21 Then Peter came up and said to Him, “Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I still forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times.
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 And when he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 But since he did not have the means to repay, his master commanded that he be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment be made. 26 So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 And the master of that slave felt compassion, and he released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe!’ 29 So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 But he was unwilling, and went and threw him in prison until he would pay back what was owed. 31 So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their master all that had happened. 32 Then summoning him, his master *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the [ad]torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
The world says revenge is sweet. Most of the movie theme is only revenge, so our mind thinks revenge is a heroic thing, even a virtuous thing. When a hero takes revenge, people applaud and whistle, but when he forgives, we see him as a weak character. We stupidly parade our anger and unforgiving spirit as if it shows our strength and virtue. No, revenge actually shows our weakness and is a manifestation of depravity in unbelievers and remaining sin [in] believers.
Opposite to revenge is forgiveness, and forgiveness is a virtue. It is a godly virtue, and in fact, it makes us look like God when we forgive. Forgiveness is very foreign to man’s nature; revenge is native to us. Nobody has to teach us how to take revenge. But we all need to learn to forgive. It never comes naturally to us.
In Matthew 18, what I call as intensive discipleship training (IDT) before he dies, the Lord teaches the importance of forgiveness. [This is a] very important teaching for our church. This whole chapter is filled with foundational truths for his church. It all started with “who is the greatest in the kingdom?” The Lord is teaching virtues that will make you greatest in the kingdom, holding the child in his arms, and taught them humility. He repeatedly impacted them with the truth of how precious and valuable to Himself each one of those little ones who believe on Him truly are to Him.
Whenever one of those precious ones who believes in Him wanders off into sin, it is the duty of His devoted followers to pursue after them and win them back. He taught that if a good shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, he will leave the ninety-nine, go up into the mountains, and seek the one who is lost (Matthew 18:10-14).
In that context, he taught the steps of Church Discipline (CD). He explained how they were to pursue a brother or sister who is wandering into sin. Then, now masterfully as he concludes this session, He teaches that when a sinning brother repents, we should embrace him, forgiving him from our heart.
This chapter and the lessons of this IDT must have made a powerful impression on the disciples. You see the principles of this passage repeated throughout the NT epistles. For example, when the Corinthian church takes church discipline against a man who sinned, and then he repents, 2 Corinthians 2:6 says, “Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority.” Verse 7 says, “you need to forgive him, and comfort him, lest such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow.” Verse 8 says, “Confirm your love toward him.” Verse 11 says, “Satan’s going to get an advantage of you, for we’re not ignorant of his devices.” And one of his devices is to generate a bitter spirit and unforgiving heart.
This passage is a practical passage for us, teaching forgiveness. This passage is not about the wandering sheep, but about how the ninety-nine sheep should forgive and accept that wandering sheep when it returns and repents, even though he has sinned against them. We all need to learn this lesson of forgiveness. This passage teaches very important lessons on forgiveness.
I have divided the passage into five headings:
- Peter’s Question
- Lord’s Answer
- Lord gives a parable to illustrate his answer (Act 1) (We will see Act 1 today.)
- Parable – Act 2 (Next week)
- Passage ends with a terrible warning (Verse 35)
Question, Answer, Parable, Warning.
1. Peter’s Question
Verse 21: “Then Peter came up and said to Him, ‘Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I still forgive him? Up to seven times?’“
Now, Peter listens to all this teaching about how to be great in the kingdom. Maybe there is a gap after that. Jesus lets the child run away and play. This has given Peter some time to think about what he had heard.
He has realized that when brothers sin against us, we have to love them with the Shepherd’s heart, forgive in the heart, and restore them by the CD steps. A question comes in Peter’s mind: “Okay, I will do it. But what if he keeps sinning against me again and again, wandering again and again?“
He wondered how long he’d have to keep doing that. “I mean, how many times do we keep on forgiving them?” When we get involved in this, I may have to keep forgiving again and again. “How many times do we do this?“
So he asks the question. [Here is] one side application: one of the good things we have to learn from Peter is he asks questions. We are greatly indebted to Peter for this, because all of us get this lesson because of his question. We all have to learn to ask questions; that is how we grow in the understanding of truth. I know sometimes from school days we never ask questions, including me; I was like that. That is a wrong thing.
