Jesus told of a servant whose debt to his master was 10,000 talents, the equivalent of millions of dollars. The servant begged forgiveness. Though the master had every right to imprison him for the rest of his life, he offered full pardon.
Then this servant went out and found a fellow servant, who owed him a much smaller amount—1/600,000 of what he’d been forgiven.
He demanded full and immediate payment. The debtor fell to his knees and pleaded for mercy. But he showed no mercy, throwing him into prison.
When the Master heard about this, he said, in essence, “Had my forgiveness really touched your heart you would have extended it to your brother.”
The master withdrew forgiveness, since a man who won’t extend grace shows an utter disregard for grace.
This parable teaches:
Our debt to God is infinitely beyond our capacity to pay.
Our debt to God is infinitely greater than any person’s debt to us.
When we truly experience God’s forgiveness for our sins, it will transform us into forgiving people.
“But how can I forgive my father for abusing me, my ex-wife for betraying me, my business partner for cheating me? That would take a miracle.”
Exactly. Grace is that miracle.
“Do you expect me to pretend he didn’t do those terrible things to me?” Not at all. God doesn’t pretend we didn’t do all those terrible things to Him. He doesn’t pretend the nails in His hands didn’t hurt.
He says, “I died to forgive you…and to give you grace to forgive others.”
Extending grace frees us from the terrible burden of resentment and bitterness. Bad as they may be, anyone’s offenses against me are far less than my offenses against God. If He’s forgiven me, by His grace I can forgive them.
God’s grace to us is lightning. Our grace to others is thunder. Lightning comes first; thunder responds. We show grace to others because He first showed grace to us.
For more on grace, see Randy’s book The Grace and Truth Paradox.
Photo: Unsplash
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