Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 173

June 22;    Matthew 18:35;    18/260(III);    ‘Love Forgives’

Matthew 18:35 "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses." 

Forgiveness is such a vital part of the Word of God.  Love forgives.  God the Father loves us with a love that is unfathomable.  The Bible teaches that God the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus (John 17:23).  All of us, all of humanity are sinners and cannot approach a holy and perfect God.  Our sinfulness separates us from the Father, who loves us so very much.  The Lord Jesus Christ was the remedy for our sins.  On our Lord, every sin and sickness for the entire human race, before Jesus came, while Jesus was here and after Jesus returned to heaven was laid upon Him and He paid the unimaginable price for our conduct.  Because of the Father’s love and the love and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, we have been forgiven.  All of us were destined to go to hell.  To be eternally separated from the love of God that passes understanding is unthinkable.  The forgiveness that we have been forgiven with, must have a profound effect upon us.  When we become a Christian, the love of God comes into our spirit.  We now have the capacity to forgive others just as we have been forgiven.  God the Father knows very well how cruel people can be.  He saw that in the way the Lord Jesus Christ was treated.  The Father also knows that unforgiveness hurts us more than it hurts the person we refuse to forgive.  In this parable, the King forgave His servant who owed him a fortune, but the forgiven servant would not forgive another servant who owed him relatively little.  The King was furious and turned the unforgiving servant over to the tormenters.  Our unforgiveness opens the door for the devil to torment us.