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I. The meaning of forgiveness.
II. The authority and position to forgive.
III. The basis of forgiveness.
IV. The way for sinners to obtain forgiveness.
V. The way for believers to obtain forgiveness.
VI. The sphere of forgiveness.
VII. The result of forgiveness.
VIII. Different kinds of forgiveness:
А. God’s eternal forgiveness.
B. Forgiveness for the restoration of fellowship.
C. God’s disciplinary forgiveness.
D. Forgiveness in the kingdom.
E. The forgiveness exercised by the church.
F. Personal forgiveness of the believer.
In this chapter we will begin to see the contents of God’s salvation. The salvation of God includes many different aspects and blessings. The first aspect of God’s salvation is forgiveness, which is also the first blessing that a person receives upon believing. The salvation of God first solves our problems. Our foremost problem before God is our sinfulness. Thus, the first item that is taken care of in God’s salvation is the forgiveness of sins. Before God’s righteousness can release us, our record of sin before God must be cleared. Our sins before God must be canceled before the righteous God can come and apply other aspects of His salvation to us.
1. “Not condemned” (John 3:18 see also 5:24).
The first meaning of forgiveness relates to the abolishment of our sinful record before God, which spares us from God’s righteous judgment. We had a sinful record and were condemned before God, and we could only wait for His righteous punishment. Our record of sins demanded that we receive God’s righteous punishment. God’s forgiveness spared us from His righteous punishment. Now we are no longer condemned because the Lord Jesus died and shed His blood on the cross according to God’s righteousness and thereby bore God’s righteous judgment for us (Heb. 9:22). Since the Lord Jesus died and shed His blood to fulfill God’s righteous requirement, God, according to His righteousness, can and must forgive us of our sins, blot out our sinful record, and spare us from judgment.
2. Sending sin away from the forgiven one.
In the New Testament at least two different words are translated “forgiven” or “forgiveness.” One word occurs in Matthew 12:31, Romans 4:7, and 1 John 1:9. The meaning of this word in the original language is “to cause to depart.” The other word is in Acts 5:31; 13:38 and Ephesians 1:7, and its meaning is “to send away.”
God not only forgives our sin to cancel our sinful record before Him, sparing us from His righteous judgment; He also sends away from us the sins we committed. When God caused the Lord Jesus to be our trespass offering on the cross, He put all our sins on Him so that the Lord Jesus might bear them on our behalf (John 1:29; Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet. 2:24). After God caused the Lord Jesus to be judged and punished for us by bearing our sins on the cross, our sins were forever heaped upon Satan. The type of the expiation in Leviticus 16 portrays this fact. When the high priest made expiation for the children of Israel, he took two goats and presented them before the Lord. One was killed to make expiation for the children of Israel. This goat was for God. The other, which bore the transgressions of the children of Israel, was for Azazel (vv. 7-10, 15, 22). For Azazel means “for Satan” because Azazel stands opposite to God, and only Satan stands in such a position before God.
Sin originated from Satan. We were deceived by him and allowed sin to come into us, causing us to have a record of sin before God. When God put all our sins on the Lord Jesus, who bore them for us and was judged for us, our record of sin was cancelled before God and our sins were returned to Satan for him to bear. In this way God’s forgiveness sent our sins away from us (cf. Psa. 103:12).
On the one hand, God forgives our sins because the Lord’s blood eradicated our sinful record; on the other hand, His redemption dismisses our sins forever.
3. “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12).
God’s forgiving is also His forgetting. God’s forgiveness of our sins not only spares us from the judgment of sin and sends our sins away, His forgiveness also results in His forgetting our sins. Once He forgave us, He removes our sins from His memory, never to remember them again.
1. “Who can forgive sins except God alone?” (Luke 5:21).
Only God possesses the position and authority to forgive sins because only He has the position and authority to judge. No one other than God possesses this position and authority because man is not the lord of the universe and is sinful. Only God is the Lord of the universe and is sinless; hence, only God can judge and forgive.
2. “The Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins” (Luke 5:24).
Although only God possesses the authority to forgive sins, and although the Lord Jesus was a man, He was God incarnated on the earth. Therefore, He had authority on the earth to forgive sins. He is God, the Lord of the universe, and He is sinless. Hence, as God, He has the authority and position to forgive sins.
1. “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Heb. 9:22).
God’s forgiveness is based on the shedding of blood. Since God is righteous, He cannot forgive man’s sins carelessly. His righteousness demands that whoever sins must die (Ezek. 18:4). If, according to His righteousness, there is no shedding of blood for a sinner, fulfilling His righteous requirement, God’s righteousness will not permit Him to forgive sins.
2. “My blood...poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28).
