FORGIVER OF SINS

What a beautiful title! There is a deep desire in humans for forgiveness. Ernest Hemingway alluded to an old Spanish fable about an estranged son, Paco, and his father who advertised the following: ‘Paco. Meet me at Hotel Montana noon Tuesday. All is forgiven. Papa’. Paco being a common name in Madrid, the father arrived to discover 800 young men answering his advertisement!

Forgiveness is a special aspect of God’s grace. It does not make us presumptuous; rather it produces a godly fear of Him who spared us from judgement, Ps. 130. 4. It is seen as a debt paid, Matt. 18. 27, or as a fractured relationship restored, Luke 17. 3-4. But chiefly it involves sins being removed. It is a judicial act in God’s mind - He separates sins from the sinner, putting the sins on Christ, leaving the sinner free, 1 Pet. 2. 24; Heb. 8.12. It is the corollary truth of justification, Rom. 4. 5-7: forgiveness removes sins; justification gives right standing. God justifies sinners by forgiving them. Through the Holy Spirit, forgiveness leads to a change of behaviour motivated by loving gratitude, as the Lord Jesus showed, Luke 7. 47.

In today’s passage, our Lord’s actions addressed the question ‘Who can forgive?’ The scribes and Pharisees rightly thought God alone could forgive all sins, v. 21; but here they stumbled, unable to confess Jesus as God. On another occasion, Matt. 12.31, the Lord answered the question ‘What can be forgiven?’ saying that every sin is forgivable except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. These people knowingly rejected Christ, attributing His power to Satan - and for Christ-rejecters there is no hope. We also have the Lord’s answer to the question ‘What does forgiveness produce?’, Luke 7. 47.

One final question is that frequently asked, ‘How many times can forgiveness take place?’. In keeping with His own deeply forgiving spirit shown at the cross, Luke 23. 34, the Lord Jesus reminds us that true Christians must ultimately learn to forgive one another, Matt. 6. 14-15. C. S. Lewis expressed it succinctly: ‘To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable in others, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you’. May we have His grace to be true Christians by this definition!