Friday, March 14, 2025
For many, forgiveness of wrongs and sins committed against them is difficult. For many reasons people won’t forgive others for physical or psychological pain and suffering. Yet, the very heart of one’s relationship with Christ depends on forgiveness. Jesus taught it and true faith in Christ empowers it, because Jesus forgave our sins, unbelief and rebellion. Jesus warned that “if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:28). Similarly, God’s Spirit said “no spring yields both salt water and fresh” (James 3:12). Forgiveness of those who caused us pain and suffering is empowered by true new birth love for God in Christ Jesus.
Again, Jesus said, if we do not forgive others then “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses”. If one’s own sins are not forgiven, then what hope does one have of entering eternal life? This is often glossed over from pulpits and ignored by the masses because it’s not frequently preached. But we each can make a difference in our own homes with those the Lord has placed in our care. It requires truth and boldness of leadership to teach the Christ-taught life-changing truths of forgiveness. It’s about freedom in Christ and not being in bondage to the self-defeating sin of unforgiveness and not being personally forgiven.
We may even weary of forgiving as did Peter who asked the Lord “how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Matt. 18:21). Peter thought “Up to seven times?” was a stretch, but Christ’s response makes us realize how important forgiveness is. Jesus answered, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:22). Peter was thinking in terms of 7, while our Lord taught in terms of 70 times 7, being 490 which actually means without limits. In other words be freely forgiving.
Now, as we hold that thought of forgiving others 70 times 7, consider that in God’s love, mercy and grace, if He teaches us to forgive endlessly, then we have the full assurance that He will hold Himself to the same standard and forgive us our sins without limit, provided that we confess our sins according to His word. Thus, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8–10). [My emphasis] True faith in Christ causes believers to “confess our sins” to Him, for only He is able “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Thus, the power and efficacy of forgiveness has its foundation in God’s forgiveness of our own sins.
Forgiveness of others is important because we live in fallen bodies of flesh which are weak. Therefore, Jesus said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). [My emphasis] And if we are honest, we don’t “Watch and pray” as we ought, and as a result become guilty of sin in thought, word or deed. And if we haven’t quenched the Spirit, it is He who convicts us of our sins, at which point a decision must be made: Do we confess our sins to the Lord or go our way and forget it? The former is true life, heeding the Holy Spirit, and retains our close communion with Christ, but the latter builds a wall of unforgiven sins that will bear witness against us in that great day when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10).
Forgiving and being forgiven is rising to greater significance even now before the seven-year tribulation begins because of the increase of evil spirits flooding earth as God’s restraint of them is increasingly removed, 2 Thess. 2:7. In this final generation of this age temptations to sin and unbelief significantly increase. Temptations to think that God’s word doesn’t really mean what it says is now an increasing reality, especially in organized churches where the need for big money rules. Unbelief of the testimony of Christ for the resurrection rapture persists. Wicked interfaith teachings showcased by celebrity pastors that Christianity, Judaism and Islam all serve the same God. Open hatred for Christ by apostates who now claim that Jesus Christ is not the only way to God the Father, though Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Evils will grow much worse as the tribulation nears.
Many have gone the way of apostasy. Only God knows why, but it’s likely they ignored their wall of unconfessed sins and couldn’t hear the Spirit calling them to confess their sin, rebellion and unbelief. And after rejecting the Holy Spirit and God’s word for so long, it’s possible to no longer be convicted by God’s Spirit. This is one reason God said “concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him … Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:1–4). [My emphasis] Know that “the falling away” here refers explicitly to people who were once in the Christian faith, but fell away. One can’t fall away from something to which he had never attained, in this case, the Christian faith. Thus, John Calvin’s “once saved always saved” doctrine embedded in many churches is a pernicious lie.
Another harbinger of the end-times is the lack of a forgiving and being forgiven spirit, globally. It’s prominent in governments. Many speak and threaten violence and death. That spirit trickles down to citizens and the disastrous results are seen worldwide in society, business, schools and homes. The spirits of Antichrist are ramping up to destroy people made in the image of God. It’s Satan’s hatred for everything created by God. It’s because God’s restraint of evil is now being withdrawn to reveal the true children of God as compared to the counterfeit who only give lip service to God but deny the power of the Cross. Therefore, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12). Thus, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (Heb. 3:15). Jesus Christ wants to save the lost, Rev. 3:20.
Forgive to be forgiven. Refusal of that will only reap a bitter end. This message speaks to the entire body of Christ. We all live in these vessels of fallen clay. Let’s ask the Lord to reveal any lack of forgiveness existing in our own hearts, and then rejoice in the truth that Jesus Christ will forgive, not 7 times, but 70 times 7, meaning without limit if we humbly confess our sins to Him.
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Marlin J. Yoder