The Lord Jesus, according to God’s righteousness, died and shed His blood on the cross to satisfy God’s righteous requirement, enabling God to forgive our sins justly and legally according to His righteousness.
3. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses” (Eph. 1:7).
The blood of the Lord Jesus, which was shed in His death according to God’s righteousness, satisfied the requirement of God’s righteousness. Therefore, it has become the means by which our sins are forgiven; it is the basis of our forgiveness. Other than the Lord’s blood, nothing, whether it is good works, virtues, zeal, or love, can be the means or the basis for the forgiveness of our sins. In this universe only the Lord’s blood satisfies all the requirements of God’s righteousness upon sinners.
1. “Repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47 see also Acts 5:31; Isa. 55:6-7).
For a sinner to be forgiven by God, he must repent, that is, change his mind to turn back to God. Formerly, he was turned away from God, and thus he sinned and offended God. If he wants God’s forgiveness, he must turn back to God. He must “forsake his way, and...his thoughts; and...return to Jehovah” (v. 7).
2. “Everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 10:43 see also 26:18).
In order for a sinner to receive God’s forgiveness, he must not only repent but also believe. Repentance, on the negative side, means to turn back to God from being away from Him. Believing, on the positive side, means to receive God’s forgiveness. Neither repenting nor believing is the basis upon which God forgives sinners; they are only the means to obtain forgiveness. Repenting and believing are not the result of an effort on the part of a sinner for which he is forgiven by God. The sinner obtains God’s forgiveness only by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Only the Lord’s blood causes God to give the sinner the gift of forgiveness. However, a sinner can receive God’s forgiveness only through repenting and believing.
Although the blood shed by the Lord Jesus on the cross satisfied all of God’s righteous requirements upon sinners, and although God can grant sinners the gift of forgiveness because of the Lord’s blood, a sinner cannot obtain God’s forgiveness without repenting and believing. A sinner can receive God’s forgiveness only through repenting and believing. The Lord Jesus’ accomplished work on the cross enables God to forgive sinners and enables sinners to receive God’s forgiveness. A sinner does not need to do anything but repent to God and receive forgiveness from God by faith.
1. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9 see also Psa. 32:5).
The way for sinners to be forgiven of their sins is to believe, and the way for believers to be forgiven of their sins is to confess. Since a believer has believed, he needs only to confess, that is, to confess his sins in order for God to forgive Him. Just as it is impossible for sinners to confess without believing, believers cannot believe without confessing. If a sinner confesses without believing, he will not obtain the peace of forgiveness, and if a believer believes and does not confess, he will not obtain restoration through forgiveness. In order for a sinner to obtain peace through forgiveness, he must believe that God forgives his sins because of the blood of the Lord Jesus. In order for a believer to obtain restoration through forgiveness, he must confess his sins and iniquities to God.
1. “Every sin...will be forgiven” (Matt. 12:31).
Every sin will be forgiven. How sweet is this sound! How wide is this sphere! The sphere of God’s forgiveness is as wide and as large as man’s sins. God’s forgiveness is sufficient for the sins of man. It is sufficient to take care of all of man’s sins. There is not one sin that the Lord Jesus has not redeemed us from on the cross. Therefore, because of the Lord’s redemption, there is not a single sin that God will not forgive. (Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is a specific sin and is not likely to be committed today.)
2. “Having forgiven us all our offenses” (Col. 2:13).
God and all that He has are complete. Hence, His forgiveness is also complete. He is never incomplete in His doings. He will never grant us an incomplete forgiveness, a partial forgiveness. He will not forgive some of our sins and leave other sins unforgiven. Once He forgives, He forgives all our sins, all our offenses.
1. “With You there is forgiveness, / That You would be feared” (Psa. 130:4).
Man thinks that God’s forgiveness will result in man being audacious and loose, not realizing that God’s forgiveness results in His being feared. Our experience tells us that the more we are forgiven by God, the more we fear God; the more we receive God’s forgiveness, the more fear we have toward God. Only those who have never been forgiven by God or tasted His forgiveness are audacious, loose, and free. Once a person tastes God’s forgiving grace, fear is immediately born in him, together with a hatred of sin.
2. “Her sins which are many are forgiven, because she loved much” (Luke 7:47, see also vv. 42-43).
