to be bouncing around. Like a crazy man excited and shouting hallelujah when I take you through a brief overview of the words. But if you don't care enough to know what oom-kee-bee-bob is, then you'll be cursed for your spiritual laziness. And you'll be vulnerable to all kinds of nonsense that is floating out in the Christian world concerning forgiveness. I've read reams of pages of the nonsense. All because people don't stop.

14:23 They start with their Bibles and biblical words by which God has encapsulated and revealed biblical thoughts. Now, if you have a good Bible dictionary or a dictionary of theological terms, any good, responsible one will tell you when you look up the entry on forgiveness that God has conveyed the concept of forgiveness in seven major words. Three of them Hebrew words in the Old Testament. And four of them Greek words in the New Testament. Now, I'm not going to state the Hebrew and Greek words. We're not going to engage in a detailed study. But I want to give this brief overview of the linguistic family of words by which God has conveyed the definition, the description, the essence of what forgiveness is. Now, as I go through these words quickly, I want you to sit there with me.

15:22 And see if you can get a whiff of the aroma of these words. All right? They smell a little different, but see if there's a common smell to them. Of the three Hebrew words, one is used only several times and the word is used in other settings to describe covering, hiding, purging or doing away with something. This is the word used in Deuteronomy 21.8 two times.

15:54 in Jeremiah 18.23, translated in our English Bibles as forgive. And yet in other contexts, it is used to describe covering something, hiding something, purging something, or doing away with something. And God says, hmm, when I want to express forgiveness, I'm going to use a word that in other contexts clearly means to cover, to hide, to purge, to do away.

16:20 Then there's a second word used about a dozen times, that means to lift up, lift up with a view to taking away. That's the word used in Genesis 50 and verse 17, in Joseph's interaction with his brothers who sinned against him. In the familiar text of Psalm 32.1, blessed is the man whose sin, whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

16:46 God is saying, hmm, I want to convey what forgiveness is, so I'll take a word that can be used in other contexts to say, lift up, lift up with me. From the view to taking away. But then the major word is a primary root. It's not used for other purposes, and it's found approximately three dozen times, and it means to pardon, to spare.

17:09 It's used many times in Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings chapter 8. So that's a brief overview of the Hebrew words. Words that mean to cover, to hide, to purge, to do away. Words that mean to lift up, to do away.

17:24 Lift up with a view to taking away, carrying away, to pardon, to spare. Now when we come to the four New Testament words, one word used only one time for forgiveness is a word that in many other usages is used of divorce. Matthew 1.19, Joseph was thinking about putting away his wife, divorcing her.

17:49 It's used in Matthew 5.31 of divorce. It's used again of Jesus, sending away the crowds. Matthew 14.15, 22 and 23.

18:00 It's the word used when Pilate says, Whom do you want me to release unto you? In Matthew 27.17. Exactly the same word.

18:09 But that's used in Romans 3 and verse, I'm sorry, that's used in Luke 6.37. It's the only place it's used for forgiveness. Very interesting that God uses it in all these other settings, but now he says, I'm going to employ it to capture the concept of forgiveness.

18:30 Judge not, and you shall not be judged, and condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Release or forgive, and you shall be released or forgiven. Then the second word used only once, and that's in Romans 3.25, translated for the passing over of the sins that were done in the past.

18:52 Speaking of how God appeared to be lenient, lenient with the sins of men prior to the coming of Christ. He did not meet them with full, just judgment. He's passed over them.

19:06 Passing over. Divorcing. Releasing. Sending away.

19:12 Now the third word is one of the two major words in the New Testament. It's a precious word. It means to graciously or freely forgive. The first part of the word has that precious word, charis, grace, charizomai.

19:30 It means to graciously send away. To graciously put away in an act of forgiveness. It's used some eleven times. It's used in Luke 7, 42 and 43, in a very obvious context dealing with forgiveness.

19:50 When they had not wherewith to pay, the Master forgave them both. Simon answered to whom he forgave the most. That's the word that is used. The word used for divorce, to send away, to release, is used for forgiveness.

