I’d planned to write more about the Hebrew word shamar (which we covered last week) today, but I heard an excellent sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son that made me want to write about this topic today. The main point was that we can learn from all three of the characters in this parable. At different points in our lives, we can be the prodigal son, the compassionate father, or the angry brother. The speaker made a point near the end of the message when talking about the angry brother that really stood out to me. He said, “We don’t pay the price of others’ sins.”
Now, at first, something in me grew hot and angry hearing this. I thought, “I’ve absolutely paid a price for other people’s sins when they’ve hurt me.” But then I realized that wasn’t the point of this statement. Yes, other people’s sins can affect us, sometimes very badly. However, the price of their sins that we’re talking about here refers to the price that God’s justice demands a sinner pay for violating His law. Ultimately, this price is death, or it would be without the sacrifice of Jesus (Rom. 6:23).
You see, while we can still suffer because of other people’s sins, we’re not the ones paying the price for forgiveness. We couldn’t; we also deserve a death penalty for our sins and we can’t offer ourselves in exchange for someone else’s soul even if we wanted to (Ezk. 18:20). This also means we don’t have the right to withhold forgiveness.
Forgiveness and Restoration
Forgiveness can be a tough subject for many of us. Many of us struggle with forgiveness even if we know we should do it, or we come up with reasons why we don’t need to forgive in particular cases. Trust me, I know it’s hard. It’s not like I’ve never been hurt by anyone and I’m saying “just forgive them” without knowing how hard that is. But even if you go through something traumatic and still have occasional panicked flashbacks, you need to forgive. Even if you ended up in counseling for 3 years trying to figure out how to process what happened, you need to forgive.
For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.
Matthew 5:14-15, NET
We think of forgiveness as something God offers us freely, but in reality it’s conditional on something. If we want forgiveness, then we need to forgive others. There’s no wiggle room in here. There are, however, some things forgiveness doesn’t necessarily entail.
Forgiveness doesn’t always mean restoring relationships–sometimes it’s not safe or healthy to continue having any kind of relationship with the person who wronged you. This is especially true if they don’t repent. For example, Paul told the Corinthians to stop associating with someone who was flagrantly sinning without repentance (1 Cor. 5), then later told them to restore someone that we assume is the same man to their fellowship of believers after his repentance (2 Cor. 2:5-11; 7:8-12). The relationship wasn’t restored until the person repented and changed his conduct. Jesus also gave step-by-step instructions for attempting to reconcile with a fellow believer if they sin, but also said that if it doesn’t work you don’t have to keep trying (Matt. 18:15-17).
Reconciliation, peace, and restored relationships is the goal for Christians, but there’s also only so much we can do if the other person isn’t repenting, changing, or trying. We’re only responsible for our own actions and can’t control others (Rom. 12:9-21). One of the actions that we can take on our own without the other person doing anything is forgive. In the New Testament, sin is often framed as a debt (e.g. when we sin, we owe God something that we can’t pay back). This is reflected in one line from Jesus’s model prayer: “forgive us our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors.” If someone owes you something, you can cancel that debt. In other words, we can let go of bitterness, anger, resentment, and the sense that we’re owed something. Forgiveness is a necessary and healthy thing to do, whether or not the other person asks for it.
Why We Must Forgive
One of Jesus’s parables expands on why forgiveness is something He can and does command us to do (Matt. 18:21-35). In this parable, a king (who pictures God) forgives a servant who owes him a massive sum of money. His debt is 10,000 talents, which is equal to about what a typical person could earn in 164,384 years of work (1 talent=6,000 denarii, and 1 denarius=1 day of work; see NET footnote on Matt. 18:24). Incredibly, the king forgives the debt. Then, right after receiving forgiveness, the man goes out and shakes down a fellow slave who owed him just 100 denarii, or about 3 months’ wages. He refuses to forgive right after he’s been forgiven.
“When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and told their lord everything that had taken place. Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him until he repaid all he owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Matthew 18:31-35, NET
As people who’ve received God’s forgiveness, we’re obligated to forgive others. As in this parable, we should be able to recognize how ridiculous it is for someone forgiven an unfathomably large debt to then refuse to forgive others a paltry sum. No matter how much someone “owes” us (or seems to) for their sin, they owe God more. If He, who is owed so much, can choose to forgive and remove the death penalty for sin, how much more should we, who are owed comparatively little, choose to stop inflicting a penalty on people who’ve wronged us.
