Forgiveness

Everyone asks for forgiveness, even great saints.

 

Even the fathers who lived in the deserts gave this piece of advice to whoever asked them for a word of benefit which is “stay in your cell and cry over your

sins”.

And in the pray that God taught us, that we pray

many times everyday, at its ending we have: “And

forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who

trespass against us.”

And asking for forgiveness is necessary, because

no one lives without sinning, even if his life was one

day on Earth. And St. John the apostle says: “If we

say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and

the truth is not in us” (1 Jn 1:8) as St. James the

apostle says: “… For we all stumble in many things.”

(Js 3:2). How wonderful is the saying of St. Paul the

apostle “… sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Ti 1:15).

So long as there is sin, then we have to ask for

forgiveness, so that God’s mercies reach us and He

forgives our sins…

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God is merciful and forgiving by nature.

It was said about Him in the pslam that He is

good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy

(Ps 86:5). And no doubt His forgiveness comes out of

His mercy, and out of His knowledge of our human

nature which has a physical body and lives in a

tangible world. Prophet David says about that “For He

knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

(Ps 103:14). And so he praises in the same psalm

and says “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not

all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who

heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from

destruction” (Ps 103:2). And Prophet Moses said

about the Lord “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful

and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in

goodness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and

sin, by no means clearing the guilty” (Ex 34:6, 7).

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God forgives. But forgiveness has conditions

and reasons:

1. The first condition for forgiveness is

repentance.

And it is a main condition; without it forgiveness

can never happen. And the Lord Christ concentrates

on this condition and says “…but unless you repent

you will all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3, 5). And so, His

Glory, was concerned to invite sinners to forgiveness

(Mt 9:13). And at the beginning of His preaching He

used to say to people: “Repent, and believe in the

gospel.” (Mk 1:15). Also John the Baptist used to say

to Pharisees and Sadducees “Who warned you to flee

from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy

of repentance” (Mt 3:7, 8)…

And repentance means regret and humility as we

saw in the repentance of Prophet David who said in

his repentance “All night I make my bed swim; I

drench my couch with my tears.” (Ps 6) and said “My

soul clings to the dust” (Ps 119:25).

And the real repentance means in its content not

returning to the sin again. The repentants that history

told us about did not only refrain from sin but grew in

the life of virtue until they became saints.

Real repentance, when grows reaches God’s love

and the Lord said about the repentant who wet His

feet with her tears that “her sins, which are many,

are forgiven, for she loved much” (Lk 7:47). And He

added from the other side that “to whom little is

forgiven, the same loves little”.

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2. With repentance, the repentant works on

treating the results of sin as much as he

can…

The most significant example of this is the saying

of Zacchaeus the tax collector in his repentance

“…and if I have taken anything from anyone by false

accusation, I restore fourfold.” (Lk 19:8) therefore he

deserved the saying of the Lord about him “Today

salvation has come to this house…”.

Therefore, if someone was unjust with against

someone else, it is not enough that he goes to his

confession father, confesses and asks for absolution

to forgive his sin, but he should remove this

unjustness from this unjustly treated person and give

him back his right… So should who steals do, he

should return back what he stole to its owner… And

so should happen with the rest of the sins, as much

as possible, to gain forgiveness…

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3. One of the conditions of God’s forgiveness to

you also is that you also forgive who did

wrong against you…

And this is clear from the saying of the Lord

Christ “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Lk 6:37).

This is a condition. And the Lord has stressed on this

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condition in specific, in the Lord’s prayer which He

taught us. And He said after it “For if you forgive men

their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also

forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their

trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your

trespasses.” (Mt 6:14, 15)… He repeats the condition

and refrains from forgiving if we do not forgive. And

so He taught us to say in our prayer “And forgive us

our debts, As we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:12). And

He explains that in His saying “For with the same

measure that you use, it will be measured back to

you.” (Lk 6:38).