20:11 Another word used only once, to pass over. Then we come thirdly to this major word for forgiveness, graciously or freely to forgive. That's the word Paul uses in Ephesians 4, 32. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving.

20:28 Graciously, freely forgiving one another. It's used in Colossians 3, in verse 13. But then the primary word, used forty times in the verb form, expressing forgiveness as an act, fifteen times as a noun. This, surprisingly, is the word again that is used for sending away.

20:53 Aphiemi, Matthew 13, 36. It's used for, divorce in 1 Corinthians 7, 11. Let him not put her away. It's used for leave.

21:03 Then the devil leaves him for a time. Matthew 4, 11. They left their nets. Matthew 4, 20.

21:10 The disciples all forsook him. God is saying, I want you to get the idea of what forgiveness is. So I'll take a word I can use for divorce, which means a total separation of formerly married partners. It means people called into discipleship, forever, resolutely, permanently walking away from their nets.

21:32 It means the devil turning heel and getting out of the presence of Jesus. Now, have you tasted, have you smelled something of the flavor of the words? As I've given you that brief overview of the family of words, what do you smell? What do you taste?

21:52 Hebrew words, to hide, to purge, to do away, to lift up, to take away, to pardon, to spare. The Greek words, to send away, to release, to divorce, to pass over, to graciously forgive, to divorce, to leave, to forgive. You got an idea now of what forgiveness is? The idea of separating the sin from the one who committed it is absolutely foundational and central in the family of words the Holy Spirit has used, by which to convey to our thick heads what forgiveness is.

22:33 You must not think of forgiveness apart from the concept of separation. Separation that has to do with the sin that has been identified with the sinner. And in forgiveness, some kind of separation for some reason or another is made between the sinner and that sin. That's the brief overview.

Vivid Verbal Pictures of Divine Forgiveness in Scripture

23:03 Of the family of words. But now we often say that one picture is worth a thousand words. And from this brief linguistic overview, or an overview of the linguistic family, I want you secondly to consider with me some vivid verbal pictures of forgiveness. God says now, I use all these words, and surely when you put them all together, you get the idea that forgiveness involves taking the thing away, separating the sinner from the thing that is called sin, releasing it, divorcing it.

23:40 But now, I want to make sure they get it. So God says, I'll not only use words, I'll use pictures. There's an old Arabian proverb that says, he is the most effective speaker who can turn men's ears into eyes. And God says, I want you to see what forgiveness is.

23:59 So I want you to tighten your seat belt and go with me through some very vivid verbal pictures, pictures of forgiveness in our Bibles. First one is 2 Samuel chapter 12. You remember the horrific sins that David has fallen into. He's fallen into willful, deliberate adultery, calculated murder, cover-up, months of a backslidden state, living the life of a hypocrite.

24:32 But he's God's child, and God's determined to bring him back. And so he sends the prophet to him, and through the prophet, Nathan, his heart is pierced. He's brought to a place of penitence. And now look at the language in 2 Samuel 12 and verse 13.

24:48 David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against Jehovah. And Nathan said unto David, Jehovah also has put away your sin. Now, God could have said, the Lord has forgiven you. But he didn't use one of the standard words for forgiveness.

25:14 God says, David, that sin clings to you. It clings to you in the memory of the doing of it. It clings yet closer to you in the accusations of your conscience. Read Psalm 51, Psalm 32, Psalm 6.

25:30 Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. David was like a madman. Under the tortures of his accusing conscience, the sin clung to him in the memory of what he did.

25:45 It clung to him in the theater of his accusing conscience, his distressed body, his psyche that was ripped in a thousand pieces. And he says, I've sinned. The sin is mine. The sin clings to me.

25:59 This is my great burden, my sin. I have sinned. And the prophet says, you know what God's done with that sin? Right here and now, immediately.

26:09 Unqualifiedly, David, he has put the sin away. It's gone. David, if you open your mouth to me about that thing, I'll say, it's gone. I have separated the sin from you.

