What is forgiveness?
Few words are used more loosely than "forgiveness" — it can mean anything from a shrug to a truce. Scripture uses it with a definite meaning, a definite cost, and definite effects, both in a person's standing before God and in the way that person treats others.
The Meaning of the Word
The word behind "forgiveness" in the New Testament is not a mood or a softened feeling. It describes an action taken with the offence itself:
Greg QuailSend away, let go, give up, remit, forgive. These words give the true sense of what forgiveness is. It is not, as we sometimes think, a change of attitude. Forgiveness is not merely an abstract concept. It is definite and concrete. The finished work of Christ on the cross has put us in a forgiven position in the sight of God in which the eternal consequences of our sins have been sent away.
Why Forgiveness Costs Something
God does not forgive by ignoring what was done. Because the offence is against Him, His own character has to be satisfied before He can release the offender.
Leslie M. GrantBecause sin is an offence against God, an insult to His supreme power and authority, therefore we require forgiveness; and forgiveness is impossible without a basis of truth when we have offended the Creator of heaven and earth. This perfectly satisfactory basis is "the precious blood of Christ." In Him "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7). But "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22). God forgives because He sees perfect virtue in the blood of Christ.
That basis is what makes pardon righteous rather than merely kind. There has to be something that makes it right for God to let the guilty go — and the merit is not found in the person forgiven:
J. N. DarbyRighteousness has a double meaning. I am righteous, say, in rewarding or forgiving; but this supposes an adequate claim which makes it righteous that I should do so — merit of some kind… So for God to be righteous in forgiving and justifying, there must be an adequate moral motive for His doing so. In the sinner there clearly was none; in the blood of Christ there was.
Full, Free, and Not by Instalments
Because forgiveness rests on the value of Christ's blood and not on the offender's performance, it cannot be partial or on probation.
Andrew MillerWe needed forgiveness, and we have it — have it now. We can never have it more fully. The blood of Christ is the ground of our forgiveness, and the riches of God's grace the standard… Conditional forgiveness would be law, not grace. Partial forgiveness would reflect no glory on the blood of Jesus; but full unconditional forgiveness proves God's estimate of the blood, and shows that all blessing depends entirely on its value.
It also clears the way for everything else. Forgiveness is not simply the end of a problem; it is the door into a new place:
Morrish Bible DictionaryAnother thought is included in the forgiveness of sins, namely, that having redemption by Christ, which brings into a new state, the whole guilty past is forgiven, removed from us, so that there is nothing to hinder the enjoyment of what redemption brings us into.
How It Reaches a Person
It comes by announcement and is received by faith — not offered as a prospect for later.
C. H. Mackintosh"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man" (Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified) "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed" — not promised for the future, but preached now, announced as a present reality — "to you… and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."
A Second Kind: The Father with His Child
Writers on this subject carefully separate two things Scripture calls forgiveness. One settles guilt forever; the other repairs a strained relationship inside the family.
The Christian's FriendWhen a child of God has sinned, and his communion has been interrupted, and he confesses his sin, he receives forgiveness — not in the sense of sins not being charged to him, as in Romans 4:7-8, but in the sense that communion and joy are restored, which the sin had interrupted… The one might be called justifying forgiveness in the case of the sinner; the other, Fatherly or governmental forgiveness in the case of a saint; and it is very important to distinguish between the two.
Forgiving Others
Christians are told to forgive along the same lines they were forgiven, and the standard is set by God, not by us:
J. G. Bellett"Forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." This is a change from "The Lord's Prayer." There you are taught that God will measure Himself by you: "forgive… as we forgive." Here it is exactly the reverse; I am to measure myself by God: "forgiving, as God has forgiven you."
That standard is only workable when the size of our own pardon is felt.
Max BilleterOf ourselves we cannot do this, but we can when we realise how much God has forgiven us in Christ… We have been forgiven such a great debt in Christ, and yet we are sometimes unable to forgive our brother or sister.
Summary
- Sent away. Forgiveness is not a softened attitude but the actual removal of the offence and its eternal consequences.
- Bought. God does not forgive by overlooking sin; the blood of Christ is what makes pardon righteous, since the merit was never in the sinner.
- Given whole. Conditional or partial forgiveness would be law; the believer has it now, in full, and can never have it more fully.
- Announced. It is preached as a present reality through Christ, and received by everyone who believes.
- Passed on. Two forgivenesses follow: the Father restores His confessing child's communion, and the forgiven person forgives others by God's measure, not their own.