God’s instruction to forgive should be enough for us. But there’s also research to back-up the importance of forgiveness for our own wellbeing. According to surveys by the American Bible Society published in their ebook “State of the Bible USA 2024,” people who can forgive are much better off than those who can’t or won’t. The survey asked if the respondent agreed with the statement, “I am able to sincerely forgive whatever someone else has done to me, regardless of whether they ever ask for forgiveness or not.” Those who agreed also scored higher on Human Flourishing and Hope Agency (p. 54-55), demonstrated more pro-social behaviors (p. 73), and were significantly less lonely than unforgiving people (p. 166). Forgiveness is healthy for us, helps us move forward with hope, and improves relationships with other people. God tells us to do this for our own good.
Who Paid For Sin?
One of the things that Jesus didn’t touch on in the parable we just looked at is who paid the price for sins. When God forgives a sin, it’s not quite like the king who just waved a hand and made the debt go away. Someone still pays for that debt, and that someone is Jesus Christ.
For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps. He committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was maligned, he did not answer back; when he suffered, he threatened no retaliation, but committed himself to God who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. For you were going astray like sheep but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1 Peter 2:21-25, NET (bold italics mark quotations from Is. 53:5-6, 9; 53:4, 12)
Jesus took our sins on Himself. He “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2, NET). We often think of Jesus as “my savior,” but we might not always think of the implications of Him being the savior of the whole world. God didn’t just love me and send Jesus for me: He agape-loves everyone and sent Jesus to save the whole world (John 3:16).
I’m not preaching universal salvation here. God doesn’t apply salvation to everyone automatically–we have to accept the gift by repenting, believing, and entering a covenant relationship with God. But He does make salvation available to everyone because “he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9, NET). In other words, He’s already decided to forgive people if they ask Him for it.
Here, we come back to the point we started with: “We don’t pay the price of others’ sins.” Jesus did that when He offered His own life in exchange for the world. He canceled the debts of everyone who will come to God and take advantage of that offer. We don’t (and can’t) pay the final, cosmic price of others’ sins and we don’t have the right to withhold forgiveness from them. This is especially true if they repent and ask us to cancel their debt, but it’s also true that we need to let go and let God handle things even if the other person doesn’t repent or ask us for forgiveness.
Featured image by Chris Mainland from Lightstock
Song Recommendation: “That’s How You Forgive” by Shane & Shane
Like An Anchor 
Dear Marissa,
Thanks for your email. There is something I would like you to think about and answer, if you will. How old were you when you earned the “death penalty” for sin and what sin or sins did you do?
Do you realise that there is no term “penalty for sin” in the entire bible? God forgives us on repentance and is very keen to forgive sin and give His spirit to those who truly wish to become His Sons and Daughters.
When God created Adam and Eve, He made them in His image – He made them in His image only. He didn’t give them His heart and mind. He made them on the 6th day of the creation of the physical world. He made them in His image because He wanted more – to have a second stage of creation where He made them Spiritual sons and daughters through the giving of the Holy Spirit so their hearts and minds could be changed from the carnal/natural hearts and minds that they had. This is why God made us – to have spiritual sons and daughters with His mind and heart – His character and righteousness.
God put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden – He allowed the adversary to come along to tempt Eve to give her a chance to choose to follow God or not. You know what happened. We are no match for the adversary – it is obvious – he has deceived the whole world, that’s what he does, deceives and gets people to rebel against the very One who made them and loves them.
Now God never expected people to be righteous from the start – to know what righteousness is and to never sin. Righteousness is spiritually discerned, not naturally discerned. The ability to always choose righteousness has not been endowed to us through our natural minds.
We are now in the second stage of creation – going from the physical to the spiritual. Only a comparative few are called out by God to embark on the second stage, by the implanting of the Holy Spirit. We have to come out of this world that the adversary has organised and overcome it, and the adversary, as well as our own wrong desires. God never expected us to never sin, to always do what was right from the start. We have all been born into a world run by the adversary. God has made some of us aware of this so we can be the first fruits who overcome the adversary and serve those who go over into Christ’s millenial rule.
Those who are resurrected at the end of the millenium have never been given (generally) the knowledge of God and of His righteousness. They have not rejected God and will be given this wonderful opportunity to know God and become His sons and daughters then. These people are of course mortal and if they choose to not accept what God offers them – viz. Eternal life, then they will die.
God made us all mortal. None of us was made immortal. It is not really a punishment to not be given eternal life with God’s family if you don’t want it. It is the individual’s choice. They are not receiving a death penalty for sin if they reject God’s kind offer. They are merely saying that they want to stay as they are – mortal – and not go on to righteousness and immortality with God.
Eternal life is a gift we can receive from our loving God – or we can reject it. God is not willing that any should perish and wishes people to become His children.
When Christ came to the earth as a human being, it was to show us how to live and to tell us about the Father. He and the Father are the same kind of beings – full of love, righteous, humble. They are so what we aren’t used to – we’re used to those who are rich and powerful being anything but humble and serving – but Christ came to say that He was the servant of mankind. To our natural minds this is just weird – and He demonstrated what He was like until the adversary who is full of pride and abuse had Him killed.
