For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15
Christians are forgiven people. And since we are forgiven, we must be forgiving. This is the standard of expectation set by none other than Jesus Himself, Who left the Father’s side in heaven, came to earth to live as a human being and then died to forgive our sins, effective for all who believe. And those who believe are called to live like Jesus and to be forgiving people. If we refuse to be forgiving, we won’t show ourselves to really be changed by Christ. And we will hinder our fellowship with the Father. So we must forgive.
I am so glad that Jesus died to forgive all sin, for it is His forgiveness that is behind my capacity to forgive others. I must trust the work of Christ in me to be forgiving. I totally lack the capacity as a lost sinner. But as a redeemed and reborn child of God in Christ, I can have Jesus forgive through me, and He can show me how to forgive. And that makes obedience to this command to forgive possible: as I am forgiven... so I forgive.
And in this way I forgive others and prepare myself to continue to forgive others as Christ as forgiven me. I confess my sins in the present tense. I forgive others in the present tense as well. Jesus died and rose again to give me this new life, and in that new life I can trust Him as I am forgiven and as I forgive. By being both forgiven and forgiving, I enjoy the forgiveness of God at work in my life.
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