Study Questions about Forgiveness
Begin your time together by rediscovering the story of the lost son (Lk. 15:11-24) to gain a fresh appreciation for the magnitude of the offence and the nature of forgiveness and relationship restoration.
What does the parable illustrate?
What has the son done to his father?
How massive is the grace of the father?
How many touch points with God’s grace in salvation are illustrated in this parable?
1. Discuss why there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood?
2. How has God accomplished both mercy and justice toward an indebted mankind?
3. Discuss how the Lord forgave you. In particular consider the challenges with which you struggle.
4. Do I have to forgive unbelievers?
5. If I forgive somebody who has hurt me, does it mean I must endanger myself by letting them back into my life?
6. Personal action from this teaching. I need to forgive the grievance of _______________ which was perpetrated upon me by ____________________. I need to forgive them privately (without involving them at all) ___ or I need to forgive them through a personal encounter ___. Ask the group to pray for you. Do not name the person but detail the offence if it would be helpful in your release process.
Expanded Notes
liveBIG people have a forgiveBIG God!
HOW HAS THE LORD FORGIVEN YOU?
“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. FORGIVE AS THE LORD FORGAVE YOU” (Col. 3:13)
WHY GOD CHASES FORGIVENESS
What seems to be most important to God in terms of the creature world of humans is that avenues of relationship are fully open.
- The joy of the garden was communion with God
… the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day … (Gen. 3:8)
- the joy of eternity is communion with God
“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God!” (Rev. 21:3)
“His intent … in him (Christ) and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Eph. 3:10, 12)
It is through avenues of true relationship that we know God…
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom. 8:16)
What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? (Deut. 8:7)
“Judas followed Jesus with his feet all over Palestine, but it never got inside him. Prayer is the way we get the following (not just the feeling) inside us.” (Peterson, The Jesus Way)
WHAT YOU MUST BE FORGIVEN OF
“Eat this fruit and you can by-pass God in favour of self-rule and judgment over what is either good and right for you or evil and wrong for you – set yourself up as the standard.” (Gen. 3:5)
Highest crime of the centuries is the rebellious, incomprehensible rejection of gracious love; to deliberately chase from one’s life, God, and the life he brings; to eject spiritual life and choose death –
“… my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!” (Lk. 15:24, 32)
- Instead of the gift of God, choosing the indebtedness of death!
For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)
If you are not in relationship to Christ, you owe God death!
HOW GOD HAS FORGIVEN YOU?
“Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one… will he not go after that lost sheep until he finds it?
I have found my lost sheep. (Lk. 15:4, 6)
1. According to His character
Loved in advance – God exists in a state of perpetual love
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Forgiven in advance – God exists in a state of perpetual forgiveness
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." Ex. 34:6, 7
“for in Christ the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ,” (Col. 2:9, 10)
Being a forgiving person is my new creation character
Forgiveness is not something you can do on your own, but Christ can and will forgive through you.
2. COSTLY
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
1 Pet. 1:18, 19
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Heb. 9:22
God required a mechanism that would retain his character as just and merciful at the same time
… if there are no consequences to disobedience, there is mercy but no justice
… if there is only death sentence, there is justice but no mercy
The justice decision – the death sentence
The mercy decision – forgive (pardon) the death sentence
The solution – impute the death sentence on someone else and make that someone else God himself
The death sentence (justice) or Christ the substitute - the just for the unjust (mercy).
Christ chose injustice for himself
Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.1 Thes. 5:15
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
1 Cor. 6:7; 13:5
No matter how much injustice I bear, it will always be less costly than what Christ for me.
I can be wronged and forgive too.
“Forgive us our trespasses…”
You have been forgiven to forgive
3. Complete
God, the wronged party, chose to initiate forgiveness Rom. 5:6-8
God chooses not to remember which means he chooses not to act against our affront to him.
-he covers the ugliness so he can’t see it
I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.
Is. 43:25
Forgiveness is …
Not so much forgetting as releasing from the obligation to repay the debt
-he carries it away
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.
Psm. 32:1, 2;
I am able to be wronged, initiate forgiveness an d treat the offending party as if the offence never occurred.
4. Continual
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn. 1:9
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matt. 18:21, 22
“I say to the glory of God and in utter humility that whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anybody anything.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones
- Forgiving is our new creation character
- Expect forgiveness to cost you
- Forgive and then live as if you have forgotten
- Forgiving is what we do