Matthew 18:22

‘Jesus says to him, “I do not say to you, “Until seven times”, but, “Until seventy times seven”.

So Jesus is basically saying, “No Peter, there is no limit. Think in terms of seventy times seven.” Jesus was not, however, saying that a person could be forgiven four hundred and ninety times. He was saying that there is no limit to how often a person can be forgiven. This is good news for us, for there are many sins that we have committed far more than four hundred and ninety times, and yet here we have the promise that God is still willing to forgive us.

Some translate as ‘seventy seven times' (the Greek is the same expression as that used in LXX to translate Genesis 4:24), but others argue that that is not what the Greek indicates. If the former is so then Jesus is taking Lamech's increased requirement for revenge (seventy seven times compared with Cain's seven times) and applying it to forgiveness. But it is not strictly a parallel. Lamech was not speaking of taking revenge seventy seven times, he was speaking of how great his vengeance would be. Here Jesus is speaking of the number of times an unlimited forgiveness must be offered (and whether it is seventy seven times or four hundred and ninety times it means exactly the same thing - it is without limitation).

We should, however, consider carefully what Jesus was really saying. He was not actually saying that we must forgive everyone for whatever they do, and never take what they have done into account when dealing with them. That would be gross foolishness. Even though we do have to approach them in a spirit of love (Matthew 5:43), we do have to consider men's past behaviour and their present attitude when deciding how to deal with them. Certainly we must love our enemies and not have feelings of vindictiveness towards them, but while that is good, it is not the meaning of forgiveness. Forgiveness means restoring a person to the relationship in which they were seen before they sinned. It means treating the sin as though it had never happened.

So Jesus is rather here speaking of behaviour between fellow-disciples (note Peter's ‘my brother') on the basis of their having repented (as in Matthew 18:15). This comes out in Luke 17:4. ‘If your brother sin, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him. And if he sin against you seven times in the day, and seven times turn again to you, saying “I repent”, you shall forgive him.” It will be noted there that the forgiveness follows a profession of repentance truly given. The point therefore is of the forgiving of those who seek forgiveness, and that means reinstating them into the position in which they were before they sinned. It means trusting the repentant thief to look after your money on the basis of a genuine representation of repentance, because you now know that he can be trusted, just as God trusts us once we have truly repented. Thus in the case of Matthew 18:15 the brother who repents is restored, while the one who refuses to repent is treated on a different level (Matthew 18:17), still with love, but on the basis of the condition that still holds.

These words then make Matthew 18:15 unrestricted. No individual believer or ‘congregation' can limit the level of their forgiveness to one who truly expresses repentance. Such an expression must be taken at face value and acted on. We have thus no right to say to someone that we can no longer accept their apparently sincere offer of repentance, for we must always take the weakness of the sinner into account, just as we expect God to take our weakness into account.

On the other hand without genuine repentance there can be no true forgiveness. God looks with mercy and benevolence on all sinners (Matthew 5:45) but He offers forgiveness and a place under the Kingly Rule of Heaven only to the repentant (Matthew 4:17), and in His case he knows how genuine our repentance is.