26:26 That's what forgiveness was. I have put away your sin. He didn't say, I've begun to put it away. And I'll give a putting away by bits and pieces.

26:37 A finger here, a finger there. A limb here. A limb there. And let you squirm and let you feel the bitter, no, no.

26:46 I have put away your sin. That's forgiveness. It's put away. Never did he brought back.

26:57 Now, yes, there were temporal consequences. Yes. In terms of his fatherly discipline and chastening. Yes, the son's going to die.

27:07 Your household will be in a shambles for the rest of your days. But as far as the legal liability is concerned, you're going to die. The legal liabilities and the filial disruption of your sin that cuts off communion with me. Your sin is put.

27:24 That's forgiveness. You got the picture? It's gone. One moment, David is smothered beneath the mountain of his sin.

27:34 The next moment, the sin is gone, vanished, put away. Psalm 103, verse 12. What is forgiveness? It's God putting away our sins.

27:54 Psalm 103 and verse 12. We can back up to verse 11. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness, his chesed, his covenant love and faithfulness to those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions.

28:23 He doesn't say, as far as east is from west, so he has forgiven us. No, he wants us to get the message. This is forgiveness. This is God removing our transgressions from us, separating our sins from us, not an inch away, a foot away, not a north or south pole away, but east and west.

28:52 How far away are they from one another? As far as you want to chase them around the equator. You never get closer to east, to west, as far as east is from west. No east pole and west pole.

29:08 You're going east, you keep going east, and you'll keep going east, and you'll never overcome going east until you turn around and go the other direction, then you're going west. As far as east is from west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us. You see how the flavor of those words? You see how the flavor of those words?

29:28 Removal, divorce, picking up, carrying away, now come to such concrete expression in these vivid word pictures. Now turn to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 38 and verse 17. Isaiah 38.

29:47 Hezekiah has prayed that God would spare him, not take him home, though the prophet has said, you shall die and not live. He turns to the wall and he prays. And now he gives up. And now he gives, breaks out in this psalm of praise after the recovery of his sickness.

30:06 And then he says this in verse 17. Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness, but you in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. You have cast all my sins behind your back. You see the imagery?

30:30 Hezekiah says up until this point of God's activity of forgiveness, my sins clung to me. When I sought to have dealings with God or God with me, my sins were an impediment. The sins were there as a barrier to that relationship. But God, this is what you've done.

30:50 You've taken my sins and put them behind your back so that you can look upon me with favor and I can look upon you with peace. The sin is no longer there as a barrier. You've cast it behind your back. Isn't that a precious thing?

31:06 That's another picture. God says, you want to know what forgiveness is? It's my taking your sins and putting them behind my back. Never to drag them out before you or before me again.

31:21 Isaiah 43, 25. God says, my people are awful thick. It's awfully hard. Because we are so unforgiving.

31:28 It's hard for us to grasp a God who's so prodigal in his forgiveness. So God says, I'll lay it on thick. I want to get the message through to them. Isaiah 43 and verse 25.

31:41 I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake and will not remember your sins. Here, the prophet is most likely using the imagery of what some of his disciples were doing in removing the ink from a parchment, so blotting it out that the parchment once again would be clean. You look upon the parchment and there is no sign, no trace of the former ink and writing upon it. It's been blotted out, not partially, not by incremental portions.

32:22 It has been blotted out to such an extent that God says, I will not to remember. I will not call it to mind in my dealings with you. You must not call it to mind in your dealings with me. It has been blotted out.

32:40 And then a little different nuance in chapter 44 and verse 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions and as a cloud your sins. Return unto me for I've redeemed you. I've blotted out as a thick cloud.

33:02 As a thick cloud. What is he talking about? Well, E.J. Young, the great Hebrew student and commentator, precious man of God, in his commentary on the book of Isaiah suggests that this was taking imagery from a situation in the whole, what's the term I want when it has to deal with weather? The term won't come to me. But the weather conditions in that part of the world, how that there could be thick cloud cover in the morning. And in a very short time, in a very short time, because of the shifting of the winds, those clouds would be utterly blotted out and there would be nothing but clear Palestinian sky.

