What is forgiveness in the Bible?

Forgiveness is, I think, evidently the changed aspect of the mind of him who forgives, as regards the faults of the forgiven. Where judicial authority, or an injured right existed of the forgiver, and judgment as to the person concerning the act, ceased in the mind, judgment was no longer its aspect for the wrong done. It may be authoritative judgment of the wrong, or the kind of authority there is in the possession of a right - there is authority as to that, so that we may say, in general, that it is authority ceasing to view the fault in the aspect of judgment, and, thereon, releasing the offender who had come under that judgment; hence, it is evident, it cannot go beyond the claim or title to judge of him who takes cognizance of the offence. All beyond this is impossible in the nature of things; I may forgive a thief, or a murderer, his wrong, but this does not screen him from the laws, nor from God's judgment if unrepentant. A man may be forgiven of God, and yet as testimony in the world, providential effects may follow, because the spheres are different, and everlasting exclusion from His presence, or favour, is the effect of sin; or, I may impose a condition - as if my child had stolen an apple, I may require him to return the apple, or I do not forgive him, because there is a double relationship - my parental authority, and the wrong done to another. But, in general, forgiveness is the release of one in fault from the judgment of one in authority - who has title to release him, and this includes all wrong - and takes place in the mind of him who has authority, who ceases to hold him in the aspect of judgment.

Many consequences and effects may follow, but this, I think, is what forgiveness is; the consequence is, it is according to the measure and sphere in which that authority moves, and applies to the judgment from which the offender is released. God may chasten governmentally for our good, or even in testimony as in David's case, and Numbers 14:20, yet, as between Him and the guilty, forgive, and not impute the sin - no longer hold him guilty. I may forgive a wrong doer, but it is measured by the value and import of my forgiveness. The church may bind sin on a guilty Christian, in the exercise of discipline, or forgive, in restoring or releasing from the discipline, and God will sanction it, but it does not go beyond its own sphere, and competency, and it acts in that which God sanctions. God - if it be rightly done - will bind what the Church has done, but the Church does not forgive sins in the sense of eternal forgiveness for salvation - it is not its sphere. It is its sphere to deal with them here, and God will set His seal upon its actings; so could the Apostle forgive, as we read in 2 Corinthians; so, through the prayer of faith where sickness was a chastisement from God, so that His dealing with sin stood in the way of recovery, compare Job 36. God puts His sanction on the forgiveness which the Church grants in its sphere, but the Church cannot pretend to grant the forgiveness which belongs to God, in His sphere of authority. God sanctions my forgiveness of my enemy, that is another thing from my having a title to forgive, divinely, the guilt of sin against God. The administration of the Church is different, and God has committed an administration to it, but God's sanction of its action in that, is a different thing from its assumption of His sphere of eternal mercy as to guilt. That, what Peter bound on earth might be bound in heaven, is a different thing from his having all that heaven itself could - had - put into his hand; the king may sanction all a viceroy may do in his own proper sphere, that is not saying the viceroy can do all that the king can do, as such.

In each case, of the six quoted above, the same Greek word occurs in the original, though translated both as remission and forgiveness in the Authorized Version. It signifies simply "a sending away" or "a release" and this is just what a guilty sinner needs as regards his sins. Let them be sent away or dismissed by the One against whom his guilt has been incurred, and what a happy release is his! Now this is just what every child of God is entitled to enjoy. "I write to you little children" said the aged apostle John, "because your sins are forgiven you [are dismissed and sent away] for His name's sake" (1 John 2:12).

Send 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. But our sins also have consequences in our lives here on earth. Examples of these temporal consequences include death (as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira or of the Corinthians), sickness (James 5), debt, a sense of distance in a relationship (including things like reduced confidence and a lack of trust). Scriptures that indicate how forgiveness involves the removal (or sending away) of such consequences include 2 Samuel 12:13; Mathew 6:14-15; 18:21-35; John 20:23; James 5:15.

Forgiveness (also translated remission) simply means `sending away'. The eternal consequences due to us because of our sins have been sent completely away. This is the position in which every believer stands. Of course, the consequences on earth due to us if we sin - including a break in fellowship with the Father - require confession on our part in order to be removed. It is important not to confuse these things.

