Over the years, I have
come to take great delight in showing people that God never once requires us to
forgive unrepentant people. He has much better things for us to do with them.
On the other hand, every
call to forgiveness in his Book means to cancel someone’s debt when they come
to us in repentance.[1] There
are no exceptions to this. When someone repents to us, we are to forgive them
just as our Father forgives us whenever we repent to him.
The question is, when
Jesus teaches us to pray, “Father,
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,”[2]
can we legitimately say that this only refers to forgiving debtors who have
repented to us of their indebtedness?
The good news is,
absolutely yes!
Forgiveness only means
cancelling the debts of repentant people, so even this lesson on prayer is
directed at how we treat people when they repent towards us, and whether it is
an imitation of how our Father forgives us when we repent to him.[3]
Are there lessons in
this regarding all the people who never repent to us of anything they have done
wrong? Absolutely, and it is right there in the way Jesus taught us to pray.
Join our home church
in exploring this extremely liberating prayer request. Trusting all our
forgiveness issues to God and praying for forgiveness for all believers
(including all the ones who have never repented of what they have done wrong),
leads us into the freedom of our Lord and Savior which is truly freedom indeed![4]
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1] Here are some other
messages and blogposts where I cover this thoroughly enough to show that there
is never once an exhortation to forgive an unrepentant person, and that the call
to forgiveness only applies when someone has repented.
Home Church
Video: Staking Our Claim on Freedom in Christ ~ Part 7 ~ Freedom From
Bitterness; Freedom to Love https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/2018/03/home-church-video-staking-our-claim-on.html
Home Church
Video: Staking our Claim on Freedom in Christ ~ Part 8 ~ The Freedom to Not
Forgive https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/2018/03/staking-our-claim-on-freedom-in-christ.html
Home Church
Video: Staking Our Claim on Freedom in Christ ~ Part 9 ~ The Freedom to Forgive
https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/2018/03/home-church-video-staking-our-claim-on_21.html
[2] Matthew 6:12
[3] It is crucial that,
when we think about forgiving the way our Father has forgiven us, everything to
do with God’s forgiveness of his children follows him leading us to repentance
(see Romans 2:4). The same is the case with every teaching that we are to
forgive others. It is always and only a response to someone’s repentance.
[4] John 8:36
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