FORGIVENESS by Belle Beck Gibson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1901

FORGIVENESS

By Belle Beck Gibson

BELLE BECK GIBSON. (Victoria, British Columbia.)

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” is in the very heart of that wonderful and immortal prayer taught by our Saviour to His disciples while He walked up and down this earth, a man among men, and the principle it embodies is set forth in the holy Word as of great importance to those who seek eternal life. Without forgiveness of sins, we can never hope to meet a sinless God in peace; and our forgiveness depends upon our forgiving our brother. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Can we, who are debtors to God’s holy law, hope for forgiveness from an offended God if we refuse forgiveness to our fellow men? Take the parable of the servant who owed his lord ten thousand talents: “But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence; and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”

Some will say, “O, well, he never asked me to; when he confesses to me, then I will forgive him.” Is this Christ’s instruction? Let us see: “When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25. Here the thought is not whether men have confessed to us, but whether we have aught against another. Then follows the result of refusing to forgive: “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Again, in Luke 6:37, “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.”

“Well, I can forgive, but I cannot forget,” some one says; but the Lord says: “I, even I, am He that bloteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” After we have made our confessions to Him, does He, every time He looks upon us, think how we have wronged Him, and feel that we are still guilty? How many times, when one who has sinned against us, and afterward repented and asked forgiveness, we profess to forgive, but whenever we see him, we think of that sin, and sometimes even speak of it to others, thus keeping it ever fresh in our minds.

Praise the Lord, He does not thus forgive; for He casts our sin behind His back (Isa. 38:17), so that He stands between us and our sins. I am so glad He does not turn around and gaze at them. For again He says, “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Then when we truly forgive, we must forget all the old bitterness, and put it completely out of our minds and hearts.

Again: “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, untill seven times: but, untill seventy times seven.” Matt. 18:21, 22. When we come to the Lord confessing that we have sinned and done wickedly in His sight, and beseeching Him to forgive us, do you think He recalls the many times we have had to come to Him for forgiveness, and feels a little hard against us, to think we have so often sinned?—Oh, no; He is infinite in mercy.

When our brother has wronged us once, and we forgive him, we feel as if that is about all we can do; and if he wrongs us the second time, or the third, we are apt to say, “Well, there comes a time when patience ceases to be a virtue,” or, “I think it is time to teach him a lesson.” Ah, but, “If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” Few of us have been thus tried.

There should be a feeling of tenderness in our hearts toward the wrong-doer, as he turns to us with repentance. Paul says in his letter to the Corinthian brethren: “But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment [“censure,” margin], which was inflicted of many. So that contrari-wise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.”

Oh, that there were more of this blessed principle among us! Suppose one has sinned, he is censured of many, and there is danger of his becoming discouraged or hardened. When one of the household of faith is in trouble, even by his own sin, let us rally around him with love and prayers, and thus restore him. Only one who has suffered this censure of many can know the heart-hunger for even a warm clasp of the hand, a friendly word, a kindly smile. Not that we encourage such a one in his fault, but we need the tender love and pity of Christ, that while we hate the sin, we can tenderly and truly love the sinner. No one has yet been won by censure; it only drives him farther away; only love can win. We need not be afraid that because we are seen in kindly intercourse with the offender, we shall become a partaker of his sins; if so, our blessed Saviour would never have been the friend of publicans and sinners.

One does not feel the need of unusual kindness when he is smoothly sailing along with no particular trials or discouragements; but when trials come, then his heart yearns for some one to help him. At such a time he is abnormally sensitive; every one seems against him until he proves himself a friend, and we should not be too busy or preoccupied to be kind at such a time. Even our Master felt a longing for human sympathy, which He had the right to expect, when in the garden of Gethsemane He prayed alone. O my Saviour! that thou shouldst wrestle alone, denied the faithful sympathy of even the chosen three, and that when thou wast giving thy life, and sweating great drops of blood, for our sins, not thine own! O God, grant that we may see the necessity of comforting those under heavy trials. Do not let us stand aloof and speak coldly; such a course cannot but wound or harden the heart already burdened almost beyond its strength.

Finally, “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:31, 32.