33:45 And that that's the imagery. God says your sins are like a massive cloud. That when you would look up and see my face, there the cloud is. When I would look upon you and express my love and my favor, there's the cloud.

33:59 But in grace and in mercy. I will blot it out as a thick cloud. And then we turn to Jeremiah 31 and 34. And we have a concept picked up and amplified in the New Covenant and in the work of Christ.

34:14 Jeremiah 31 in verse 34. As God reiterates through the prophet what he'll do under the New Covenant. They shall teach no man, every man his neighbor, every man his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them. The least of them to the greatest.

34:31 For I will, now notice, I will forgive their iniquity. There's one of our standard words for forgiveness. I will forgive their iniquity. And you know what that means?

34:43 Their sin will I remember no more. And you say, wait a minute, Pastor. God's omniscient. He knows all things.

34:53 He doesn't forget anything. You mean God cannot bring the sins to remembrance if He chose? Yes, He could. But He's saying, I am making a commitment of my will to put away that sin in forgiving.

35:07 I make a commitment of will that the sin that is forgiving will never enter the picture in the way I deal with you. And it must not enter the picture in the way you deal with me. That's what God is saying. God is saying, I have self-imposed amnesia with respect to your sin.

35:28 I will remember it. No more. What a beautiful picture. It's repeated in Jeremiah 50 and verse 26.

35:37 God is saying, I want you to get the message of what forgiveness is. Chapter 50 and verse 26. Therefore, her young men. I'm sorry, 50 and 26.

35:51 I was in 49. 50 and verse 26. Sorry that I must have the wrong reference on that. But it's a parallel situation where God speaks of forgetting.

36:06 Not remembering our sins. And then we come to this marvelous passage on which our second hymn was based this morning. Micah chapter 7. Micah chapter 7.

36:18 And listen to the language of the prophet here. Micah 7 verses 18 and 19. Who is a God like unto you that pardons iniquity? He pardons it.

36:39 He forgives it. But what does that involve? Passes over. The transgression of the remnant of his heritage retains not his anger forever because he delights in loving kindness.

36:52 He will again have compassion upon us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. And you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. When something is cast into the depths of the sea.

37:11 It's gone. It's buried. Out of sight. Out of mind.

37:15 Forever. And as one author cheekily said. And on that part of the sea in which he cast our sins. God has a big sign that says no fishing here.

37:26 No fishing here. Now. I can't read you. Some of you are half asleep.

37:33 It grieves me. I feel all my labors have done nothing but put you to sleep. In preparation. And in seeking to make this stuff come alive.

37:43 That's grievous. Few things make me wonder. Lord should I pack it in. If all I can do is put people to sleep talking about things like this.

37:53 And if you're half asleep because you just didn't discipline yourself to get to bed. Shame on you. If you are up with a sick child the Lord understands. And I don't judge you.

38:04 But I can't believe there were that many sick kids last night. Especially when some of you don't have any kids that I see are sitting there nodding on me. Very grievous. Very grievous.

38:16 But do you see the similar contours in here? Similar contours and hues in all the verbal pictures. And surely as the linguistic family of words for forgiveness point to a separation of the sin from the sinner. A letting go.

38:34 A lifting off. A divorcing. So the verbal pictures point in the same direction. God says I've put them away.

38:43 Far as east is from west. I've blotted them out. I've blotted them out as a thick cloud. I will remember them no more.

38:50 Bury them in the depths of the sea. That's what forgiveness involves. Now having done this overview of the linguistic family. Having looked at these vivid verbal pictures.

Working Definition and Description of Divine Forgiveness

39:01 Now we come thirdly to a working definition and description of biblical forgiveness. When we take the biblical words. Consider the pictures. Take the biblical data and say what is forgiveness Lord?

39:16 What do we come up with? Well let me say by way of introduction to coming up with a definition. It's clear there's a similarity in divine and human forgiveness. Where to pray forgive us our sins or debts or trespasses.

