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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn

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Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one

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Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's

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Speaker 1: verse is found in Matthew, chapter eighteen, verse twenty one.

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Speaker 1: Peter came to Jesus and said, Lord, if another member

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Speaker 1: of the church sins against me, how often should I

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Speaker 1: forgive as many as seven times? Have you ever tried

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Speaker 1: to keep a list of the people who have wronged you?

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Speaker 1: If you ever tried to mentally record how often you've

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Speaker 1: forgiven a person so that you might justify not forgiving

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Speaker 1: them again. I have as a middle child of four children,

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Speaker 1: conflicts in the house were unavoidable. Someone was always upset

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Speaker 1: or in a fight. For a while, I tried to

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Speaker 1: remember the what, and the when and the why of

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Speaker 1: all the infructions so that I could navigate who deserved

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Speaker 1: my intention in my care. Forgiveness challenges us because it

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Speaker 1: naturally pushes us past what is comfortable when we are

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Speaker 1: heard or offended. Forgiveness runs contrary to our natural inclinations

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Speaker 1: because we don't want to forgive people. This is particularly

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Speaker 1: true in a world that likes to say that you

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Speaker 1: get what you deserve. Perhaps this is why Peter asks

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Speaker 1: how many times we should forgive someone? Now, of course,

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Speaker 1: the question isn't just about a magical number. Behind the

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Speaker 1: question is this assumption that forgiveness is limited or calculable.

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Speaker 1: So what Peter is really asking is is there a

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Speaker 1: moment when forgiveness is off the table? Is there a

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Speaker 1: moment where we can legitimately not forgive someone? Is there

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Speaker 1: ever a time when someone works their way out of

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Speaker 1: this grace? And if so, when does that happen? Now?

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Speaker 1: The Jewish faith had this understanding of forgiveness occurring three times.

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Speaker 1: Prophets had the saying for three sins and for four,

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Speaker 1: and the idea in that phrase was that forgiveness of

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Speaker 1: sin could occur three times the fourth time broad judgment.

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Speaker 1: So Peter commendably understands that Jesus calls us to something

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Speaker 1: greater than a three stress and your out model. So

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Speaker 1: what does he do? He doubles it? Is it seven times? Jesus?

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Speaker 1: It's easy to calculate forgiveness if you only need to

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Speaker 1: count one time or three times or seven times, but

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Speaker 1: Jesus moves peter past any limitation. I tell you not

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Speaker 1: seven times, but seven times seventy times. Some translators will

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Speaker 1: say seventy seven times. But whether Jesus means forty nine

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Speaker 1: times or seventy seven, the point is forgiveness in the

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Speaker 1: way of Jesus is beyond all calculation. As followers of Jesus,

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Speaker 1: we should not be concerned with the number of times

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Speaker 1: that we forgive, because forgiveness calls us to something greater.

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Speaker 1: Forgiveness isn't based on the size of the affault or

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Speaker 1: the number of the infractions. Forgiving others is rooted in

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Speaker 1: the merciful love of God. Because we we don't earn

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Speaker 1: our forgiveness, we receive it from God based on God's

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Speaker 1: love for us. And so the basis of forgiving others,

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Speaker 1: no matter how challenging it might be for us, is

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Speaker 1: actually Jesus' forgiveness of us. Because Jesus didn't stop forgiving

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Speaker 1: us after one time, It didn't stop after three or seven,

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Speaker 1: forty nine or seventy seven times. Jesus forgiveness of our

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Speaker 1: sin is endless because the heart of compassionate grace is endless.

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Speaker 1: As followers of Jesus, the forgiveness that we have received

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Speaker 1: is to be lived out, because how can we say

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Speaker 1: that we deserve forgiveness but nobody else does. Jesus asks

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Speaker 1: us to recognize a link between our receiving forgiveness from God,

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Speaker 1: which is freely offered, and our expressing forgiveness outward. So

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Speaker 1: Jesus follows this verse with the parable of the unmerciful

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Speaker 1: servant who, having received extreme forgiveness, refuses to forgive someone else.

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Speaker 1: This is also why Jesus teaches his disciples to pray

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Speaker 1: forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

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Speaker 1: Forgiveness received is to be forgiveness expressed now forgiveness. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't deny the feelings of hurt or offense, and forgiveness

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Speaker 1: is never at the expense of our own health or

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Speaker 1: well being, and it's never at the expense of healthy

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Speaker 1: boundaries or the need for appropriate behavior. Forgiveness doesn't mean

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Speaker 1: there aren't any consequences for bad behavior. Forgiveness, however, is

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Speaker 1: an expression of the unfathomable and unrech stricted grace of God,

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Speaker 1: a grace that we abide in and the grace that

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Speaker 1: we call others into is there someone that you were

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Speaker 1: called to forgive? Calculating forgiveness is just another way to

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Speaker 1: say that we hold a grudge, and when we hold

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Speaker 1: the grudge, we move ourselves away from the spirit of Jesus.

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Speaker 1: If forgiveness is a challenge for you, one that you

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Speaker 1: haven't been able to get over, then Navy start with

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Speaker 1: opening yourself to the forgiveness that Jesus offers. You allow

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Speaker 1: his forgiveness, that free forgiveness that is so extravagant that

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Speaker 1: it sounds ridiculous to come in and wash over. You.

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Speaker 1: Allow your forgiveness to affect your behavior, because forgiveness isn't

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Speaker 1: a demand that we begrudgingly follow. It is to be

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Speaker 1: an expression of the love and the freedom that we

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Speaker 1: have reconceived and the love and the freedom that we

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Speaker 1: want to express. Omen h m hm