Not so fast. We are to do the actual forgiving.
The energy it takes to harbor anger, hatred, and resentment towards yourself is exhaustive. Petty gangsters are hardly ever aware of their keep feelings about themselves.
In any case, every bit of energy we give to negative activities and dwelling on regrets, robs us of the energy we need to become the person God wants us to be.
I see life in God's creation is full of choices and every choice we make will either take us in a positive, life-giving direction or rob us of the opportunity to be a life-giving individual.
Forgiving ourselves does not let us off the hook, it does not justify what we have done, and it is not a sign of weakness.
Forgiveness (of self and others) is a choice that takes courage and strength, and it gives us the opportunity to overcome rather than remaining a victim of our own scorn.
If you do not forgive yourself of past sins, it is a form of pride.
Whenever we enact a different set of rules, a higher set of standards for ourself over others, that is pride. When we can find it within ourself to forgive others, but not ourselves, we are saying that we are less capable of making a poor decision than others.
We begin to see ourselves as more intuitive, wiser, more insightful, more careful than others, and therefore, we are without excuse and should not forgive ourselves. When we reject the forgiveness extended to us by God and others, when we refuse to forgive ourselves, what we are doing is setting ourselves above others and that is pride!
Here is a cool article from a few years ago from Charisma Magazine:
http://www.charismamag.com/site-arc...salvation/9722-when-you-cant-forgive-yourself
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Matthew's version of the Lord's prayer ends with a very significant redaction by Matthew.
He says that if we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven by the Heavenly Father.
The converse is also stated, that is, if we forgive others we will be forgiven.
Matthew's Christianity is a far cry from much of the easy "belief-based" faith that exists in the United States today. Matthew knows nothing of a forgiveness without repentance, a change of heart without a change of life, or a Christian who acts like an unbeliever. For him, how one acts shows who one really is.
For Matthew, forgiveness is reciprocal. That is one is forgiven on the basis of how one forgives others. The unforgiving person is the unforgiven person. It has also attempted to show that repentance must be prior to forgiveness. A person who will not repent of his wrongdoing, either against God or against another human being, shows that he is unforgiven.
Matthew does not indicate that forgiveness can only happen with a blood sacrifice from a God of jealousy and justice.
Does Matthew mean that one merits forgiveness as a result of forgiving others? It is tempting to fall back to all of the systematic theology on the forgiveness of God that is taught in the rest of the New Testament.
But this can't be done because we are focusing on Matthew's view of forgiveness.
However, because this is a post on Matthew's view of forgiveness.this cannot be done.
The question stands: Does Matthew intend to say that one must forgive in order to merit the forgiveness of God?
In my view the question is easily answered by studying the Matthewen verson of the Parable of the Unthankful Servant.
This parable raises a number of questions, but in my view there is the question of context.
Why does Christ tell Peter to forgive an unlimited number of times (seventy times seven) and then tell a story about a king-who represents the Father--who only forgives once and then takes that forgiveness back?
Then there is the question of the taking back of forgiveness. How is it that the man is cleared of his debt and then this forgiveness is taken away? Does God give his forgiveness and then take it back?
Studies of the context and historical matrix of this parable brings up the question of the size of the debt and whether or not it would have been possible to owe this much money.
It's not really the point of the parable as I see it. The size of the debt is nearly equivalent to the national debt of today! It is not a mistake of Matthew but is probably (?) another one of Jesus's exaggerations that he expected his listeners to laugh at--especially after the man asks for more time to pay!
Once the real point of the parable is understood, many of these questions resolve themselves.
The point that Jesus is making with this story is that in the
eschaton, if a disciple has not forgiven others, he will not be forgiven. Matthew's "Christianity" has much to do with how one acts. I see Jesus pointing out here that it matters very little what one might say, if they are not acting in a manner that is consistent with a forgiven person, they are not, and will not be forgiven.
Thus, final forgiveness, is yet to be obtained. That is why Jesus "sees no contradiction between the acts of the king and God's acts, and neither should we."
Clearly, for Matthew, merit and forgiveness are inextricably tied together. While it should be said that "God's forgiveness although it cannot be merited, must be received, and it cannot be received by those without the will to forgive others," it should also be said that Matthew's words are very strong, they should not be muted by our own preconceptions about what he ought to say based on our modern theological notions.