When someone is teaching truth to us, we need to think, compare in our mind with verses, imagine what implications we will have when we follow, and ask questions. Do not sit as if “whatever I understand is enough.” It helps everyone. It is good encouragement to the teacher when we ask questions—it shows we are understanding and thinking what he teaches. It helps us grow in understanding. It makes others to think, and they all enjoy the answer and get better understanding. We are very poor in this. We need more people asking questions. We will never progress without that.
Though they were all ashamed for arguing over who is greatest, and were rebuked as Satan in the last two chapters, he leaves all that behind, and comes forward, and asks the questions.
“Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?'”
“Okay, Lord, we go after this guy, and we bring him back, and we restore him, and we’ve even gained our brother. How many times do we do that if he sins again or sins the same sin? Does forgiveness have a limit?” That’s really the salient question of the whole text.
Peter adds “against me,” which really involves you in a situation where you feel the hurt, it directly impacted you, it badly affects you. How many times should I bear, endure that pain, and forgive him?
Where did he get seven times? Jewish tradition taught you can forgive a man three times; they had written laws on three times. But Peter was not just a Jew now; he was a disciple with Jesus and knew Jesus was very forgiving and compassionate, and merciful. He assumed Jesus would go at least double than the tradition. Maybe he imagined Jesus would say, “You have heard forgive your brother up to three times, but I say unto [you] forgive him double times, six times.”
So Peter thought he went beyond Jewish tradition, advanced beyond his nation, and even beyond Jesus’ teaching on compassion. He thought he was being generous. Maybe after the last rebuke, he opens his mouth now, and seriously he probably thought he would be commended—“Blessed are you, Peter, [for] such a generous heart flesh and blood didn’t give you, but my Father”—and he no doubt had some kind of a proud smirk of self-congratulation on his face, thinking how generous he had been.
You may think Peter was narrow to say seven: “Come on, Peter, seven times. Is that really the best you can do? Do you really think that’s being generous? Only seven?”
But if you stop and counted the number of times you personally have granted forgiveness ‘seven times’ to anyone who has sinned against you, suddenly, you realize that, humanly speaking, Peter truly is being outstandingly generous! At a human level, it exceeds the bounds of graciousness to forgive someone seven times!
Stop and think of what happens in your own experience. Someone did something horrible to you, you are hurt, affected, but they ask your forgiveness; and then, though it pains, you graciously forgive them. You’re a good Christian, after all. But then, they commit the same offense against you, and come again to ask for your forgiveness. You grant them forgiveness—because, after all, you are a good Christian. But you would probably do it with a little less enthusiasm than you did the first time. And then, they commit the same offense against you again, and come to you once again for forgiveness. This time, you might be inclined to say, “Now look! This is the third time! Get your act together already!” If they do it again, will you forgive them from the heart?
Well, if they come to you a fourth time, your human-nature—already beginning to show itself—really kicks into gear. You don’t feel like being a ‘good Christian’ anymore; and you tell them, “Not this time, buddy! Save your ‘apology’! [It has] no meaning for that. I’ve had enough already! You used all my ‘forgiveness patience’ up the last three times!” “Look, man, you have gone too far. One or two, three times, okay. What is this, the fourth time? I have forgiven you already three times for that. You have crossed the limit. I mean, that’s it. You have gone beyond the limit. Crossed the limit. I cannot forgive you now. It is over.“
And incidentally, if you did forgive that much three times, you would be doing nothing less than what the Judaistic teachers in Jesus’ day had taught. The rabbis had given the people a written tradition that said, “If a man commits a transgression, the first, second and third time he is forgiven, the fourth time he is not forgiven.” (I chuckle a little when I read that, because I wonder what good it was to have a written tradition of religious law to do what I would have done in my humanness anyway!)
So you see, Peter truly was being generous. He was exceeding even the traditions of the teachers of his own people. He was being far more gracious that we ordinarily would be! After all, when was the last time you granted forgiveness for the same offense seven times? Or even three?
