{"id":629,"date":"2017-06-11T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=629"},"modified":"2017-06-14T19:13:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T00:13:10","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-pardon-and-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/2017\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-pardon-and-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about pardon and forgiveness?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cAnd do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.\u201d Ephesians 4:30\u201332<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps you are accustomed to saying, \u201cPardon me!\u201d when you are asking someone to extend grace to you for a mistake, or not hearing someone\u2019s words, or even following up a sneeze. It is usually a term employed when someone else has a grievance against us. Genuine pardon and forgiveness is a rich gift because our personal debt is the basis of the need.<\/p>\n

Another quote is worth note: \u201cForgiveness is a beautiful word, until you have something to forgive!\u201d When we are called upon to extend forgiveness, the tables are turned. The expense is all ours to release the debt that someone else owes us.<\/p>\n

Pardon is a term derived from Latin (a combination of per\u2014through, quite\u2014and donare\u2014to give). It means to release from punishment, to cancel, not exact a penalty, to forgive or excuse. The word forgive, meanwhile, is a middle English word meaning to pardon as well as giving up resentment and any desire to punish, to stop being angry against, to give up all claim to punish or exact a penalty, to cancel or remit a debt! Both words are a tall order in a thin-skinned world tending toward grievance rooted in selfishness and greed.<\/p>\n

In order to gain an accurate grasp of the true nature of forgiveness you need to make God your exemplar of authentic forgiveness. If you learn the art of \u201cmeasured\u201d forgiveness from mere men you will never grasp the full richness of extending forgiveness. Some people extend forgiveness because they are powerless to do otherwise, or they are manipulated to do so by some outside force, or there may be no other choice because they sense that nurturing a seething grudge takes its personal toll. Some men forgive just because they are \u201cnice,\u201d or have been taught that is what education, gentlemanliness, or civility does. Even some forgive because they see it as a Christian sacrifice, noble, and a good work and they expect God to note and keep in His book of records.<\/p>\n

All of these may be true and even some of these behaviors fit the parameters of the \u201cGolden Rule\u201d (Matthew 7:12). But there is a higher standard, a higher sensitivity, and a higher calling. You are to forgive according to the method, motive, and measure of God\u2019s forgiveness found in our text.<\/p>\n

The context of our verse informs us that forgiveness is never a solitary grace. Forgiveness extended to others must always be married to the forgiveness which God extends, and is always paired with other Christian graces. Isn\u2019t that the underlying meaning in our Lord\u2019s prayer instruction found in Matthew 6:12, \u201cAnd forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.\u201d?<\/p>\n

God\u2019s forgiveness is always full, perfect, and complete. It is based on His extension of His love to thoroughly undeserving people (Romans 5:8, 3:25f). Colossians 1:14 reads, \u201cIn whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.\u201d The sister verse in Ephesians 1:7 reads, \u201cIn Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.\u201d The lesson to every born-again believer is the same as our Lord describes in Luke 7:47, \u201cTherefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, [wherefore] she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven the same loves little.\u201d In other words, the full outpouring of your love toward others comes from a full sense of the outpouring of God\u2019s love to you by forgiving you!<\/p>\n

The abundance of God\u2019s forgiveness to the repentant sinner is one of the greatest illustrations of Paul\u2019s meaning in Ephesians 3:17ff: \u201c[that you] may be able to comprehend\u2026what is the width and length and depth and height\u2014to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge\u2026.\u201d Some of my favorite verses in the Bible describe the wealth you and I have in God\u2019s forgiveness through the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ. \u201cIt just keeps getting gooder and gooder,\u201d as a pastor of mine used to say. \u201cBlessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered\u201d (Psalm 32:1). \u201cAs far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us\u201d (Psalm 103:12). \u201c\u2026For You have cast all my sins behind Your back\u201d (Isaiah 38:17). \u201cHe will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea\u201d (Micah 7:19). \u201cI, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My Own sake\u201d (Isaiah43:25). \u201c\u2026For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more\u201d (Jeremiah 31:34). \u201c\u2018In those days and in that time,\u2019 says the LORD, \u2018the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve\u2019\u201d (Jeremiah 50: 20). Truly, such love is too wondrous for mere passing thought, it is worthy of a lifetime, no, an eternity of worship, adoration, and thanksgiving!<\/p>\n

Ephesians 4:32 teaches the method of forgiveness, \u201cbe kind to one another.\u201d It teaches the motive of forgiveness, \u201ctenderhearted, forgiving one another.\u201d It teaches the measure of forgiveness, \u201ceven as God in Christ has forgiven you!\u201d Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.\u201d Ephesians 4:30\u201332 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}