What should we do if a brother offends us? We all have to deal with this question. What should we do when it is not we who have offended others but others who have offended us? When we examine the above three portions of the Lord’s Word, we find that we should not only forgive a brother who has offended us but we should also restore him. Let us first consider the matter of forgiveness.
Matthew 18:21-22 says, “Then Peter came and said to Him, 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.”
Luke 17:3-4 says, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns again to you seven times, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him.”
The verses in Matthew say that we should forgive a brother seventy times seven times, not just seven times. The verses in Luke say that we have to forgive a brother who sins against us seven times a day, repents, and turns to us seven times. Whether or not his repentance is genuine, we must forgive him as long as he repents. Whether or not he is genuine is not our responsibility. We have to forgive him.
Seven times is not too much, but seven times within one day is not that infrequent. Suppose the same person does the same thing to you seven times a day, and suppose he says that he has sinned against you seven times a day. Would you still believe that his confession is genuine? I am afraid that you would think that he was only confessing with his lips. This is why Luke 17:5 says, “The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith.” They felt that this was a problem to them. It was unthinkable to them that a brother could offend someone seven times in a day and then turn around to repent seven times. They could not believe it, and they said, “Lord, increase our faith.” But God’s children should forgive even if they are called upon to do so seven times a day. When a brother sins against you, you should not hold it against him.
The Lord continues with a parable in Matthew 18:23-27: “For this reason the kingdom of the heavens has become like a king who desired to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he began to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, the master commanded him to be sold, as well as his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. Then the slave fell down and worshipped him, saying, Be patient with me and I will repay you all. And the master of that slave was moved with compassion and released him and forgave him the loan.”
The slave owed ten thousand talents, which was a very large amount of money. He had no ability to repay because “he did not have the means to repay.” We can never repay all that we owe God. It is far more than what men owe us. Once a child of God arrives at a proper evaluation of his debt to God, he will generously forgive what his brother owes him. When we forget the immensity of the grace we have received from God, we become merciless toward others. We need to see how much we owe God before we can see how little others owe us.
The slave did not have the means to repay, and the master ordered him “to be sold, as well as his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.” Actually, even if he sold all that he had, he still could not have repaid everything. “Then the slave fell down and worshipped him, saying, Be patient with me and I will repay you all.”
It is difficult for man to understand clearly what grace is and what the gospel is. Man often thinks that he may not be able to repay today, but that he will be able to repay someday. He may not make it today, but he will make it someday. In these verses, however, we see a slave who, even if he were to sell all that he had, would not have had enough to repay. He said, “Be patient with me and I will repay you all.” His intention was good. He was not trying to avoid his debt. He was only asking the Lord for more time. He intended to repay all. Such a thought can only come from those who have no knowledge of grace.
“And the master of that slave was moved with compassion and released him and forgave him the loan.” This is the gospel. The gospel is not God working for you according to your idea. You may say, “Lord, be patient with me, and I will repay You all,” but the Lord does not respond by saying, “Pay what you have and repay the rest later.” The Lord forgave all of your debt. Man’s prayers and requests do not even come close to the grace of the Lord. Our Lord works for us and answers our prayer according to what He has. The master of the slave released him and forgave the debt. This is God’s grace; this is His measure. Anyone who asks for grace will receive grace from God, even though his knowledge of grace is very limited. We should be clear about this principle: The Lord loves to bestow grace on men. As long as we have a little desire for grace, the Lord will pour it out on us. He is afraid that we will not ask. As soon as a man hopes a little and opens his mouth to say, “Lord, be gracious to me,” the Lord pours out His grace to him. Moreover, this grace from the Lord is given to His own satisfaction. We may think that one dollar is enough, but He will give ten million dollars, not just one dollar. He acts for His own satisfaction. His acts are compatible with Himself. We would settle for one dollar, but God cannot give anyone such a small sum. Either He does not give at all, or He gives according to His own measure.
We need to realize that salvation is accomplished in man according to God’s measure. Salvation is not carried out according to man’s thought. It is accomplished in man according to God’s thought and plan.
The criminal on the cross pleaded with the Lord, saying, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” The Lord heard his prayer, yet He did not answer him according to his prayer. Instead He said, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). Salvation is God saving man according to His own will, not according to the sinner’s will. Salvation is not according to the thoughts of a sinner’s limited mentality about God’s work for him. Rather, salvation is God’s work upon sinners according to His own thought. The Lord did not wait until He came into His kingdom to remember the criminal. He promised the criminal that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day.
The tax collector prayed in the temple and beat his breast, saying, “God, be propitiated to me, the sinner!” At the most, he was asking God to be propitiated to him. But God did not answer him according to his prayer. The Lord Jesus said, “This man went down to his house justified rather than that one” (Luke 18:9-14). In other words, that sinner went back justified. This was much more than what was in the mind of the sinner. The sinner had no thought of justification; he asked only for pity. But God said that he was justified. This means that God did not consider him a sinner but a justified person. Not only were his sins forgiven; he was justified by God. This shows us that God does not accomplish His salvation according to man’s thought but according to His own thought.
The same thing is seen in the return of the prodigal son (15:11-32). When he was a long way off from home and before he met his father, he was prepared to go back home to serve as a servant. But when he reached his home, his father did not ask him to be a servant. Instead, he asked his slaves to bring out the best robe and to put it on him. He put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and slaughtered the fattened calf. They ate and were merry because the son who was dead had come to life again; he was lost but had been found. From these verses we see again that God does not accomplish His salvation according to a sinner’s thought but according to His own thought.
Mark 2 speaks of four men who took a paralytic to the Lord Jesus. When they were unable to bring him to the Lord because of the crowd, they removed the roof where the Lord was and lowered the bed on which the paralytic was lying, hoping that the Lord Jesus would heal the paralytic and make him rise and walk. But the Lord Jesus said, “Child, your sins are forgiven” (v. 5). The Lord Jesus not only healed him but also forgave him of his sins. This also tells us that God works to His own satisfaction. All we have to do is go to God and ask. It does not matter whether we have asked enough. God always works to His own satisfaction, not to the sinner’s satisfaction. Therefore, we should not consider salvation from our point of view but from God’s point of view.