So Peter comes and asks this question: “how many times I should forgive?” and then adds an answer, “seven times.” He’s waiting for commendation/appreciation/congratulations. He’s waiting for the Lord to say, “Blessed are you, Peter. You are so magnanimous.” So that is Peter’s question.
The Lord’s Answer and the Parable
1. The Lord’s Answer: Unlimited Forgiveness
Verse 22: Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy-seven times.”
The Lord says in Verse 22, “seventy times seven.” Now, that would make him breathless. It would just literally dumbfound the man, because it’s so out of proportion with the magnanimity that he had designed in his own mind when he said “seven.” Now, the Lord says $7 \times 70$, 490 times. He is not giving a numerical limit. The number is so large that you just would lose count. I mean, you don’t really count up 490 times. He takes the two perfect numbers ‘ten’ and ‘seven,’ and multiplies them together, and then He multiplies that by ‘seven’ once more; and the product is not four hundred and ninety, but is innumerableness. He does not mean that the four hundred and ninety-first offense is outside the circle of forgiveness, but He suggests unlimited, endlessness.
Peter was asking how many times I should forgive and then stop forgiving. You might say that Peter had been “quantifying” forgiveness. But that’s when Jesus takes the matter to a completely different level by “qualifying” it. Peter was talking about the quantity; the Lord talks about quality.
490 times. It is not a limit He was giving. It’s questionable whether that would even happen. You don’t keep a book and say, “All right, that’s 491. You know, you’re finished.” His point to Peter was that he shouldn’t even bother to count. Jesus just picks up on Peter’s numeral and multiplies it by ten, and by seven again. He just plays with the number that Peter suggested, and he’s really saying there’s no limit to forgiveness. It’s just hyperbole. The point is unlimited forgiveness. No limit and no boundary to forgiveness. The extent of forgiveness is unending, limitless. The important principle Christ teaches here is: Our forgiveness to our brothers should have no limit, no end. Forgiveness does not have a limit. We should be ready to grant forgiveness to a repentant brother or sister in Christ each and every time they come back and ask forgiveness.
Frankly, at a human level, this seems impossible, unreasonable. How can I, who by nature cannot even forgive one time, after three years with Jesus, whose best leader and apostle can reach a limit of seven, reach a stage where I can offer unlimited forgiveness, and not even keep a count? This is humanly impossible. The Lord, knowing that, presents a parable which gives a powerful motivation to forgive others.
That can happen when you always remember and live in the light of what God has done for your sins and continues to do, and to illustrate that, he gives the parable. The parable also shows that for us who have received such forgiveness from God, it is a great sin for us not to forgive others. That is why it ends with the terrible warning of Verse 35.
2. Parable – Act 1: The King and the Debtor
Verse 23: “For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.”
Remember the rule of the parable: we shouldn’t try to impose meaning for everything in a parable. It teaches one or two important truths. It is imperfect analogy; we cannot draw equal parallels in spiritual life for everything in the parable.
It begins with the word “therefore” or “for this reason.” And that word links it with the previous passage on the importance of forgiving my brother in an unlimited way. Why our forgiveness to brothers should have no limit: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” You as kingdom sons, believers, need to realize this is how you have to be in the kingdom. People who are in my kingdom need to understand that my kingdom is like this.
The King, who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. Kings those days had different level of slaves. Household slaves like Joseph were in charge of the whole house. Then they would have slaves as satraps; they were provincial governors who served the king by ruling certain areas of his kingdom, certain provinces. And their responsibility was to rule that area on the King’s behalf, and primarily collecting taxes, to turn them over to the king for the support of the entire kingdom and for the royal treasury. So the term here is not in the usual sense of an ordinary slave who did house work, but this provincial governor who has been given an area of dominion and rules, collects taxes, and gives them to him.
Verse 23: “a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.” He wanted to settle accounts, maybe after some years. He was checking the accounts. These provincial governors had to bring into him all the taxes that they had collected, and where they collected, and complete accounting. Auditing happens, an accounting of how his empire had been managed by them.