39:33 As we forgive those who trespass against us. There is similarity in divine forgiveness. God's forgiveness of us. And human or relational forgiveness.

39:45 Our forgiveness of others. Ephesians 4.32. Kind, tender hearted, forgiving one another.

39:51 As God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. We are to forgive as God forgives. There is similarity. But listen carefully.

40:01 Similarity is not identity. And all kinds of theological nonsense are floated. Because people don't make that distinction. Similarity is not identity.

40:13 Similarity is not identity. And therefore there is no one size fits all. No one definition of forgiveness that fits divine forgiveness of us. And our forgiveness of one another in all of its shapes and contours.

40:31 So we're going to deal first of all with a description and definition of divine forgiveness. What is it? When God says I will forgive their iniquities. When the Psalmist says you Lord are good and ready to forgive.

40:49 What is God ready to do with my sins? When Jesus said son your sins are forgiven you. What actually happened to those sins? Well here I offer my definition and description.

41:03 Called from the words. From the pictures. And the general teaching of scripture. And I offer it to you for your consideration.

41:13 Divine forgiveness is the gracious act of a holy and a just God. By which. He removes from the sinner. The guilt.

41:27 And legal or filial family liabilities in the case of a child of God. He removes from the sinner the guilt. And legal or filial liabilities of his sin. Thereby clearing the way.

41:44 To a restored relationship between himself and the sinner. That's forgiveness. That's forgiveness. Now I'm not saying anything about the ground of it.

41:55 That's the work of Christ. That comes next week. Not talking about the conditions of it in the sinner. That's repentance in faith.

42:02 That comes next week. But we want to grab the heart of forgiveness. What is it? When God forgives me?

42:09 It is a divine act. Of a holy and a just God. By which he removes from the sinner. The guilt.

42:18 And legal or filial liabilities in the case of a child of God. And legal or filial liabilities of his sin. Thereby clearing the way. To a restored relationship between himself and the sinner.

42:33 That's divine forgiveness. Now what is human or mutual forgiveness? When we pray. Forgive us as we forgive our debtors.

Working Definition and Description of Human Forgiveness

42:45 What are we telling God we're doing? When we say we forgive. When we say to someone I forgive you. When they come and ask forgiveness.

42:55 What are we doing? What is going through our minds? What steps? What commitments?

43:00 What promises? What perspectives are enshrouded or enshrined in the words I forgive you? When we're told if he repents forgive him. What am I to do?

43:12 I offer this definition. Human forgiveness is a gracious God like act.

43:21 Not of a holy and a just God. But of one forgiven sinner. To another forgiven sinner. By which the offended party makes a commitment of his will.

43:35 Not to remember the sin of the offending party. Thereby clearing the way. For restored relationship. Between both parties.

43:48 That's forgiveness. A gracious. God like act. Of a forgiven sinner.

43:59 To another forgiven sinner. By which the offended party. That's me. And you've come confessing your sin.

44:09 Asking forgiveness. I the offended party make a commitment of my will. It has nothing to do with my stinking feelings. I may feel like punching him in the face.

44:21 For what he did. And my feelings haven't calmed down yet. But when I forgive him. I'm making a commitment of my will.

44:32 To do what? Not to remember the sin. Of the offending party. Thereby clearing the way.

44:43 To a restored relationship. Between both parties. Now I've not addressed. That just as divine forgiveness.

44:52 Is rooted in the work of Christ. Our forgiveness. Is rooted in the example. Of God forgiving us.

45:00 I've not addressed. What the conditions must be. That will come. We've got to get hold of what forgiveness is.

45:08 And it seems to me. That no text captures it more beautifully. In short compass. Than Matthew 18 15.

45:17 If your brother sin against you. Go. Tell all your friends about his sin. No.

45:24 That's not what the Bible says. Go. Tell him his fault. Between you and him alone.

45:32 If he hear you. You have what? Gained your brother. What has happened?

45:41 Here one forgiven sinner. Has sinned against another forgiven sinner. What are they to do? The one who has been sinned against.

