In Mark 2:1-12 we have the story of Jesus healing a paralyzed man.
While healing this man, Jesus forgives his sins. The Greek word "aphiemi"
is translated as forgive in the New Testament. "Aphiemi" means
"to send away or release". Therefore, to forgive sin means to
send the sin away, release the sin, cancel or erase the sin so the
offender is no longer accountable for the sin.
What I’ll say in this article is not my own invention. It may be
new to some, but it’s not new to Christian thinkers throughout the
centuries. There’s a couple problems with many people’s understanding
of forgiveness. We don’t know the simple definition of the word, and we
confuse forgiving the offender with loving the offender. Over the last few
decades we’ve been conditioned not to think, leaving us with bad
hermeneutics and poor definitions of key Biblical words. You’d be
surprised how many people can’t define such words such as justification,
sanctification, repentance, forgiveness, and other words that represent
key Biblical truths.
Micah 7:10 says that God sends sins to the depth of the sea, never to
be seen again. Isa. 43:25 says God blots out sin from His records, never
to be accounted for. Psa. 103:12 says that sins are sent away as far as
the east is from the west. This is how God forgives sins. He sends them
away, dismissing, canceling or erasing them so they’re gone from His
sight.
The Pharisees were infuriated with Jesus telling this paralyzed man
that his sins were forgiven because they believed that only God could
forgive sins. I believe the Pharisees were right for a change. Only God
can send away, cancel or dismiss sin from "His records". The
Pharisees failed to understand that Jesus was God in human flesh, thus
having the authority to cancel sins from God’s books. Remember, God does
have books that record sin, because they’ll be opened at the White
Throne Judgment. (Rev. 20:12)
If only God or Jesus can cancel sin from God’s records, why then does
Jesus ask us to forgive sin in John 20: 23 and elsewhere on His behalf?
How can we as mere humans erase sin from God’s books? The answer is
two-fold.
First of all, you should notice that Jesus told His followers to
forgive sin. He never told the world to forgive sin because they didn’t
receive the authority to do so as we did. The context of John 20:23 is
Jesus commissioning His followers to go into the world and represent Him,
just as He represented His Father. Part of our job as Jesus’
representatives is to pronounce sins as forgiven or erased on His behalf.
God actually erasing the sin from His books, because they’re His books.
We simply announce the forgiveness.
Before we can pronounce God’s forgiveness to the offender, Scripture
teaches that the offender must repent (meaning to change one’s thinking,
thus influencing one’s actions). Jesus taught repentance in Mark 1:15
and elsewhere.
The first part of my answer is that we pronounce God’s forgiveness to
the repentant person upon repentance. This second part is this. There are
certain verses where Jesus tells us to forgive sins that are specifically
directed towards us, even though any sin directed towards us would be
recorded in God’s books. We find one of these passages in Matt. 18. In
Matt 18:22 Jesus tells us to forgive sin directed our way even if we have
to forgive 77 times. (NIV) Many misunderstand this verse, thinking that
Jesus is telling us to forgive, or cancel a sin directed our way even if
the person doesn’t repent. We just keep forgiving no matter what, even
if it takes 77 times, but I don’t believe this is what Jesus meant. The
context says otherwise.
In the beginning of this dialogue concerning forgiveness (Matt. 18:15)
Jesus states that if a brother sins against you, go and tell him his
fault. Why does Jesus tells us to point out the fault to the offender?
Because when we point out the sin, you give the offender an opportunity to
repent. Jesus isn’t telling us to forgive no matter what. He’s telling
us that the offender needs to repent before you can forgive or cancel his
sin which would bring about the desired reconciliation. This is common
sense. How can reconciliation occur when the offender continues to offend
you and believes it’s okay to do so.
Jesus continues to say that if the offender doesn’t repent there are
further steps you can take to help him come to repentance. If Jesus tells
us there are further steps to take to help your offender repent, then it
should be clear that forgiveness is conditional upon repentance. We still
love the offender because love is unconditional, but remember, love is not
forgiveness.
Then Jesus says in Matt. 18:18 that whatever you loose on earth will be
loosed in heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven.
This means that if the offender repents, you forgive him. You loose or
send his sin away, and reconciliation occurs. As you cancel his sin on
earth, God immediately cancels the sin from His books in Heaven. If the
offender doesn’t repent, you can’t cancel his sin, and that sin
remains bound on earth as well as in Heaven.
It’s clear to me that we cannot cancel sins from God’s books. He
does that. We only proclaim His cancellation of sin. But we can cancel sin
directed towards us once the offender repents, and as we do, God removes
the sin from His books. So you might say that we help God cancel sin. We
do the erasing of sin on earth while He does it in Heaven. Jesus has given
us a serious responsibility here. It’s important for us to understand
what He’s asked us to do.
In conclusion, we should not confuse forgiveness, or canceling an
offender’s sin with dealing with the negative emotions we have towards
our offender. Ridding ourselves of these negative feelings is not
forgiveness. It’s only dealing with our reaction to the offense so we
can love the offender as Jesus taught. Even if the offender doesn’t
repent, we’re still commanded to love him, but loving the offender and
canceling His sin are two different issues. Love is unconditional.
Forgiveness is conditional upon repentance.
I leave you with this thought. If God requires repentance before He
forgives, why would He ask us to do something He doesn’t do by asking us
to forgive without repentance?