How much forgiveness do you need from God?

Imagine you were interviewed by God and asked how many chances you wanted to be forgiven before He exacted the punishment. How many chances would you ask for? Personally, I would ask for unlimited forgiveness, wouldn’t you? I’m a sinner. No matter how hard I try to be perfect or even better than average, I remain a sinner. Not a day goes by when I don’t need God’s forgiveness, so I wouldn’t want to put a limit on it.

Here’s another question: how many times would you be willing to forgive other people? You might want unlimited forgiveness for yourself, but do you think you should show that to others? The apostle Peter didn’t think so!

In Matthew 18, Jesus taught about the dangers of sinning against oneself and others and how to deal with it in the church. However, He didn’t say anything about forgiveness, so Peter asked the Lord a question:

“Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21).

Does seven times seem generous to you?

The background to Peter’s question is that many Rabbis taught that the number of times someone should be forgiven was three. Three times, and you’re out. So, by asking if we should forgive up to seven times, Peter was being generous—that’s more than double what the Rabbis recommended! Peter probably expected Jesus to say, “Well done, Peter, you’re really getting the hang of kingdom graciousness!”But that’s not what Jesus said. Peter hadn’t gone far enough—

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22).

“Seven” times was the wrong number. Instead, Peter should forgive seventy-seven times.[i] But did Jesus mean that literally? Did Jesus mean that forgiveness should end at the seventy-eight offense?

No.

The key to understanding this statement is knowing the Bible can use numbers literally or symbolically.

We do that in English. If you say someone is a “perfect ten,” you’re using “ten” symbolically to mean that person is beautiful. Or if you say, “I’m on cloud nine,” that’s an expression that means you’re happy. Those are symbolic uses of numbers. The same can happen in Greek or Hebrew.

When Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness, he probably meant seven literal times, like the Rabbis meant three literal times. But when Jesus answered, He used the number symbolically. Seven is the number of completion or perfection. Seventy-seven times is the number 7 intensified. In other words, instead of setting a numerical limit to the forgiveness we should show others, Jesus is saying we should stop counting altogether!

We know that’s what the Lord meant because of the parable He told next. It’s known as the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. Like many parables, it uses an exaggerated story to make a relatively simple point about how much we should forgive.

In the parable, a servant owed “ten thousand talents”—a symbolic number. A talent was the highest unit of currency and “ten thousand” (murios from which we get myriad) was often used for a vast or uncountable quantity. Jesus means the servant owed an astronomical sum—we might say a “gazillion” dollars.

As punishment for non-payment, the king was going to sell him and his family into slavery to repay the debt—which wouldn’t even come close to repaying it, but the king had to do something to show the seriousness of the sin. But when he hears the sentence, the servant falls on his knees and begs, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back” (v 26). Since he owes an astronomical sum, he’s making a ridiculous and impossible request because he could never repay it in his lifetime. What would the king do? He does something shocking: “The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go” (v 27). Instead of giving the man time to repay, the king simply cancels the debt and lets the servant go. This is an act of pure grace. The servant didn’t deserve that kind of forgiveness. He wasn’t even asking for it. The king decided to step outside the justice game and let the debt go.

If you experienced that level of grace, how would it change your attitude? Wouldn’t you expect that you would be filled with gratitude? This is the equivalent of getting a new lease on life—a second chance—a stay of execution. Wouldn’t you think that someone who went through that would be transformed? Grace should do that. Nothing is more powerful than an act of grace to transform someone’s behavior from the inside out.

But that response isn’t mechanical. It’s not a mathematical equation where a particular input of grace always results in a specific output of godly behavior. Grace is resistible. We can reject it, ignore it, or miss the lesson entirely. That’s what happened to the servant.

As Jesus continues the parable, the unmerciful servant leaves the king’s presence and meets a man who owes him a relatively small amount of money. He demands to be repaid. When the debtor falls to his knees and asks for more time, the servant refuses, chokes the man, and has him thrown into prison. At this point, everyone hearing the parable should be outraged at the man’s callousness.

When news of what happened gets back to the king, he becomes so enraged by the unmerciful servant that he reinstates the debt and throws him in prison until he pays it back—which is an ironic statement because the debt is unpayable. In other words, the unmerciful servant will never get out. He’s doomed to die.

How does this parable clarify Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question? The key verse is when the king asks, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” The answer is yes! And that’s the point of the parable. Grace received should lead to grace given. Or put differently, forgiven people forgive people. At least, they should!

When Peter asked the Lord if we should forgive people up to seven times, he showed he didn’t understand grace. He either forgot or possibly didn’t know how much God had forgiven him. He might not have been acting exactly like the unmerciful servant—yet. But the nature of the question implied he was ready to exact revenge by the eighth offense. And that legalistic approach is what Jesus was refuting. Thankfully, after the death and resurrection of Christ, Peter finally understood how Jesus made true forgiveness possible (cf. Acts 10:43). But it took time to learn that lesson!

Have you ever acted like the unmerciful servant? It’s easy to think of yourself as being a generous forgiver when the reality is that you find it hard to forgive and very easy to hold a grudge for years and years. It may also be hard to see yourself as you are in Christ—in Him we have the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 1:7). You might not see yourself as forgiven as you are in Christ. You might struggle with that reality. If so, then hear the good news:

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14, emphasis added).

Forgiven people forgive people. And you are forgiven in Christ!

[i] Some translations will say “seventy times seven,” i.e., 490, depending on whether the translators think this involves adding or multiplying. Modern translations opt for “seventy-seven” times because of the parallel with Genesis 4:24.

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Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.

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