45:49 It's sin. It's not some stupid notion. That floats by his head. It's a construction on stuff.

45:57 It's the kind of thing that could stand up. In a court of law. This guy did him in. Now he goes to him.

46:06 With what attitude? To beat up on him? No. He's grieved that the sin has put a barrier.

46:14 He's lost his brother. He's lost face to face communion. He's lost open hearted fellowship. He wants to gain him.

46:22 He wants the barrier to go down. He wants face to face. Chest to chest if necessary. Embrace with his brother.

46:30 So what does he do? He tells him his fault. Seeks to get him to see his sin. If he hear you.

46:38 What's the hearing? He sees his sin. He owns it his sin. He turns to you and says.

46:46 My brother I see a sin. Will you forgive me? And when the offended brother says. I forgive you.

46:55 What is he doing? A righteous God like act. Doing what? Making a commitment.

47:03 Of will. Not to remember. The sin of the offending party. Anymore.

47:11 There by clearing the way. For restored communion. You have gained your brother. When people come to me.

47:21 And say oh pastor. I did this wrong. Can you forgive me? I say I never feel more like God.

47:29 In the legitimate sense. Than when I can forgive people. It's one of my greatest joys. To say I freely.

47:38 Cheerfully forgive you. It's God like. To say the issue is put away. When I look upon you.

47:47 When I speak to you. This thing is no longer there. It is put away. As God says.

47:55 I will not to remember it. Though I could if I chose to. I say I will not to remember it. Though I could if I chose to.

48:04 I am engaging. In that God like gracious act. Of making a commitment. Of the will.

48:12 No longer to remember. So that when I say. Oh God my father. Forgive my.

The God-like Nature and Implications of Human Forgiveness

48:21 Trespasses. As I forgive. Those who trespass. Against me.

48:30 What I'm saying is. That when I'm the offended. And someone asks my forgiveness. I am doing.

48:38 What we've just described. I'm making a commitment. Of the will. Most often embodied.

48:46 In a sincere promise. Followed up with honest effort. That this issue is put away. It no longer influences.

48:54 It's buried. And so the next time I'm offended. And we'll see this when we come to that. About forgiving seven times.

49:02 Or seventy times seven. You see Jesus could say. Seventy times seven. Because if you're truly forgiven.

49:10 Each time the person comes. It's the first time. You follow me. You put the other way.

49:19 It's not there. It's not there to write the book. Love takes no account of evil. Love keeps at your book.

49:28 Of previous wrong. Why? Because true forgiveness. Doesn't keep a ledger.

49:39 Does God keep a ledger? No. He says I blocked them out. I cast them behind my back.

49:47 I buried them in the depths of the sea. I put them away. And if almighty God. In his infinite burning holiness.

49:57 Can put away my sin. For the sake of Christ. What kind of a creature am I. Who ought to be roasting in hell.

50:07 For your sin. As one who has received God's forgiveness. And then we're going to study that parable. In Matthew 18.

50:16 The language that should never. Never be in the mind. Let alone the lips of a Christian. Is the language I can't forgive.

50:26 I won't forgive. That's dangerous language. Remember the parable. The man who's forgiven his millions.

50:37 And his buddy's got a pocket full of change. He owes him. He grabs him by the throat. Mercy from me.

50:46 Jesus said that man will be cast to the tormentors. You don't know what forgiveness is. In your own soul. It is morally.

50:54 Psychologically. Spiritually impossible. To have a heart suffused with the wonder. Of divine forgiveness.

51:03 And not have a fundamental principle. Of human forgiveness. It is morally. Spiritually.

51:12 Psychologically impossible. But we need to grow. In our appreciation. And our basking in the wonder.

51:20 Of God's forgiving grace. One of the most tangible. Manifestations of that. Will be.

51:28 That we're an aggressively forgiving. Bunch of people. In our dealings one with another. You talk about being the light of the world.

51:36 And the salt of the earth. When people come out of a society. Full of hate and hatefulness. Think of the lack of forgiveness.

