The Example of Forgiveness
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2014 · 6 April 2014
The disciples and us as believers are spiritually like little children and we need to learn to grow like children. So last week we began to learn about forgiveness, about the importance of forgiving one another and of not holding vengeance. We started last week with the inquiry about forgiveness in verse 21, "Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
And we learned that Peter was basing this on the Jewish tradition which said you can only forgive three times and no more. And Peter feeling the heart of the Lord and the generosity, the mercy, the tenderness, the loving kindness and grace of our Lord said, do we go beyond that Lord to seven times? Do we forgive each other seven times?
The extent of forgiveness came in verse 22 with the Lord's answer, “Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” That is the extent in what the Lord is saying, in other words there is no limit to your forgiveness. Forgiving of one another is born out of love and mercy and grace that ought to be ours because we understand how much God has forgiven us, right?
We also saw the effect of forgiveness last Sunday, when you forgive others, you will be forgiven also. Now it is important that we understand the meaning of that. When you don't forgive someone else, the Bible says God does not forgive you in the relational sense. So you have a wall of sin between you and God.
And as long as that barrier exists, two things occur. One, you do not experience the joy of communion with God. Two, you do experience the chastening of God. And so there's an effect brought to bear upon the believer in this matter of forgiveness. So the question of Peter explained to us the extent of forgiveness. And we have seen the effect of forgiveness as well.
Now, let's look at an example of forgiveness from Jesus Himself. And this lesson takes up the rest of the chapter. It is a parable and I would like to read it to you. So follow along beginning in verse 23, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”
There is a certain cruelty in this parable. In fact, there is such severity in the attitude of the king in verse 34 and in the application in verse 35 that many people who have studied this parable concluded that it couldn't be speaking about Christians. Because how could the Lord get angry with Christians and how could He turn Christians over to tormentors. How could he make them pay their debt? It just can't be applied to Christians they say.
Well, do you know that this parable does apply to Christians? And as we go through the parable verse by verse, we will highlight where this is in reference to Christians. If you do not forgive others you will not be forgiven and you will experience two things. You will not know the joy of communion with God and you will know the chastening of the Lord and as we learned, chastening that comes to a sinning Christian is a sign of His love.
The Lord is firm and strong in dealing with His own, because that is part of how He conforms them to the holy standard of His revealed will. We also know clearly from Hebrews 12:6 that the Lord does chasten His own. He scourges them and even the terminology is somewhat parallel to the idea of having tormentors in verse 34.
Let us look at how the parable begins. It begins with the word ‘therefore,’ and that word links it with the previous passage. And the previous passage is all about a Christian forgiving other Christians. It's all about my brother or my sister who sins in the fellowship and needs to be forgiven and restored. And the parable is built on that principle and so therefore applies to those within the family of God who need forgiveness.
It is a very dramatic parable; the only question is whether or not we choose to obey its application. Now let's look at the parable beginning with verse 23, “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.” Jesus likes to explain His Kingdom in terms of parables, stories of everyday life which carry a spiritual meaning.
Jesus says people who are in my kingdom need to understand that my kingdom is like this. Now the main character is a certain king which is a reference to God. This is the first parable given in the New Testament in which God is likened to a king. The word servants, doulios, means bond slave or bond servant. Now that word has to do with a servant who is in bondage to his master.
And their responsibility was to report to the king, to rule in his behalf, primarily in terms of collecting taxes, which were then to be turned over to the king for the support of the entire kingdom and for the royal treasury. This term servant refers to men in general. When God created man and put him on earth, He made man a steward of all that He possesses.
And whether man knows Christ or not, they have been entrusted with the treasure given by God. Their very life and breath is a gift from God. All that they possess belongs to God. All the money they have belongs to God. It is God who gives them the power to get wealth. All the talent they have is God-given talent. All the capacity, capability and potential they have has been deposited in them and on them by God Himself.
So all of these people, who have been given many things, belong to the king and they owe an account to Him. And that is why in verse 23 it says, that the King wanted to settle accounts with them. This is perhaps a periodic accounting. They had to give the king and the royal treasury the proper percentage and keep for themselves for their own operation what was rightful for them.
This accounting is a time of conviction when men are called to face God to explain what they have been doing with their life. For some people that might be happening tonight in this very service. But periodically through the flow of life as men possess in their hands the stewardship of the things that God owns they are called to give an account for their life.
In Romans 1, it says that God has deposited in man the knowledge of Himself. God has given to man in the environment around him enough information that he can follow that path to the knowledge of God. God has given man the intellectual capability to understand and reason and see the truth. God has presented to him the revealed Word and the Holy Spirit. God has given a treasure to men and they are to follow that perception to the full understanding of who God is and what He wants.
You were called to an accounting. Someone preached the Gospel. Someone confronted you with the sinfulness of sin. Someone showed you the law of God and how miserably short of it you were. Someone demonstrated to you that you had violated the law of God and you looked in your heart and by the convicting work of the Spirit and the word of God, you saw that it was so. And you came for the grace of salvation.