Verse 24: “And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.”
When he did that, they found out and brought one who owed him 10,000 talents. How it is that this particular servant had managed to be in debt to the king isn’t told to us. It could be that he greatly mismanaged the king’s affairs, maybe lavishly squandered the money over time.
How much he had to owe: 10,000 talents. If you try to check, it will spin your head, you will faint. This is such a big amount. Those days itself people’s head would spin. With inflation, this is a big amount. Just to give you an idea: the total revenue collected by the Roman government from Judea and Samaria, the total revenue was 600 talents. So if this guy had collected, embezzled, and wasted 10,000 talents, that is an astronomical figure.
Exodus 38: the Tabernacle fully overlaid with gold was built with 29 talents. The glorious Solomon’s Temple, full of gold, was built with 3,000 talents. The Queen of Sheba, she came to visit Solomon one time, and she wanted to give him a gift that was commensurate with his incredible wealth, and so she gave him 120 talents (1 Kings 10:10). This is an astronomical amount. Some people say with inflation calculation, this could be billions now. Those days wage calculation: a man has to work daily for 200,000 years of labor!
Amazing amount. But however it happened, the man was found out, and was now accountable to the king for an astronomical sum! No wonder he had to be “brought” to the king! He was probably afraid to go! And one is brought, because these people don’t come voluntarily. They usually come kicking and screaming. They do not come voluntarily. He would never have come if he had not been called.
The Debtor’s Desperate Plea
Imagine the man’s condition. He is called to an accounting.
Verse 25: “But since he did not have the means to repay, his master commanded that he be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment be made.”
The parable indicates that the man had embezzled the money from the king. He didn’t even have any of it to pay. There was no way to recover it. The punishment is very severe, very severe. “Sell the man into slavery, sell his wife into slavery, sell all his kids into slavery, get what you can. Sell his house and everything he owns, get what you can, and we’ll take that and apply it toward the debt, which is unable to be fully repaid, but we’ll get everything we can out of him.”
It may seem like cruel to us, but the king acted justly with respect to this servant. And there’s no complaint made, “this is unjust.” No, He does not beg for justice. This is justice. This is even better than justice, because the debt can’t be paid.
He said, “But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made” (v. 25).
This was a typical practice in those days. The Israelites didn’t do it because of the law forbids this; they had seen the Pagans do this. If you cannot pay, a man would be sold into slavery to work off his debt. Sometimes, a man’s whole family would also be sold into slavery along with him, because his family was considered a part of all that he owned. And so, the king gave the order that the man, his family, and everything he owned, be sold off until the debt was paid.
But what a hopeless situation even this presented! Suppose that everything that he owned had been sold several times over, at the best rate, and that he and everyone in his family worked as slaves for every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of their lives on earth! Even still, scarcely a fraction of this man’s enormous debt would have been paid off.
What else could the servant do but make a pathetic offer? Jesus says, “The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all’” (v. 26).
The man was devastated, totally shattered. I mean, I think he was at the end. He knew what he faced. He couldn’t pay the debt. He was going to be in permanent bondage because he could work his whole lifetime, you see, and never pay it off.
He doesn’t deny his sin. He admits it. He fell down, crushed, broken, prostrate, humble. He was in the right attitude, overwhelmed and shattered by the debt that he could never pay, and no relief in sight, bondage till death.
The slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him. “Prostrated worshipped,” meaning “to kiss toward.” It comes from kissing the hand, the knee, the foot of the monarch to whom you plead for mercy. So he’s pleading for mercy.
“Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all” (v. 26). He pleads for compassion, for the Lord’s patient endurance, for the Lord to just wait and give him a chance and he’ll do better.
You say, “Yeah. But you couldn’t pay it and he knows it.” Sure. But this is a highly emotional moment, boy, and he’s going to think of some ways to do it.
Verse 27: “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” Oh, what a marvelous—oh, the grace of that verse. Write it somewhere in your Bible: “grace.” Oh the grace of that verse! You know, I know some people, somebody owes them a couple of thousand bucks and they’re going nuts about it.
