“Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?”

(Matthew 18:21)

For a full week the whole country has been in an uproar because President Ford granted former President Nixon a full pardon last Sunday morning. Some have been saying that it was a gracious and courageous thing to do. Others have been saying that it was a stupid and unjust thing to do.

All sorts of questions have been asked: What about the other people in the Watergate affair — Colson, Dean, Magruder, the Cubans — who are in prison for their involvement? Should President Ford pardon them? What about the court cases of those accused yet to stand trial: Erlichman, Hal­deman, Mitchell? What about the president’s proposal of amnesty for the thousands of young Americans who during the Vietnam War deserted the armed forces or eluded the draft because they had conscientious objections about war in general or the Vietnam War in particular? Should they also be granted full pardon and be restored to their families and their former status of honorable citizenship in the Republic? What is the right thing to do about forgiveness and pardon for all?

As Christian Education Sunday dawns upon us today, there never was a more apparent need among the American people for Christian teaching and Christian understanding to bring order into our confusion. If only our minds were enlightened by biblical teaching on justice and mercy! If only our hearts were converted to the spirit of Christian forgiveness! If only we had the divine wisdom to know when and how to pardon!

We could know the answers to all these questions now being raised on pardon and amnesty, on law-breakers and law-abiding citizens, if we were better instructed in Christian teaching on such matters.

The introduction to John Calvin’s Geneva Catechism states categori­cally, “It has always been a matter which the church has held in singular commendation — to see that little children be instructed in Christian doctrine.” But the fact remains that both adults and children are in singular ignorance and confusion about the Christian doctrine of forgiveness. Do you and I know what the Christian teaching really is on this knotty problem?

One day, as Jesus was teaching his twelve disciples, he said: “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). And the apostles said to the Lord — well, what did they say? Did they say, “Yes, Lord”? Or did they say, “We will try it”? No. They said, Lord, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

How discerning, how wise, how honest, were those Galilean peasants! They were no pious hypocrites. They knew their own weakness. The forgiv­ing spirit their Master demanded of them was too high for them. They knew it. It was no mere human possibility. So they begged him to increase their faith so they might be able to keep this commandment to forgive.

Jesus, in his teachings on forgiveness, was blazing a new trail. The Hebrew people had believed in the forgiveness of sins — that is, of Jehovah’s forgiveness of the sins of a penitent people — but the Hebrew religion was not rich in its teaching of the obligation of man to forgive his fellows the sins they commit against him.

As the Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James Hastings, explains:

So closely, indeed, is the principle [of forgiveness in human relations] associated with the teaching and work of Christ, that forgiveness has been called “Christ’s most striking innovation in morality,” and the phrase, a “Christian” spirit, is commonly regarded as synonymous with a disposition of readiness to forgive an injury. The pagan ideal of manly life was to succeed in doing as much good to your friends and as much injury to your enemies as possible; and if it be not true that forgiveness was a virtue unknown in the ancient world, it was at all events not one that was demanded or proclaimed as a duty by any ethical system.

Jesus lays on his followers the duty to forgive their fellows the wrongs done them. It is no easily kept commandment. The first disciples told him they could not keep it unless he increased their faith.

Precisely what did Jesus teach concerning man’s duty to forgive? First, he taught his followers that their willingness to forgive must be unlimited. As the Revised Standard Version has it: “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, and says, `I repent,’ you must forgive him.” George Buttrick writes in his masterpiece, The Parables of Jesus: “The Jewish law appears to have required forgiveness until three times. Presumably it allowed a man who had forgiven his enemy three times to regard him thereafter with implacable hostility.” Jesus says to forgive seven times. Obviously he was not using the number in a literal sense. Among the Jews “seven” was the symbol of heavenly perfection. He desired to raise the duty to forgive out of the realm of numerical calculation. A similar passage from Saint Matthew’s Gospel makes this abundantly clear. Peter came to Jesus and asked: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:21-22).