And for some of you that conviction was heightened by a physical illness. Or it was heightened by the death of someone you love very much or the loss of a job or a painful experience. But God calls all men to such accountings. Alarming circumstances awaken the conscience, men who appeared to be asleep before are all of a sudden alerted to the sinfulness of their sin.
And when Paul saw the sinfulness of his sin, he had the right response. But, not all people did. The rich young ruler was confronted by Jesus Christ and he was convicted, but he rejected the conviction. He had an accounting that day, but he rejected the accounting. He was told that he was covetous in the heart and that the sin problem wasn't something on the outside, it was something deep on the inside. But he turned his back and walked away. Paul on the other hand was held to an accounting and he saw the law of evil desire. Only instead of walking away, he embraced the Savior who alone could deliver him and he was redeemed.
And so what we have here then is God calling men to account for their sin. Look at verse 24, "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.” It's the time of conviction. And one is brought in, because these people don't come voluntarily. He would never have come if he had not been forced to. Why would he want to be discovered as an embezzler? And the debt that he owed is ten thousand talents.
Now people try to figure out much this was. Because values change so much, all we can say is this was a whole lot. As an interesting comparison, at the time around the life of Jesus, the total revenue collected by the Roman government from Judea and Samaria, was 600 talents. And when the temple was built and the whole place was overlaid in gold and that was only 3,000 talents. So some people have estimated that ten thousand talents is somewhere around 2 billion dollars.
In the Old Testament and the New Testament the largest number in the Greek language ever mentioned is ten thousand and to mention more than that related to for instance angels the term used becomes ten thousand times ten thousand in Daniel 7:10. The same term we find in Revelation 5:21 describing the angels again. It would be like us saying the guy owed the king zillions. He owed an incalculable debt beyond any ability to pay.
Now think with me because this is really a profound truth. This is our sin, brothers and sisters. We are brought before God in a moment of conviction. And we are faced with the fact that our sin is incalculable, it is so much. The sum of our sin is beyond comprehension. Now that's what God intends for us to understand when you come to be convicted by the power of the Spirit through the word of God.
When a person comes to the accounting time of conviction before God, it is so that they may see the utter sinfulness of sin. That is the critical element in bringing someone to true salvation. Every one of us who are saved must be brought to the point where we see this mountain of sin that we cannot pay. It's the same kind of attitude that we find in the heart of David who even though He was a man after God's heart prayed, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness.”
Our sin is a debt and it is a debt that is beyond measure. It is so great that we can't even estimate it, let alone pay it. Now look at verse 25 and see what happened, "But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.” This is a real debt, not an artificial one. The man had embezzled the money from the king. And the man did not complain because the punishment is just.
If you could not pay a debt, you instantly became a slave and you paid your debt by working off what you could. Your wife became a slave and all your kids became slaves. And everything you owned was sold and turned into cash for the one to whom you owed the debt. Now keep in mind that the debt could never really be paid anyway. And this is a picture of hell. Where else do people go as punishment for the debt they owe to God? People go to hell to pay for their sins, but you need to know that even eternity in hell will still not pay for their sins.
The parable is saying is the debt is unpayable. You could never recover what was lost. And the sad fact is that men who have spent eternities in hell will be no better for their payment than they were when they began. And when people go to hell, it is just, because God is a just God who says that sin is an unpayable debt.
And the king is not a tyrant, in fact, he has been merciful in not calling this individual to an accounting long before he did. But God is always merciful and maybe He has called and convicted your heart again and again about your sins. And always you have rejected Him and ultimately when He sends you to pay for the sin that you wish to hold to yourself, He will be a just God.
Look at verse 26, “The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” He was broken, devastated and totally shattered. He was going to be in permanent bondage, because he could work his whole lifetime, and never pay it off. He doesn't plead for justice. He had the right attitude where God wants men to be when He convicts them of sin, right?
And then it says, he not only fell down, but he worshiped. And that is literally to kiss the hand, the knee, the foot of the monarch to whom you plead for mercy. And like so many broken men, he doesn't really understand everything. And so he says, "have patience with me." So he pleads for compassion for the Lord's patient endurance for he promises to do better than before.
Verse 27, “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.” Here God forgave an absolutely incomprehensible debt in a moment out of compassion for the debtor. What does it mean? He released him from the obligation. Why did he do that? He was moved with compassion. And where does compassion come from? It comes from love. This king happened to love that servant, as God loves all men.
What did the guy do to deserve that? He didn't do anything. But if you come to God with a broken heart over your utter sinfulness knowing you could never pay the debt, crying out to God for mercy and facing eternal judgment and saying Lord please. In the midst of that brokenness God will come in His tender forgiving grace and loving kindness and forgive your debt in Jesus Christ who already paid your debt.
God then embraces him and makes him a son, that's the gospel. If God has so forgiven you, what is the parable saying? Are you forgiving each other? And if we have been forgiven so much, how much should we forgive? That's the second half of the parable for next Sunday. Let us pray.