And he forgave an absolutely incomprehensible debt in a moment out of compassion for the debtor. He loosed him. What does it mean? He released him from the obligation. He freed him from the debt. Why did he do that? He was moved with what? Compassion. And where does compassion come from? It comes from love. And would you notice a wonderful touch at the end of Verse 27: “he forgave him.”
So this is Act 1 of the Parable. We will see Act 2 next.
Lessons on Forgiveness: Act 1 of the Parable
The whole principle of the passage is: God wants us to forgive one another heartily and unlimitedly.
We are like Peter: “how many times?” The very question betrays that he does not understand what forgiveness means; for it is not real if the ‘forgiven’ sin is stowed away safely in the memory. ‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget,’ generally means, ‘I do not quite forgive.’ We are not to take the pardoned offense, and carry it to a kind of ‘suspense account,’ to be revived if another is committed, but we are to blot it out altogether.
John Wesley said, “If this be Christianity, where do Christians live?” A fair question.
What a wonderful church we will be if we forgive one another like this. If we are confident that we can go to any brother or sister, and tell them our weakness and faults, they will not look down upon us, and keep it as a grudge, but love unconditionally and keep forgiving us how many ever times we go and confess sins to them. That itself will unite us strongly.
Forgiveness is key to unity in the church. It’s the key to grow in love. It’s the key to meaningful relationships. It’s what constantly tears down the barriers that try through sin to be built up to separate us from one another, to wall us off, to make us bitter, and angry, and vengeful.
We are not like that. We want to put up a mask and don’t reveal our real self, thinking “what will they think?” When we speak about CD, don’t go to the extreme of thinking we want you to legalistically act out a drama. No, we want everyone to open up and share our faults and sins with one another, and so each one can help one another. That is why he has gathered us as a church.
Christ knows that as sinful men and women it is very difficult for us to forgive like this, as it is not native to us, so he presents this beautiful parable as a powerful motive for us to learn forgiveness. I wish I could complete the whole parable so we can bring the whole lessons, but what does Act 1 teach us? Three key lessons:
- We are sinful creatures before God, owing a great sin debt.
- When we go to Him with repentant and broken hearts, He has compassion and forgives all our sins.
- When God has forgiven all our mountains of sins like this, it is a great sin not to forgive the smaller sins of our brothers.
1. We Owe a Great Sin Debt to God
Firstly, we are sinful creatures before God, owing a great debt of sin.
God is the King, and we are his slaves. He has given everything in life as a steward. What does the high amount of 10,000 talents debt mean? It is our unlimited sin debt before God. Sin is the debt. This ‘servant’ serves as an accurate picture of our condition before God as sinners. We were born utterly, unspeakably bankrupt before God. We inherited a debt of sin before Him from our first parents—Adam and Eve—that is exceedingly beyond our ability to ever hope to pay. And what’s more, every day we have lived, we have added the guilt of our own sins to this already impossible debt. There is absolutely no way we could ever pay off the debt of guilt before God for our sins; for, as the Bible tells us, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Ten thousand is the amount. Those days, in Greek, the highest number that existed was 10,000. That is why the NT uses 10,000 as the greatest number, even in Revelation talking of angels—10,000, 10,000 angels means uncountable. It is the highest term that could be used, beyond numeration. He owed an inestimable, incalculable, unpayable debt, beyond any ability to pay, beyond any ability even to calculate sin debt to God.
This is our sin. It is our debt. We don’t realize our debt until God calls us to the account. This man lived happily until he was brought before God. But when called to give account, God will call us for [the] account of our sins in the final day of judgment. Only then we will realize the awful enormity of our sin. Have you had the realization of how horrible your sins are?
God not only calls men on the final day, but various different times he calls men to accounting. A time of great conviction. For some people, that might be happening today in this very service, for the first time, or the hundredth time. But periodically through the flow of life, as men possess in their hands the stewardship of the things that God owns, they are called to give an account for their life. Our conscience tells us one day we have to give account, and it speaks during an accident, sickness, [or a life] event; it reminds them of their sins. And there will be many such accountings before that final judgment verdict is rendered at the great white throne.