The adversary had always sought to kill off the sons of God. Cain killed Abel. Look at what he did to Job- he was just itching to kill him but wasn’t allowed.
Christ prayed that if it were possible the horrible death of crucifixion would not have to happen. But God the Father wanted Him to go through with it, showing us how we are to be when we are betrayed and suffer at the hands of others. Christ was serving us right through to the very end of this ordeal.
The adversary wants to put people off obeying God and forgiving enemies and so he orchestrates suffering for the servants of God.
The thing is, God knew we were going to sin – He made us carnal and without His mind and heart.
He always planned a second stage of creation – a spiritual creation. When this long process is complete, everything physical will be destroyed including this very earth and there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth. Even God’s tabernacle in Heaven is temporary – He will have a new one.
I am writing to you because you are a lovely gentle young woman who understands the love that God has for us all and want to know God better. He is a parent, just like you, and is doing everything for us so that we can grow up to be just like Him.
Let me know what your thoughts are, please, if and when you have time- I know what it’s like to have a little baby to look after.
From
Angela Storey
P.S. Just wanted to add that the Day of Atonement is part of God’s system of Justice. On that day, the responsibility for mankind’s sins will be (largely) placed on the Adversary. He has been a tempter and a deceiver from the beginning and refuses to stop. Only by having God’s Holy Spirit are we able to overcome his influence. He will have to be destroyed because he is intent on wickedness. Christ took our sins away by showing us how to live and explaining what righteousness truly is. Satan killed Him because he was allowed to, thus demonstrating his incredibly evil nature.
THe sabbath day is to be kept Holy because it is the day when those who are called out by God acknowledge God’s second stage of the creation by worshipping Him and seeking His company and being changed to be like Him.
Cheers for now
Martin and Angela
Visit us at: friendswithgod.substack.com
LikeLike
Hi Angela,
In answer to your first question, I suppose it probably would have been the first time I knowingly, willfully disobeyed my parents, but I can’t remember exactly.
Regardless of when it happened, the Bible is clear that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We can debate at what point someone is old enough to be held accountable for their actions, but even the youngest humans are mortal and the fact that we’ll all “surely die” at the end of our lives is (scripture seems to imply) linked with Adam and Eve disobeying God’s first command to them (Gen. 2:15-17). Death followed sin.
Whether or not a phrase similar to “penalty for sin” is found in the Bible depends on translation. I usually use the WEB and NET, and in those the NET uses “penalty for guilt” in Lev. 5:6-7, 15, both talk about the “just penalty” of “disobedience” in Heb. 2:2, and both use “due penalty of their error” in Rom. 1:27 and “the penalty of eternal destruction” in 2 Thes. 1:9.
I use the word penalty mostly because it’s a common phrase in English. As I mentioned in this post, the Bible often talks about sin in monetary terms like debt. The famous “the wages of sin is death” phrase in Rom. 6:23 falls into this category. I really like the LEB translation of this verse: “the compensation due sin is death.” Death is what we justly earn by sinning.
Perhaps “consequences of sin” would be a better phrase than “punishment” or “penalty.” God has been very clear throughout history that obedience, righteousness, and repentance when we mess up results in life, and unrepented disobedience and unrighteousness results in death (Deut. 30:19). I think this applies to the people you mentioned as well, who have a chance after the Millenium to choose God’s way or not. If they follow Him, they’ll receive everlasting life. If they don’t, then the consequences/result of that choice is death.
I am a little confused by the way that you talk about Jesus’s sacrifice. Am I reading your comment correctly that you don’t believe his death paid for our sins/took our sins away? And that He came primarily to serve us by showing the correct way to live? If I’m reading that part of your comment correctly, I can’t agree with you on that first part. Jesus “is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2), He suffered for our sins (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18), and it’s His blood that cleanses us (1 John 1:7). Sin is a serious thing, and the propitiation for our sins required a blood sacrifice (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 9; 1 John 4:10). The Day of Atonement ceremony included two goats: one innocent goat that died like Jesus did and one goat picturing the Adversary that goes into the wilderness.
I do like the way that you phrase our growth as firstfruits now as a second stage of God’s creation. He does talk about focusing on the heart and spirit transformation as part of the New Covenant with His people today. As you said, God knew that we were going to sin, which is why I think scripture hints that Jesus dying to redeem us was part of God’s plan from the very beginning (1 Pet. 1:18-20). He made people mortal with a plan already in place to make it so we could live forever with Him if we choose to accept Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins and follow Him from then on. It’s such a wonderful, loving, and gracious plan!
Best,
Marissa
LikeLike