“Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times.'”
– Matthew 18:21–22
In other words, over and over and over again, just as, and he goes on to tell in Matthew 18:21–22 of an unforgiving servant. “Forgive others,” Jesus says, “just as my heavenly Father forgives you.”
I invite us just to think about that. How does God forgive us? How many times does God forgive us? So how patient is God with us? How loving is He toward us? How often do we fall short of His righteousness and His glory? And how often do we sin, and He is faithful to forgive? And Jesus is saying, “You forgive one another like that.”
This Verse Praises God For His Forgiveness Of Us
Oh, God help us, we pray. God, we praise you. We praise you for your forgiveness of us. Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross to make this possible for us. I just … overwhelmed right now by the reality that I and everyone who’s praying right now who’s put our faith in Jesus that we stand before you, the holy God of the universe, totally forgiven of all our sins, as if we have never done anything wrong, ever, ever, ever. And not just forgiven of sins, but we stand before you, oh God, in the very righteousness of Jesus, as if we have done everything right. We don’t deserve this grace. We don’t deserve this mercy, this position, this privilege before you. All glory be to your name for your grace in our lives.
Matthew 18:21–22 Prays That We Reflect God’s Love
And so we pray you would help us to show this kind of grace in others’ lives, in our relationships and in our homes, in our families, in our churches and in the world. Lord, as people wrong us, as people offend us, as people sin, as people wrong us, as people hurt us, as people say or do this or that brings offense to us, even as we read earlier in Matthew 18:15, “If your brother sins against you, God help us to go to him, go to her,” Just like you teach us to do here in Matthew 18.
And to go with a desire to forgive, a spirit of forgiveness, the same kind of desire, spirit, that we see in you, oh, God. Help us to reflect your love in this way. We pray that you would uncover any unforgiveness, any bitterness that has a place in our minds, in our hearts, our relationships right now, and you would remove it. And by the power of the gospel, you would help us to forgive others as we have been forgiven by you. May it be so, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