Like the king told the servant to make the man and all the family to pay back. You know how God will make us pay for our sin debt? In hell. Where else are men sent to pay for their sin? Where else do people go as punishment for the debt they owe to God? This is talking about hell. It’s talking about eternal hell.
People go to hell to pay for their sins, just like the man who cannot pay even if he works all his life. But all eternity in hell will still not pay for their sins. They just go there to pay what could be paid by spending all eternity there, which could never pay the full debt.
It is so vast that it could never be paid. You could never recover what was lost. The glory stolen from God could never be returned to God. And the sad fact is that men who have spent eternities in hell will be no better for their payment than they were when they began, but they will pay and all that could be exacted from their incapacity will be exacted from it.
When people are sent to hell, it is just, because God is a just God who says that sin is an unpayable debt, and I will take from all man I can get, even though I can’t get all in return.
The utter bankruptcy/spiritual ruin/poverty of every son of Adam makes it impossible for him to pay off the debt that he owes to God. And his inability to be made any better by the punishment that he suffers in hell means that throughout all eternity he’ll never become able to do it. The terrible picture.
And the king is not a tyrant; he is a just king. In fact, he’s been merciful in not calling this individual to an accounting long before he did. You know that life in itself is an act of mercy? You could have been sent to hell as soon as you were born, true? But God has been merciful, and maybe He’s called and convicted your heart again, and again, and again. And always you’ve rejected. And ultimately when He sends you to pay for the sin that you wish to hold to yourself, He will be a just God.
So firstly, we are sinful creatures before God, owing a great debt of sin. Have you felt the burden of sin, the debt of sin? Oh, debt in the world doesn’t allow men to sleep, live a proper life. It is a burden on their shoulders. A hundred times more is the debt of sin.
Have you been in the place of that servant, falling prostrate with your burden of sin? If that has not happened to you, you will never be able to forgive others like this, in an unlimited, hearty way.
Because that is the first step to salvation. Without that sense of sin, you can never be saved. It is conviction of sin.
You know how you can escape debt payment for sin? Realize God will call you to pay for every sin you are committing today. Like that servant who realized his debt, fell prostrate, and cried, “Lord, have compassion on me.“
Overwhelmed with his sinfulness, overpowered by guilt, when they’re confronted with the sinfulness of sin, shattered by the debt that he could never pay, facing an eternity of inability. As a broken man, he is on his face, in the dust, like the publican beating his breast saying, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner. I see a debt I cannot pay. I see a mountain of sin that can never be eliminated. I face an eternity of hell and [an] eternity of inability.” He pleads for mercy.
This is the first step into the kingdom of God. It is called the Beatitude attitude: “Poor in spirit,” so poor, so much in debt, cry in a corner.
Martin Luther wrote about this passage these profound truths: “Before the king drew him to account, he had no conscience, does not feel the debt, and would have gone right along, made more debt and cared nothing about it. But now that the king reckons with him, he begins to feel the debt. So it is with us. The greater part does not concern itself about sin, but goes on securely, fears not the wrath of God. Such people cannot come to the forgiveness of sin for they do not come to realize they have sins. They say indeed with the mouth that they have sin, but if they were serious about it, they would speak far otherwise. This servant, too, says before the king reckons with him, ‘so much I owe to my Lord,’ namely ten thousand talents, but he goes ahead and laughs.”
“But now that the reckoning is held and his lord orders him, his wife, and his children, and everything to be sold, now he feels it. And so, too, we feel in earnest when our sins are revealed in the heart, when the record of our debts is held before us and then the laughter stops. And then we exclaim, ‘I am the most miserable man. There is none as unfortunate as I on the earth.’ Such knowledge makes a real humble man, works contrition, so that one can come to the forgiveness of sins.” The convicting power of the law of God has smashed and crushed him. He falls prostrate before a holy God [under] the burden of his sin debt.
Before saving salvation, he gives us a sense of that sin. We are brought before God in a moment of conviction and we are faced with the fact that our sin is inestimable. It is incalculable. It could not even be counted. It cannot even be numbered in its volume. The sum of our sin is beyond comprehension. And that’s what God intends to happen when you come to be convicted by the power of the Spirit through the Word of God. When a person comes to the accounting time of conviction before God, it is so that they may see the utter sinfulness of sin.