On the other hand, it is equally clear from Jesus’ words that something is required on the part of the offender before he can be the recipient of forgiveness: “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” This is the condition — repentance. The offender, before he can be forgiven, must have the consciousness of wrong done; he must make a free avowal of error, promise to turn away from it, and give evidence of a willingness to make amends. Jesus does not enjoin his followers to submit to any and all evil and injustice done them with a weak-kneed submission, saying always, “I forgive, I forgive.” The spirit of always giving in, no matter what the issue, is no Christian spirit. A namby-pamby passing by of all wrongs done would dull and destroy all moral and ethical distinctions. Jesus does not command his followers to forgive unconditionally. He clearly teaches that there are conditions to be met before forgiveness can be granted.

Biblical teaching outlines four plain steps that must be taken in genuine repentance. First, admit the wrong done. Say, “Yes, I did it.” Some call this by the theological term confession. The law of particularity is here most important. It is not enough for a man to say: “Forgive me, I’m a sinner. All men are sinners. I just did to you what everybody else does when he has a chance. Forgive me, a sinner.”

That is no true confession. Biblical confession means to say: “I lied to you when I said such and such on Tuesday when we were talking about that friend of ours. It was a baldfaced lie. I should not have said it. I ask your pardon and forgiveness.”

The second condition in Christian forgiveness is to give evidence of genuine sorrow for the wrong done.

The third is to promise not to repeat the wrong — to quit, to stop.

The fourth condition is to make restitution for the harm done to those injured by the sinful act. Zacchaeus was forgiven by our Lord when he promised to restore fourfold all the money he had fraudulently taken from the taxpayers in his district.

When we, peasants and potentates, people and presidents, fulfill the scriptural requirements for Christian forgiveness, we are in line for pardon, and only then. Jesus teaches that forgiveness — human and divine — is all of one piece, and there are no exceptions for the high and mighty or the weak and lowly.

Furthermore, Jesus very plainly places the burden of setting the wrong aright upon the shoulders of the Christian. It is not only cowardly but un-Christian to keep hiding a wrong, to keep covering up and excusing the evil we’ve done, to allow or force others to suffer for the wrongs we have done. The Christian has the responsibility of confessing explicitly the sin or wrong he has done.

But the Christian’s responsibility does not stop there. In Jesus’ teaching the Christian is not allowed to remain passive until his offender of his own accord comes to him penitent, begging for reconciliation. The Christian has to adopt all rational means he can summon to bring home to the one who has offended him the error and evil of his conduct. If one of the disciples of Christ is wronged and everyone knows without a shadow of doubt that none of the blame for the offense rests upon him, it is his duty nevertheless to go to that one who has trespassed against him and in a forgiving spirit point out the wrong done and be ready to forgive unreservedly when the offender admits his error. Here is what the Master said: “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him — that is, go to him, speak your piece — and if he repents, forgive him.”

Our national constitution’s provision for impeachment is an illustration of this principle in the affairs of government. The body politic inaugurates proceedings to give an orderly outline of wrongs done, if indeed they have been done, even by the one who holds the highest office in the land. Point it out. Rebuke the wrong in order that repentance, restitution, and reconciliation may take place.

Finally, Jesus’ teaching on forgiveness clearly shows that the measure of our willingness to forgive men is the scale by which God forgives us. That clause in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” or, as it is sometimes rendered, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us,” makes it evident that human forgiveness and divine forgiveness are strictly analogous. There is no difference between the forgiveness that the Christian wins from God and that which he in turn bestows upon his brother. God forgives us and in the same measure we must forgive others.

Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful debtor shows that the absence of a forgiving spirit in our hearts prevents our being forgiven by God. An Oriental potentate, so the parable goes, left a large portion of his affairs under the supervision of a trusted steward. At the time of accounting, it was discovered that the steward had made away with $2 million. It was an impossible and extravagant defalcation, fitly representing the incalculable and undischargeable debt that sinners owe to God. The potentate was angry. He commanded the steward and his wife and children and all his possessions be sold in small payment of the huge debt. But the steward, falling on his face before his master, pleaded guilty and begged for clemency. “Master, have patience with me, and I will repay you all.” With a boundless graciousness the master forgave his steward the whole debt and set him free. Going out immediately from the presence of his benefactor, this man who had been granted so costly a reprieve ran smack into a little fellow who for some time had owed him $20. Grasping the poor wretch by the throat, he demanded immediate payment. In the very same words with which the steward had begged for mercy, the poor man said, “Have patience with me and I will pay you.” But the steward would show no mercy and threw his debtor into prison till he should pay all his debt. Then word was brought to the ruler of how the wicked steward had treated his fellow servant, and hailing him again into his presence, the potentate said, “You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you asked me. Should you not also have mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?” So he delivered him to the tormentors, and Jesus said, “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” So Jesus clearly teaches both in this parable and in the prayer he gave us that the measure of our willingness to forgive others is the scale by which God forgives us.

These are the teachings of Jesus on forgiveness. What are we to make of them? Are they not commands hard to keep? How shall we obey them?

How shall we develop enough of a forgiving spirit toward all people in order that God may forgive us? It is here that I would return to the apostles’ remark upon hearing Jesus’ harsh command to forgive and forgive and forgive. We will remember that they said, “Increase our faith.” This is a penetrating insight and one that we need to make our own, for there is an intimate relationship between faith and the development of Christ’s forgiving spirit.

The basis of Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness is a transcendent one. Such concepts for conduct could not possibly arise from human experience alone. They were not developed in the school of practical human morality. The duty to forgive, laid upon men by Jesus, evolves not out of the nature of man, but out of the nature of God. “Forgive,” says Jesus. Why? Because it always works good in human relationships? Because you will always win your enemy that way? No. “Forgive,” says Jesus, “because God forgives you and demands that you forgive your fellows.” Jesus’ precept on forgiveness — his greatest innovation in morality — has its foundation, its authority, not in human nature and human relationships, but in the divine nature and in the relationship between God and man.

Therefore, it is apparent that the forgiving spirit, enjoined and ex­emplified by Jesus, is no simple human attainment. It is a possibility only for the person of great faith. How wise were those disciples who, when Jesus told them to forgive those who trespassed repeatedly against them, said, “Increase our faith.” It takes a lot of faith to forgive as Jesus demands it. Not only does it take faith in the existence of God, but also that God is just the kind of forgiving Heavenly Father that Jesus tells us he is, one who has forgiven us our multitude of sins. It is faith in such a Father that begets the forgiving spirit in the Christian. It comes in no other way. We cannot know this God unless we become acquainted with him through Christian nurture of biblical teaching within the Christian fellowship.

Our consciences must be instructed by the divine law, will, love, and mercy. Conscience is not automatically an infallible guide. Christian con­science must be instructed by Christian teaching, supremely set forth by the word and example of Jesus Christ.

The whole fabric of social life stands or falls on the point of equal justice and equal mercy to all. The Republic will be destroyed and respect for law and persons will go down the drain if all men are not kept equal before the law. The more responsible the position to which a man aspires, the more important it is for him to respect the trust placed in him by the people and by their God. If he fails, then he himself should require it of himself, in all good conscience, to make restitution to those whose welfare he has harmed or threatened. If others let him off, then the nobility or scurrilousness of his spirit will be clearly shown by whether he, himself, takes the easy way or the hard way to make restitution to the people who put their trust in him.

A forgiving spirit is the finest fruit of the Christian faith. It is not a spontaneous growth. Neither is it a chance occurrence. It must be nurtured by continuous Christian teaching and Christian fellowship. It is not a stronger will to have good will that we need, but rather we must pray with the disciples of old, “Increase our faith.”