SEVENTY TIMES (AND) SEVEN?

Thursday 19 September

Then Peter came to Him and asked, “Lord, how many times will my brother sin against me and I forgive him and let it go? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered him, “I say to you, not up to seven times, but seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-22 AMP

This is an interesting portion of the Bible that highlights the difference between law and grace. In other words man’s self righteous mercy and God’s infinite mercy. Here we see Peter feeling pretty smug about his offer to forgive someone seven times.

There is conjecture between different versions of the Bible that assert that Jesus said 77 times and others that believe he meant 490 times. Now remember the Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23 ‘the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are knew every morning; great is your faithfulness.’

There are two significant points raised here. Firstly, God deals in 24 hour periods of renewed mercies and secondly, Jeremiah called it unending. Maybe Peter should have taken this into account before his forgiveness prediction.

Let’s look at this practically for a moment. If somebody offended you 7 times in a 24 hour period and you forgave them each time it would work out at having conflict and resolution approximately every 3.75 hours in one day. Who in their right mind would keep coming back for that type of punishment more than 7 times?

Take 8 hours away for sleep and you’re left with 16 hours a day of offending and forgiving time which comes out to around every 2.5 hours. Now that is highly unlikely I’m sure you agree. If it were possible then Peter would have to really make an effort in one 16 hour period to make this happen.

If it was 77 times based on a 16 hour period it would be offense then forgiveness, every 12.5 minutes which seems almost impossible to achieve. If it was 490 times it is almost every 2 minutes for a offence and then a forgiveness. This would be an even more impossible feat for sure.

What was Jesus trying to say here? The parable He shared about the unprofitable servant should give us a clue. This speaks of man’s self righteousness which is conditional versus God’s righteousness that is unconditional in Christ. It shows us the limited mercy of man compared to a God who is ‘rich in mercy’. The mercies that Jeremiah spoke of.

Not only that, God made it impossible for man in his self righteousness to attain which is why the law was merely a ‘schoolmaster to lead us to Christ’. It is His mercy and grace in salvation extended toward us that should ensure that we show the same in kind.

What about you? Are you like the unprofitable servant who imprisoned his debtor after his own debt was paid in full? Let’s all be more like Jesus, merciful and full of grace that is reality. We all needed His limitless forgiveness. We should show others the same.

APPLICATION

Read Ephesians 4:32 which says “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you,” and develop a spirit that forgives readily.