Forgiveness 2

Don: Last week we determined that forgiveness may be one of the core pillars of community. We discussed the relationship between forgiveness and the “unpardonable sin,” the “blaspheming against the holy spirit” that Jesus talked about in Matthew 12. That question arises because after giving the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, and again at the end of Matthew 18, and yet again at the end of Luke 6, Jesus alludes to the condition that forgiveness of our sins by god depends on our forgiving those who sin against us. Luke 6:37:

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

Might there be two unpardonable sins—(1) blaspheming against the holy spirit and (2) not forgiving others—or do they amount to the same thing?

We seemed to agree that while we can and should forgive others even though they may not confess their sins to us, god will not forgive our sins unless we first confess them. A key passage on this is 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Jesus mentions forgiveness more than three dozen times. He points out that there is no limit to how often one should forgive.

Over the next several weeks we will discuss:

• Confession and forgiveness
• Grace and forgiveness
• Why forgiveness is important in community
• Whether we have the capacity for forgiveness, or whether it is a gift of the divine to us (cf. Alexander Pope, who wrote in his “Essay on Criticism” that “to err is human; to forgive, divine.”)
• Healing and forgiveness (Jesus often links the two, as in the case of the paralytic whom he healed after first forgiving him his sins.)
• Memory and forgiveness; forgiving and forgetting, or not. When god forgives our sins, he seems to forget them, yet we seem to have difficulty forgetting when people sin against us, even if we do manage to forgive them.

In Isaiah 43:25, god says:

“I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.”

Then, in Isaiah 44:22:

“I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud
And your sins like a heavy mist.
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”

Jeremiah 31:34:

They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Hebrews 8:12:

“For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”

Hebrews 10:17-18:

“And their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.”

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Clearly, god forgets our sins. Yet Revelation mentions a Book of Life, of deeds, of remembrance, where one’s life has been recorded so that judgment may be pronounced on it.

In Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son is a parable of forgiveness. How important was confession in the parable? The prodigal says, in verse 18-19:

I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’

But when he gets home and meets his father, in verse 21-22, his father cuts off his confession:

And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet….’

So did he or did he not confess? Is half a confession as good as a whole confession? Or did the father, in neither acknowledging the confession nor in not letting his son to finish it, imply that confession was unnecessary?

The word “confession” as used in the New Testament translates from the Greek “homologia” (ὁμολογία), which is derived from words meaning “the same, together” and “speak to a conclusion, lay to rest.” The verb form, homologéō, also means “to say the same thing about.” So 1 John 1:9 (“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”) could be translated: “If we agree with god that we are sinners in need of his grace—if we say the same thing about ourselves that god would say about us—then he will forgive us, etc.”

It reminds me of the parable contrasting the prayers of the pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The tax collector agreed with god that he was a sinner; the pharisee would not have agreed in his own case.

Harry: There’s a difference in the concept of forgiveness as between the synoptic gospels and Pauline theology. The gospels are a historical account of Jesus’s life. He does not speak about confessing, but he does talk about the need to forgive others in order to be forgiven, and he said that if one believes in him and in his resurrection then one will be saved. Paul does not say much about Jesus’s life, and unlike Jesus he talks about the need for confession.

Robin: The prodigal’s father did not go after his son to drag him back home. He even smoothed the son’s exit by giving his son his inheritance early. He waited for the son to be willing to humble himself. It had to be the son’s idea to come back. In Luke 14:24 the father states unequivocally that his son had been lost and dead: “… for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” Each had a part to play: The son, to recognize and confess his wrong; the father, to run to forgive his son.

Chris: The context for the prodigal parable is repentance—the son recognized that he had done wrong, and his father then forgave him. In contrast, at his crucifixion Jesus asked god to forgive his persecutors “for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He did not expect repentance from them, since they were unaware of their sin. So forgiveness is not dependent on a confession unless one is aware of one’s sin.

Eb: The prodigal son’s action in returning home was tantamount to confession.

Harry: The father forgave his son the moment the son left. Repentance was necessary only so that the son could forgive himself.

Don: Psalms 103:10-14 suggests that god takes away our sin whether we ask forgiveness or not:

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

Yet the gospels suggest that there is a quid pro quo, namely: Our willingness to forgive others.

Jay: Are grace and forgiveness the same, or does one operate through the other? Not to forgive others would seem tantamount to hoarding the grace that god gave us. Grace that is hoarded turns toxic and will destroy us.

Jazlin: When the time comes, we will all be taken to heaven provided only that we believe. That’s all that really matters. We are all forgiven.

Michael: Don asked if we are even capable of forgiving by ourselves, or whether we need divine help to forgive. Personally, I find it hard to forgive, so when I do manage to forgive I suspect it can only be through the benign influence of a divine hand.

Ada: Through Catholic school, I grew to understand that confession and forgiveness are for the benefit of one’s own soul.

Robin: The verses surrounding those Don read from Psalm 103 are also instructive. Verses 8-9:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.

and 17-18:

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To those who keep His covenant
And remember His precepts to do them.

(I understand that “fear” here is taken to mean “respect.”) So the covenant, in which god promises his grace, is key. Psalm 103 is saying that we must keep the same covenant and not hoard that grace. We must share it with others. We must forgive others.

Harry: We hoard grace also when we fail to forgive ourselves. Self-forgiveness is a liberating act that makes us better human beings.

In a passage on The Unpardonable Sin, Matthew 12:30-31 says:

He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

This passage is delivered in the context of Jesus and the disciples picking grains to eat, and healing the sick and casting our demons, on the Sabbath, bringing a rebuke from the Pharisees. Jesus rebuked right back at them, telling them they were committing the unpardonable sin by passing judgment on the working of the holy spirit. The unpardonable sin is an overt act rather than a passive disbelief in god.

Jay: It seems to me that to commit the unpardonable sin requires belief in god. It is telling god what he is supposed to do. The Pharisees criticized Jesus for forgiving and releasing a blind man from sin because in their judgment he was not worthy of forgiveness. The Pharisees thought they could decide who deserved god’s grace. In telling us we need to forgive others to be forgiven ourselves, Jesus was saying that we cannot know what is in god’s mind except for his unbounded grace, therefore to be sure of not transgressing we should just distribute his grace by forgiving others always, regardless of what we may think of them and their sins.

Don: If god has forgiven everyone, then who am I to withhold forgiveness from someone whom god has already forgiven? Is that not the unpardonable sin?

Harry: I think that puts it in a nutshell.

Kiran: To know that one is forgiven by god is liberating and makes it easier for us to forgive others.

Don: In the parable in Matthew 18, the householder (i.e., god) forgave both his servants, but then revoked his forgiveness of the one who refused to forgive his own servant. God sent the unforgiving man to be tortured, which I think can be taken to mean that he was condemned to the torture of being steeped in his own resentment.

Jazlin: Paul said that believers should be held to the letter of the law, but gentiles were not expected to follow the law and could be shown grace.

Kiran: The more I understand how much god has forgiven me, the easier it becomes to forgive others.

David: Clearly, forgiveness is a big part of the bible, but I wonder if we are not trying too hard to analyze it. To me, forgiveness is simply an inseparable component of love and grace. To one on the receiving end of forgiveness, the main feeling is a sense of relief. But to one on the receiving end of love and grace, the feeling is one of joy, which overwhelms any feeling of relief. Forgiveness is just an integral part of love and grace.

Don: Perhaps, though, the power and value of forgiveness is that it is a demonstration of—it operationalizes—love and grace.

* * *