Weekly Reflection – The Miracle of Forgiveness

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.”

— Matthew 18:21-22

Clinical studies have proven true the negative effects of unforgiveness upon one’s mental, physical, and spiritual health. Jesus illustrates the necessity of forgiveness in a powerful parable of a master and his slave (Matthew 18:21-35). The master forgave the slave’s enormous debt, much to the slave’s relief. However, the forgiven slave then went out and demanded that a fellow slave repay him the little he was owed. When the fellow slave could not, the forgiven slave tossed him into prison. The master heard about the forgiven slave’s lack of compassion and sentenced him “over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him” (verse 34).

Through Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven of the immense debt of our sin against Almighty God, the King of the universe. It is incomprehensible that we, who have been forgiven so great a debt, should refuse to extend the same mercy to those who have wronged or offended us.

This week, be encouraged—our God is slow to anger and full of mercy. Yet He does require punishment for sin, which He has graciously poured out upon His own Son! We are completely forgiven in Christ and can entrust the meting out of justice to God’s wise and sovereign hand.