And that is a critical element in bringing someone to true salvation. Every one of us must be brought to the point where we see this mountain of sin, which is felt as incalculable. Have you felt it here? Without this, don’t call yourself a Christian.
That is repentance: a true sense of sinfulness of sin, sorrow for sin, and that makes you hating self, hating sin, and turning to God. Job was brought there so that he said, “I abhor myself.” Ezra was brought there, he said, “Oh, my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift my face to thee, my God.” And he had his face in the ground. “For our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses gone up to heaven.”
You see, our sin is a debt and it is a debt that is beyond calculation. It’s so great that we can’t even estimate it, let alone pay it. Are you living without realizing you have to pay one day for sins?
So firstly, we are sinful creatures before God, owing a great debt. When we realize that:
2. God Forgives Our Mountain of Sins
The second lesson the parable teaches: When we go to Him with repentant and broken hearts, He has compassion and forgives all our sins.
Then you throw yourself on the mercy of God with the burden of sin debt like this servant.
God, like that king, has compassion on those who plead for their sin debts and forgives all. That is our glorious gospel message. Has this happened to you?
When you plead, “And he forgave an absolutely incomprehensible debt in a moment out of compassion for the debtor.” And even though the debt was incurred against him, and even though he had been violated, and even though his kingdom had been robbed, and even though he had personally been sinned against in a way beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed you could be sinned against, he still forgave him. Oh, the magnanimity of God’s forgiveness.
I was wondering how we should praise God that there is forgiveness in God. This is the sovereign God, self-sufficient God. He can do anything with us, doesn’t need us, but there is forgiveness in him for truly broken men and women. He forgives sins abundantly.
He canceled the loan. He released the obligation. You say, “Well, what did the guy do to deserve that?” He didn’t do anything. But you know how you get the forgiveness of God? You know how you receive the forgiveness of God? Well, you come to God with a broken heart over your utter sinfulness, knowing you could never pay the debt, crying out to God for mercy and patience in a dire situation, and facing eternal judgment and saying, “Lord, please.” And in the midst of that brokenness God does come in His tender, forgiving grace and loving kindness and forgive your debt.
God’s forgiveness is so glorious. In forgiving the man his debt, the king didn’t simply ignore it. Rather, he bore the loss himself. And that’s what God the Father has done toward us. He doesn’t just ignore our sins. He administers the full punishment due our sin—once and for all—on His Son on the cross. As it says in Ephesians 1:7: “In Him [that is, in Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” And all that is required for the full forgiveness of our sins is that we confess them to God in complete faith in the sacrifice of His Son.
And in that sense, God absorbed the loss on His own account. That’s where the gospel begins. The sinner must know—before he can ever be cast into the deep sea of God’s mercy—that there is a mountain of sin that is never able to be repaid by that sinner.
Before we receive forgiveness, we need to realize our debt. Has this happened to you? Have you experienced the forgiveness of God by realizing your debt and falling prostrate before God, and have you escaped eternal hell?
If you are sitting here and have an unforgiving heart, if someone does something to you, and you have no capacity to tolerate that, but get upset, there could be two reasons. One, you have never seen the debt of your sins and come to God and experienced the forgiveness of the Lord. Without that experience, you will never be able to see the motive the Lord presents for forgiving. Or you have forgotten what mercy the Lord has shown you in forgiving your sins. Because the powerful motive for forgiving others ought to be the recollection that we all need forgiveness at God’s hands ourselves.
So the parable teaches:
- We are sinful creatures before God, owing a great debt.
- When we go to Him with repentant and broken hearts, He has compassion and forgives all our sins.
- Thirdly, when God has forgiven all our mountains of sins like this, it is a great sin not to forgive the smaller sins of our brothers. That is what is coming next week.
But without realizing the first two, you cannot do the third.
Today, examine your hearts: have you seen the debt of your sins and experienced forgiveness of God in your life?
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 