God’s forgiving grace not only causes man to fear Him but even more to love Him. Negatively, fear prevents one from doing what does not please God. Positively, love causes one to do what pleases God. Therefore, God’s forgiveness not only causes people to fear Him and to not sin, but it also causes people to love Him and please Him. The sinful woman recorded in Luke 7, who obtained the Lord’s forgiveness, did not go back to sin but instead showed her love to the Lord with all that she had and all that she was. God’s forgiving grace can deliver man from all the sins that the law with its condemnation cannot deliver man from. The condemnation of Mount Sinai caused man to fear God and stay away from Him; the forgiveness of Golgotha causes man to love God and draw near to Him. The more a person has been forgiven by God, the more he loves God. The sinful woman had much love for the Lord because she obtained much forgiveness from the Lord. The Lord’s forgiveness causes man to love Him.
There are different kinds of forgiveness in the Bible. If we confuse them with one another, we will be perplexed and unable to understand the truth concerning forgiveness in the Bible.
The first kind of forgiveness is God’s eternal forgiveness. This forgiveness concerns the eternal salvation of man. Although this forgiveness is eternal, it is granted to sinners in this age. The Bible refers mainly to this kind of forgiveness.
1. “Through His blood” (Eph. 1:7 see also Heb. 9:22; Matt. 26:28).
God’s eternal forgiveness is given to sinners because of the blood that Christ shed on the cross. The blood of Christ enables the sinner to receive God’s eternal forgiveness and obtain eternal salvation.
2. “By faith” (Acts 26:18 see also 10:43).
God’s eternal forgiveness to sinners is not only because of the blood of Christ but also because of the sinner’s believing. Once a sinner believes in what Christ’s blood has accomplished for him according to what God has said, he receives God’s eternal forgiveness in this age, which causes him to be eternally saved, never to perish.
The second kind of forgiveness is the forgiveness through which God restores fellowship with the believer. Such forgiveness concerns only the matter of fellowship between a believer and God, not his eternal salvation. Since it is related to the fellowship between a believer and God, this forgiveness is given to a believer in this age.
1. “The blood of Jesus” (1 John 1:7).
The forgiveness through which God restores fellowship with a believer is also granted because of the Lord’s blood. The Lord’s blood not only enables one to obtain God’s eternal forgiveness at the time he believes but also enables him to continuously receive the forgiveness that restores his fellowship with God after believing.
2. “If we confess” (1 John 1:9).
A sinner obtains God’s eternal forgiveness by believing. A believer obtains God’s fellowship-restoring forgiveness by confessing. Once a sinner obtains God’s eternal forgiveness through believing, he is saved and has a spiritual fellowship of life with God. As a result, he feels light and happy within. But when he sins, he feels painful and weighed down because his fellowship with God is broken. Although sinning does not cause him to perish eternally and cannot sever his life relationship with God, it causes pain and heaviness within because his fellowship with God has been broken. To relieve his inner pain, remove the heaviness on his heart, and restore his fellowship with God, the believer must confess his sins before God in order to obtain God’s forgiveness. This matter is particularly spoken of in 1 John 1.
The third kind of forgiveness is God’s disciplinary forgiveness. This forgiveness concerns God’s way of disciplining His children in this age and is exercised in this age.
1. Through chastisement in this age (James 5:14-15; 2 Sam. 12:9-15; cf. Gal. 6:7-8; 2 Sam. 22:26-27; 1 Pet. 5:5-6).
Some sins committed by God’s children are concluded without any painful consequences after they are confessed and forgiven. However, some sins result in painful discipline even after they are confessed to God and forgiven. David is the clearest example of forgiveness accompanied by discipline. Although he was a man according to God’s heart and was loved by God, he committed a gross sin; that is, David murdered Uriah and took his wife. Although he was rebuked by God, confessed his sin to God, and was forgiven by God, discipline still followed forgiveness. God forgave the sin yet raised up an environment that dealt with him severely. David killed one, and God caused four members of his family to die, even as David himself once spoke, saying, “Restore...fourfold” (2 Sam. 12:6). He committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, and God allowed fornication in his household. He murdered Uriah, and God permitted his sons to rebel against him and seek his life. “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
A person’s sins not only create a sinful record before God but also cause him to suffer the consequences of sin. The sins that a person commits might be forgiven by God, but he might not be spared from the sufferings that result from them. If a child continually goes against his mother’s wishes and steals candy, his stealing may be pardoned by his mother, but this will not eliminate the cavities in his teeth caused by the sweets. Although the sins committed by God’s children are forgiven by God, discipline often follows, whether it is sickness, family tragedies, business setbacks, or loss of material possessions. When believers encounter the discipline that follows forgiveness, they should follow the example of David to prostrate and humble themselves “under the mighty hand of God” that “in due time” God may deliver them from suffering His discipline (1 Pet. 5:6).
The fourth kind of forgiveness is the forgiveness in the kingdom, which concerns God’s punishment of the believers in the millennium and will be exercised in the coming age.
