#DailyDevotion How Much Has God Forgiven You?

Matt. 18:23-35 ²³“That is why the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴When he began to do so, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵But he couldn’t pay it, and so the master ordered him, his wife, his children, and all he had to be sold to pay the debt. ²⁶Then the slave got down on his knees and, bowing low before him, begged: ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you everything. ²⁷“The master felt sorry for his slave, released him, and canceled his debt. ²⁸But when that slave went away, he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and started to choke him. “Pay what you owe,’ he said. ²⁹“Then his fellow slave got down on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I’ll pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused and went and put him in prison until he would pay what he owed. ³¹“When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very sad and went and told their master the whole story. ³²“Then his master sent for him. You wicked slave! he said to him. ‘I canceled all you owed me, because you begged me. ³³Shouldn’t you also have treated your fellow slave as mercifully as I treated you?’ ³⁴“His master was so angry he handed him over to the torturers until he would pay all he owed him. ³⁵“That is what My Father in heaven will do to you if each of you will not heartily forgive his brother.”

So to teach what he meant by forgiving someone one seventy times seven times Jesus tells this parable. A king calls in everyone to settle their debts with him. One servant owes him ten thousand talents. This fellow must have worked for Congress! Now a talent is a year’s salary. You can go and figure how much that is in today’s value. He borrowed ten thousand years of salary. Well he couldn’t pay it off. The king ordered him and his family to be sold into slavery and everything he had be sold to settle the debt. Mind you, the king would be taking a hit on that deal as what the guy possessed and the price he and his family would fetch on the market would not be enough to even come close. Well the fellow begged the king to give him some time and he’d pay it back. The king in his kindness forgave the whole debt.

Now the king here is God and you are that fellow that owed him ten thousand years of salary. That is what one sin is like when we sin against God. It’s why one version of the LORD’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our debts.” Every time we sin it’s like going into debt with God for another 10K of talents with God. Why so much? Because of the person who we have sinned against is so great. This is what God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus.

Now the same servant is off trying to collect debts owed him. Why? I think it is because he really doesn’t believe the king has forgiven him. He wants something to show for it when the king changes his mind. He sees one fellow who owed him 500 denarii (a denarius is a day’s wage). He tries to collect, the man can’t pay it. The debtor begs for more time to pay just as he did the king. He though throws the man in debtors prison. When the king finds out he throws the guy in debtors prison until all is paid off. This debtor is like the person who sinned against you. You aren’t all that important so the same sin doesn’t incur the same amount of debt. Since God has forgiven you so much debt against him, you should forgive those who sin against you. If you refuse to forgive them it is likely you don’t believe God forgives you either. Faith that believes God forgives it for Christ’s sake forgives those who sin against it, yes even seventy time seven times.

Heavenly Father, grant us faith to believe you have forgiven us completely of our sins against you so we may forgive those who sin against us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.