And St. Peter the apostle asked the Master, the

Lord saying “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.” (Mt 18:21,

22). Meaning up to countless number of times. Then

He gave them the parable of the servant who owed

his master ten thousand talents. But as he was not

able to pay, his master released him, and forgave him

the debt. And when that servant went out, and he

met someone who owed him a hundred denarii and

he did not forgive him… the master of that servant

returned and ordered him to be punished because he

did not show mercy towards his brother so he became

unworthy of mercy.

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4. Another condition is not to judge others.

And in that the Lord says “Judge not, that you be

not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you

will be judged…” (Mt 7:1, 2)… This means that for

God not to judge you but forgive you, you have to not

judge others and not condemn them…

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_God’s work in Forgiveness_

We move to another point.

1. He does not punish for it:

And in that the chanter says about God’s

forgiveness: “He has not dealt with us according to

our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.”

(Ps 103:10). And the Lord says in the Prophet

Ezekiel’s book about the repentant “But if a wicked

man turns from all his sins which he has committed…

he shall surely live; he shall not die” (Ez 18:21).

And what is meant by not punishing is not

punishing in eternity because the repentant can be

punished on Earth like what happened to David

although his sin was forgiven (2 S 12:7-13).

2. The Lord also in His forgiveness, covers the

sin and does not impute for it.

And in that prophet David says in the psalm

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose

sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD

does not impute iniquity” (Ps 32:1, 2). And St. Paul

the apostle repeated these two verses in his epistle to

Romans (Ro 4:7, 8) and said “that God was in Christ

reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their

trespasses to them” (2 Co 5:19)… Then in forgiving,

there is also reconciliation with God.

3. But also in God’s forgiveness for our sins, He

does not remember them anymore.

As was said about that, in Prophet Jeremiah’s

Book, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I

will remember no more” (Jr 31:34). And said about

the repentant, in Prophet Ezekiel’s Book, “None of the

transgressions which he has committed shall be

remembered against him” (Ez 18:22).

􀂙 And so in forgiveness, he removes sin from the

man as was said in the psalm “As far as the east

is from the west, So far has He removed our

transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12).

􀂙 And in that distancing, He moves it to the Lord

Christ’s Cross, as per the promise that was said to

David “The LORD also has put away your sin; you

shall not die” (2 S 12:13).

And Prophet Isaiah said about that “All we like sheep

have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his

own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity

of us all” (Is 53:6).

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4. And some of the deepest sayings in forgiving

sins, is that God erases them.

And that is what David asked for in the fiftieth

psalm when he said to the Lord “According to the

multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my

transgressions” (Ps 51:1).

Bu God also washes the repentant and cleanses

him. And so Davis says to him in the same psalm

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse

me from my sin.” And more that that he says “Wash

me, and I shall be whiter than snow” and “And

cleanse me from my sin”.

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The next point is that sins that God forgive:

These are all the sins that the man repents for.

Either sins of work, senses thoughts and heart, or

intention…

Some of these are also the unintentional sins as

was mentioned in the Leviticus Book about the

trespass offering and sin offering: “If a person sins

unintentionally against any of the commandments of

the LORD in anything which ought not to be done,

and does any of them…” (Lv 4:1), he brings an

offering… “So the priest shall make atonement for

him regarding his ignorance in which he erred and did

not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.” (Lv 5:17,

18).

The offering for forgiveness and the atonement

for forgiveness, although Prophet David said “Who

can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret

faults. Keep back Your servant also from

presumptuous sins” (Ps 19:12).

So secret faults also need repentance and forgiving.

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We notice that we pray in the three Holy prayer

and say:

“Absolve, forgive, and remit, O God, our

transgressions; those which we have committed

willingly and those we have committed

unwillingly, those which we have committed

knowingly and those which we have committed

unknowingly, the hidden and manifest, O Lord

forgive us…”

So the sins committed willingly need forgiveness.

So does the sins committed in ignorance and done

unknowingly. And so does the secret sins…

And no doubt, every one of these needs

explaining and elaboration.

And we say in our prayers also “O Lord, forgive us

our sins. O Lord, forgive us our iniquities. O Lord,

forgive us our trespasses.” And this also needs

explaining…