51:45 Forgiveness, road rage, people giving others the finger and parents bitter to children and children to parents to step in the context where people fall over one another to forgive each other. People are going to say, what in the world makes you people tick? You say, it's the gospel. Those funny men up there in the pulpit preach about it.

52:08 That's what does it to us. What the gospel does to us.

Call to Embrace and Practice Forgiveness

52:14 Lay hold of forgiveness in Jesus. That's what God puts in here in our relationships one to another. Well, as I close this morning, let me bring a word to those of you who may not be partakers of that forgiveness. I can say on the basis of scripture, your greatest need is to know God's gracious act by which he will remove the guilt and liabilities of your sin and clear the way for a restored relationship with himself.

52:48 The liabilities are nothing less than eternal hell. Those are frightening liabilities. And the only way they can be removed is by divine forgiveness. And that forgiveness has been procured in the bloodletting of the Son of God.

53:04 And God has promised if you will go in your guiltiness and in your undone-ness and cast yourself upon his dear Son, God will righteously and justly pardon all of your sins. All of them, all of them. You say, but wait a minute, I don't have to know them. He's omniscient and he knows them all and he says their sins and iniquities that I know in full, I will remember no more.

53:34 Wouldn't you love the joy and the exquisite peace appealing in your head tonight and know that the God of heaven has no controversy with you at all. Every barrier to calling down his judgment. To keeping you at a distance is removed and you can begin to live in communion with the God who made you for himself. Oh, my dear friend, that's what God offers you freely in the gospel.

54:03 And I plead with you to lay hold of it and embrace his offer. And dear children of God, what a difference in our homes, our church, our school relationships, when the gracious, forgiving heart of God is moved. Mirrored in our relationships, one to another, we ought to be like God. Thou, Lord, are good and ready to forgive every one of us.

54:31 And I'll use this imagery in a subsequent message. The inside of the door of our heart ought to be worn thin from the knuckles of our soul, ponding, saying, I want to get this forgiveness out. I want to get this forgiveness out. And you welcome someone coming.

54:50 Coming to the other side of the door, knocking and saying, my brother, my sister, will you forgive me? You say, oh, I just couldn't wait for you to come. I couldn't wait. My heart's been yearning to say the words to some fellow sinner, I forgive you.

55:06 My brother, my sister, you're forgiven, forgotten, put away, done with. You know that reality? It's a blessed thing. Dear children of God, pray that through our studies of this subject, God, the Holy Spirit, will come and grant us such an increased measure that no matter how much we may struggle with our own sin, that we will never have to struggle with forgiving the sin of others.

55:37 There's no excuse for it. How can anyone living daily under the canopy of God's ongoing fatherly forgiveness even think of withholding forgiveness from another believer? Well, I hope this has been helpful to you. I hope in my expression of disappointment that some of you are sitting there half asleep and glassy-eyed was not an expression of wounded pride.

56:04 I wouldn't trust myself enough to say that we're not a little bit of that. If so, the Lord forgive me, and I trust you will forgive me. But may God enable us to have a clear biblical concept of what forgiveness is and what it is not that we may, by the grace of God, be a forgiving people. Let's pray.

56:31 Our Father, what thanks can we render to you that you are a forgiving God, who is a God like unto you, that passes over the iniquity of your people. We marvel at your grace and how we pray for those who do not know the blessedness of your forgiveness, that you would have dealings with them in this place this morning, that they would not pillow their heads this night until they know, in Christ, that you are the one who forgives them. Amen. We open unto you all the rest of our as we pray.

57:10 We pray for Jesus Christ our Father, our Savior, your Son, and our Heavenly Father in Christ that barrier of sin removed by divine forgiveness, we pray for us as your people, that you will search our hearts. Oh God, bring to light any disposition of unforgiveness that lies lurking in the shadows of our hearts, and may it be brought to the withering power of the Cross of Christ and be put to death that we may have hearts that literally overflow with the gracious daily prayers of the Lord. Amen. With the gracious disposition of forgiving grace.

57:44 Seal then your word to our hearts. We ask for your glory and for our good. In Jesus name. Amen.