Verse 7 shows how all that might have hindered our acceptance has been totally removed since every believer possesses redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Redemption involves both a purchase price and the setting at liberty of those in bondage. Wonderful indeed is the value of the blood of Christ! Forgiveness is the discharging of offenses by the One against whom the offense has been. Christ's blood has made possible and accomplished this forgiveness according to the riches of His grace.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Here again is a broad, all‑embracing principle. If we” involves the same scope as does the expression in each one of these last five verses, that is, if anyone confesses his sins, there is in God perfect faithfulness, perfect justice in forgiving. As the light penetrates, it brings confession with it. Who can say whether repentance or faith is chronologically first? Are they not rather simultaneous? If one believes, it will be manifest in a spirit of confession: if one really repents, he will believe, for the evidence of faith is in his repentance. The confession here is real, of course, as being produced by the light, and cannot in any way be divorced from faith in the Son of God. If this is not specifically mentioned in the verse, yet it is clearly implied in God’s faithfulness and justice. Is God not faithful to His own Son, who has accomplished redemption for confessed sinners? And He is just in forgiving simply because the cross of Christ has satisfied every requirement of justice. Any sinner therefore may come to Him on the ground of this blessed verse, and find eternal forgiveness. On the other hand, a mere lip confession, such as King Saul’s (1 Samuel 15:30), which ignores the justice of God, is not even considered in this verse. Here rather is the reality that faces the facts of God’s faithfulness and righteousness, and frankly confesses. Compare the prodigal son (Luke 15:21,22). Forgiveness is the discharging of every offense against God, no holding it any longer against the offender. But there is cleansing from all unrighteousness also, in order that the soul may be in God’s presence in consistency with the purity of the light.

The mind and thought of God Himself towards the sinner whom He forgives. On the ground of the sacrifice of Christ, God not only ceases to hold those who have faith in Christ's blood as guilty before Him, but His favour is towards them. "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. 10:17. Thus all sense of imputation of guilt is gone from the mind of God. "God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (ἐχαρίσατο, graciously forgiven). Eph. 4:32. So in the O.T., "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely." Hosea 14:4.

The guilty one is released, forgiven. "That they may receive forgiveness of sins." Acts 26:18. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Ps. 103:12. "Your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake." 1 John 2:12. Hence it is true of all Christians, that their sins are forgiven. Another 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 no hindrance to the enjoyment of that into which redemption brings.

Of course, when a soul is first awakened by the Holy Spirit, it could only be past sins that are brought to his knowledge, and that he knows are forgiven; but then, when we get the knowledge of forgiveness, we see that the work that put our sins away was accomplished when they were all future, and the value of that one sacrifice was not only up to the day of our conversion. Now we see the One that did the work "for ever sat down on the right hand of God," because He has perfected us for ever by that one offering; and God says, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (Heb. 10:17.) Forgiveness of sins is the common portion of all Christians, as we read in 1 John 2:12, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." There would be no sense in saying our future sins are forgiven, for we have not committed them, and we ought not to contemplate sinning in the future; but we can always say, as Christians, as in Colossians 1:14, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins."

But many have thought, "If we have the 'forgiveness of sins,' why do we read, in 1 John 1:9, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins'?" There is another sense in which Scripture speaks of forgiveness; when a child of God has sinned, and his communion has been interrupted, and he confesses his sin, he gets forgiveness, not in the sense of non-imputation, as in Rom. 4:7-8, but of communion and joy being restored, which had been interrupted by the sin. The above verse (1 John 1:9) is a general statement, and would apply either to a sinner first coming to God and confessing his sins, and so getting forgiveness once for all on the ground of the death of Christ, or to a child of God who has sinned and confesses, and gets forgiveness as a child by the Father. The one might be called justifying forgiveness in the case of the sinner; and the other, Fatherly, or governmental, forgiveness in the case of a saint; and it is very important to distinguish between the two.

All forgiveness is founded on the blessed work of the Lord Jesus. But it is important to distinguish between the pardon which clears us once and forever from all our sins before God, by which we are justified, and have peace with God, and the pardon which we may receive on the way as under God's government, supposing we are pardoned and saved.

Forgiving one another

Paul continues: ‘if any should have a complaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye’. This may be the most difficult of these injunctions. It presumes that my brother (or my sister) has sinned against me. How did our Lord react when He was nailed to that shameful and cruel cross? He prayed for His enemies: ‘Father, forgive them’ (Luke 23:34). He sets the example. Therefore, our standard is: ‘as Christ has forgiven [us]’! And how has He forgiven us? Firstly, He did it completely. Secondly, He did it immediately. Thirdly, He did it willingly — from the depthsof His heart. How do we forgive one another? Yes, unfortunately, it is the case that we sin against each other. If so, we should be ready to confess (in case we have sinned) and to forgive (if the other has sinned). To forgive means to grant the grace to take something away. Therefore, the one who forgives exercises grace, and the one who is forgiven receives grace.