Conditions To Forgiveness

Bible Reading:  Matthew 18:10-22

Key Verse: Verse 22 – “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

Key Words: seventy times seven

Have you ever studied from God’s Word the conditions to forgiveness?  It is quite an interesting study.

• The condition to forgiveness with God is confession.  I John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13; Psalm 51.
• The condition to forgiveness when someone has damaged your testimony is confrontation.  Luke 17:3; Matthew 18.  There are those who take these verses to mean rebuke all sin, and that’s not the case at all.  It’s personal.  “If thy brother trespass against thee.”  The word trespass is the same word James uses in James 1:8 for double-minded.  The idea is someone has caused others to question your integrity, your testimony.
• In Ephesians 4:32 there appears to be no condition attached at all to forgiving others.  The principle here is don’t hold on to a grudge or you’ll end up grieving the Holy Spirit.  

The only person who doesn’t have to forgive is the person who doesn’t need forgiveness.  You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met that person.

In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞ Ask God to give you a spirit of forgiveness.