1. Through the punishment in the coming age (Matt. 18:34, see also vv. 21-35).
The words spoken by the Lord, “It will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one to come” (12:32), prove that some sins are forgiven in this age and some in the age to come, that is, in the millennium. In Matthew 18 the Lord spoke of a believer who did not forgive from the heart his brother who had offended him. When the Lord comes to judge the believers, that is, “to settle accounts with his slaves” (v. 23), He will deliver such a one “to the torturers,” that is, He will cause him to be punished in the millennium until he forgives his brother from his heart (vv. 34-35). This shows that some believers’ sins will be forgiven only after punishment in the millennium. If a believer sins after being saved, he can be forgiven and chastised by God for some sins in this age, that is, today. But some sins can be forgiven only after the believer is punished in the millennium. (Details of the millennium punishment are covered in chapter 48.)
The fifth kind of forgiveness is the forgiveness exercised by the church. This forgiveness, which concerns the fellowship of God’s children, is exercised when the church receives newly saved believers or sinful but repenting believers, according to the speaking of the Lord in Matthew 16:19 and 18:15-18. In these two portions of the Word, the Lord clearly shows that the church may loose people on the earth, that is, forgive them. This does not mean that the church may loose and forgive those whom God has not loosed and forgiven, which is a heretical teaching of Catholicism. The church’s loosing and forgiving on the earth are based on God’s loosing and forgiving in heaven. The church can only loose and forgive those on the earth whom God has loosed and forgiven in heaven. The church’s loosing and forgiving on the earth are simply a declaration of God’s loosing and forgiving in heaven. Furthermore, the Lord’s words show that the authority of the church to loose and forgive on the earth was given not just to Peter, as advocated by the Catholic teaching that says only the pope has the authority to forgive on the earth because he is the successor to Peter. Rather, this authority was given also to the church. Just as Peter had this authority (ch. 16), the church has this authority (ch. 18).
1. By the power of the Holy Spirit (John 20:22-23).
In the evening of the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus breathed into the disciples in order for them to receive the Holy Spirit, and then said, “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them” (v. 23). This shows that the church forgives people’s sins; that is, the church decides whether a person’s sin has been forgiven by God by the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells the believers (the church). The church may not forgive a person’s sins according to its own opinion. It must follow the inner leading of the Holy Spirit; otherwise, the one whom the church has forgiven on the earth will not be one whom God has forgiven in heaven.
2. “Confirm your love” (2 Cor. 2:8, see also vv. 5-7, 9-11; 1 Cor. 5:1-2, 11-13).
Regarding the matter of forgiving a person, the church should be strict but should also exercise adequate love. The church must deal with, condemn, and even remove a sinful brother who is unwilling to repent (v. 13). But once he repents, the church should confirm its love toward him, and forgive and receive him. Otherwise, Satan will utilize this opportunity to damage a repenting brother, who has been removed by the church, thus damaging the church.
The sixth kind of forgiveness is the personal forgiveness of the believer. This is the believer’s forgiving of others today, and it is related to escaping future punishment in the millennial kingdom.
1. That we ourselves may be forgiven (Matt. 6:12, 14-15; 18:21-35; Mark 11:25-26; Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).
Conflicts easily arise when people spend time with one another. After believers are together for a while, there will be wrongdoings and mutual offenses. Thus, the Lord wants us to forgive and pardon one another. Since the Lord knows that it is easy for us to offend others and difficult for us to forgive others, He often spoke in the Bible of forgiving those who offend us. In His teaching, He used not only plain words but even illustrations of how God has forgiven us. He also spoke of the punishment in the millennial kingdom in order to warn us to take heed to the matter of forgiving others. This may be a small thing in our eyes, but it is a big thing in God’s eyes. He spoke seriously both of pleasing God today by forgiving others and of not escaping punishment in the kingdom if we do not forgive others.
Since a believer has been forgiven by God and possesses God’s life, he should forgive those who offend him, according to God’s forgiving grace as well as His life and nature. However, some do not like to forgive others and have a hard time forgiving others. Although some brothers and sisters say that they have forgiven those who have offended them, they do not forget the offenses as God does when He forgives. Charles Spurgeon once said that the forgiveness of some is like burying a dead dog but leaving its tail above the ground. Although we may have forgiven someone, we still remember his wrongdoing, and we even tell others about the offense. We continually recount the matter with all its details and speak of how we have forgiven him. This is not forgiveness from the heart. In God’s eyes, this is not forgiveness at all.
Failure to forgive others will not cause believers to perish eternally, but it may cause them to be punished in the millennial kingdom. If we do not forgive others today, the Lord will not forgive us in the coming kingdom until we forgive them from our heart. To escape such punishment in the coming kingdom, we must forgive others from the heart today.
