HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD WE FORGIVE?

According to Jesus, how many times should we forgive others who have offended us? Peter came to Jesus and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21-22. Forgiving others is not easy. Forgiving ourselves is sometimes even harder. Many people find it hard to forgive others who have wronged them, however small. But Jesus wants us to forgive others who ask, or do not ask for forgiveness, so that forgiving becomes second nature to us. There is no limit to how many times we can forgive others. This is His Rule. This is Jesus’ Law. If we have sinned against God, how many times can we ask God to forgive us? Again, there is no limit. Every time we ask Him for forgiveness, He will forgive us. That is His nature. That’s His law. That is how He is. Ephesians 4:32 says, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.” Will God forgive us of our sins when they are more than seventy times seven? Yes, He would. In the Lord’s Prayer, we are taught to ask for forgiveness of our sins. Many Christians play dumb as if they are immune to sin. At church, I rarely heard the pastor ask for forgiveness of our sins. But I believe that he should ask when he prays. And there is nothing wrong or humiliating if the pastor asks for forgiveness of our sins when he prays from the pulpit, praying on behalf of the church. Or does the pastor believe that his church has no sin? Some Christians believe that they have no sin after Jesus died on the cross. That is false, because Jesus has never paid for our sin when He died, or otherwise why would He say this, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast [it] from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast [it] from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.” Matthew 5:29-30. He wants us to suffer and pay for our own sin. Moreover, who is hell for? And why did Jesus send these men/women of great faith to hell at the end of time, on Judgment Day, if Jesus had paid for their sins when He died? "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” Matthew 7:21-23. When we ask for forgiveness, I have no doubt that He will forgive us. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 1 John 5:14. The Law says that He will forgive us of our sins when we ask. Why then was Paul struggling with sin when all that he has to do is just ask God for the forgiveness of his sin. And God will forgive him. Was he trying to hide something from us by blaming the Law? The law is just like a mirror. If we don't like what we see on the mirror, why blame the mirror? Yes, I suspect that he was trying to hide something from us! There is a proverb in Indonesian that says “ada udang dibalik batu”. What does it mean? It means there's a "shrimp under the rock." To find the shrimp you have to turn the rock over.  As human beings, we often offend God and our brethren by doing or saying some things that we should not do or say. Should we change or teach others to change God’s Laws because we could not change our bad habits? No, we should not do that! We should change our bad habits instead. And repent. This is what God the Father wants us to do, repent daily! Don't forget.  We should always strive to be morally flawless. Always striving to be morally flawless, I believe, is the only way that He can make us perfect as God the Father is perfect. Why? Because the standard of heaven is perfection, and nothing less. And it takes time for us to reach perfection. Do you know why He is longsuffering? The apostle Peter said, “The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. True repentance is a marathon, not a sprint. Jesus says that only those who can endure till the end will be saved! Matthew 24:13. Judas Iscariot could not endure till the end.

It’s fairly simple. If we sin against God, ask Him to forgive us, repent, and He will forgive us - no limit. If we sin against other human beings what should we do? Jesus says in Matthew 5:23-24, "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, "leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” And repent! Jesus gave us a simple formula for what to do when we have offended God and other human beings so we won’t be guilty of violating or changing His laws. What does Paul say about the Law? Here’s what he said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; [it is] the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 3:8-9. Where is Paul’s faith? Does he not believe or have faith in what Jesus says in Matthew 18:21-22? Does he not believe what Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16? Has he never heard what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23? According to Paul, we have been saved through faith. But faith without works is dead. James 2:26 says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also". To prove our faith we must do something. And that “do something” is our work. In Luke 10:25-28 and Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus said that to get eternal life we must follow the Law - the Torah - we must work. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading [of it]?" So he answered and said, "`You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and `your neighbor as yourself.'" And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live." Luke 10:25-28. "Do this" means WORK. It means WORK and follow the law, and not GRACE. DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE. We have to work first and then we will earn eternal life or God's grace. Does he not believe what Jesus told the lawyer about how he could get eternal life? What was Paul’s evidence of his faith when he didn't believe what Jesus had told the lawyer about the work that he had to do to earn salvation? In Matthew 5:13-16 Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all [who are] in the house. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Jesus wants us to show our good works so that we can glorify our Father in heaven. Showing our good works is not boasting. Showing our good works is glorifying His name! Showing our good works is obeying His commandment. For further study please read The Triad of Salvation

I will let my readers determine for themselves what the "shrimp under the rock" is. Finally, I want to remind all my readers that Revelation 12:10 says, “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.” Satan is our accuser. When we cannot forgive our parents, our siblings, our in-laws, and others who have done wrong to us, we are working together with Satan to accuse our parents, siblings, in-laws, and others before God. Don’t we know that God will not forgive our sins if we don’t forgive the sins of others? Matthew 6:14-15. Are we working together with Satan in accusing others to prevent them from receiving God’s grace/mercy? Are we that holy?
Finally, I want to say one last point. We have talked a lot about forgiving others who have offended us. I now want to talk about "forgiving ourselves". Forgiving ourselves? What is that all about? When we forgive someone but do not forgive ourselves we have not forgiven anyone. We must forgive ourselves too. And the way we do this is by forgetting the pain and the people who have hurt us. Forgetting completes the work of forgiving. Without forgetting, the work of forgiving is not complete.