Do I have to forgive to be forgiven? What does the Bible say about forgiveness?
One prayer that is widely known is the Lord’s Prayer.
We are going to read the second half it, “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
This is the conclusion of that prayer.
Now based on topic of forgiveness, it might be seen that God does not forgive if we have unforgiveness against someone. In fact the next two verses tell us, “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses.” (Matthew 6:14-15).
From the onset, it may seem that we must forgive in order to be forgiven.
This was under the old covenant.
Everyone Jesus spoke to during this time was under the law.
The life of Jesus is a transitional period between the law and grace.
This does not mean that we reject the words of Jesus.
We must see everything in its correct context.
Jesus was transitioning what was under the old covenant into the new covenant.
Everything in the Bible is important and we hold it all with love and respect.
Yet not every verse in the Bible is directly to us.
There are Scriptures that are prescriptive and descriptive.
For instance, the Bible tells us how David committed adultery and murder.
These are descriptions of His life. The Bible shows us his great moments and his weak ones.
Yet he later repented and asked God to forgive him for what he had done.
We can take this as a descriptive lesson to seek the Lord when we fail.
The Lord sees all, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
He loves us with a great heart. He not only sees where we are, He sees where we can be.
There are also scriptures that speak of prescriptive things such as, “And let the peace of Christ…rule your hearts.” (Colossians 3:15).
This is something we should all do as believers.
So when we look at forgiveness in the Bible we can see that God makes the first step towards us. He dies on the Cross and makes the payment for sin.
We must now receive it.
The idea that we must forgive to be forgiven is an old covenant idea.
This goes in contrast with what the Apostle Paul wrote.
He said, “bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.” (Colossians 3:13).
Take time to be in thanksgiving for God’s forgiveness.
We are truly blessed.
We can do great things not to earn some blessing, we do great things because God has already blessed us.
We live for God because He died for us.
