17th Sunday after Pentecost

21* ¶ Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.

Forgiveness is a subject that we cannot fully understand. We cannot understand how God can fully forgive our sins and remember them no more, and we cannot fully understand how we can do that to those around us.

Forgiveness means forgiving the sin and forgetting about it.

The dictionary says this about forgiveness; "to say or feel that one is no longer angry about and/or wishing to give punishment to (someone) for (something)"

God through Christ is no longer angry about our sin, the sinfulness of humanity. He forgave what happened in the garden of Eden through His son Jesus Christ. and because God through Christ has done that for the whole sinfulness of humanity, God asks us through Christ to try and o that in the world in which we live.

The following illustrations says it best.


A young man borrowed the family car without permission, knowing he could have it home and safely in the garage before his father found out. He hadn't reckoned on getting rear-ended at the second intersection he came to. No way to conceal the damage, the parked the car and closed the garage door, then spent an evening agonizing over how to deal with his father when he arrived home. When his dad walked in, the young man flashed a look of terror

He told his father everything, complete with profuse apology. His father walked with the son to the garage and looked long and hard and silently at the damage. Then he said, "Insurance will cover it. It wouldn't have covered the broken trust between you and me, however. Fortunately your apology took care of that."

"Can you ever forgive me, Dad?"

"I have already."

"You have learned your lesson. Forget about it."

A week later the son, still guilt-driven, came to his father and said, "Dad, in case they raise our insurance rates because of the accident, I'm willing to earn the money to pay the difference in the premiums."

His father didn't even look up from his newspaper as he said, simply, "What accident?"


A sermon on the subject can be found in the link below.

Link