Matthew 18:21
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
A while back we touched briefly on this question, and over the course of the next few posts at least, we are going to explore it much deeper. Before we move deeper into this, I wanted to briefly address a topic quickly that I believe is very important to our overall understanding of this issue of forgiveness as being discussed in this passage.
Some of what is written, especially later as we talk about the parable of the debtor which follows, seems pretty harsh and quite possibly could be misunderstood. So, it seems appropriate to quickly establish who the audience for these teachings seems to be. I am pretty sure not everyone who reads will agree with what follows, but it seems to be what is being taught here.
What we see being established in the passage we have quoted, the discussion before hand, and the parable that follows are not a pattern for salvation. These words are written for believers to establish a pattern for how we are to live as saved followers of Jesus Christ.
The reason this seems important to establish is that as we read we see what might appear to be linkages between God’s forgiveness of us, and our forgiveness of others. None of what we read in this passage, properly read, teaches that we can somehow lose our status with God as saved sinners if we behave wrongly towards our brothers and sisters.
God’s forgiveness of us at the moment of salvation is not temporary, transient, or based on any work or effort we have put into it. It is all encompassing and permanent; it is unconditional based on no more than our faith. As we read and discuss, we will see this is the actually lesson being taught in this entire passage as a whole; we are to forgive our brothers and sisters in the same way we have been forgiven, not as a method to become saved, but as a pattern for our lives.
April 11, 2017 at 07:10
RE: “God’s forgiveness of us at the moment of salvation is not temporary, transient, or based on any work or effort we have put into it.”
Thanks, Wally. This central truth is not understood by many who name the name of Christ.
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April 11, 2017 at 07:20
Thanks, Tom. I always like to address that when discussing passages that seem to be guides for Christians to live by lest anybody think I am making some legalistic laundry list. I absolutely believe obedience is critical, but not part of the process of salvation. Not to sound cliche, but it’s a good cliche. We obey because we are saved, not to become saved.
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April 11, 2017 at 07:34
Yup. Works religionists argue evangelical Christians are proclaiming a Gospel of cheap grace, i.e., accept Jesus as Savior in a single moment of time and then sin all you want afterwards.
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April 11, 2017 at 07:43
Eh…that’s baloney, and if any preacher preaches that…run fast. I may have to recycle some stuff I did on that very topic. We will all be evaluated, not for the state of our souls eternally, but for what we did and the motivation for which we did it, and either rewarded or not rewarded accordingly.
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April 11, 2017 at 15:26
Unfortunately Tom, a few bad apples do preach cheap grace. A couple of years ago I was in a discussion with a preacher about the appearance that he was presenting by sitting alone at night in cars with females. He basically told me that he was forgiven so he could act as he wanted. I basically called him an idiot who was perverting the grace of God. For some reason he did not talk to me for awhile. hmmmm.
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April 11, 2017 at 16:05
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh…boy
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April 11, 2017 at 17:00
Thanks, Patrick. Yup, the ideal is to walk worthy of the free gift we’ve been given although we will surely fail Him in this regard, which is why we absolutely require His grace. But knowing His grace saves me and empowers me is quite a different place to be than when I was trying to merit my salvation.
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April 11, 2017 at 08:46
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
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April 11, 2017 at 08:46
Thanks brother Vincent
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April 11, 2017 at 13:55
You’re very welcome Brother Wally 😎
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April 12, 2017 at 15:17
Good stuff Wally
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