Forgive and You Will Be Forgiven?
Is forgiveness conditional? When I was in college, I had a mentor of mine ask me this exact question one time to see how I would answer.
I said, “Only in the sense that we must receive it by faith. Forgiveness is conditional upon us accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.”
Then he asked me to read Matthew 6:14-15 which says:
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Those verses scared me. Does this mean that if I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, but I don’t forgive someone that I will not be forgiven by God and won’t go to heaven?
I was starting to think back to try and remember if there was anyone in my life that I had not forgiven. I didn’t want to take any chances.
But is that what this verse means? Can you go to heaven with unforgiveness in your heart?
Conditions for Salvation
When you look at the rest of Scripture, what we see is that salvation is not dependent upon your works.
In Ephesians 2:8-9, the apostle Paul declares:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works…
Paul clearly says that salvation is a gift and not by works. Forgiving others would be considered a work. If you forgive others, then you earn God’s forgiveness. It would no longer be a gift.
The apostle John makes this clear in John 3:16, where he says:
16 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 says that if you believe in Jesus, you have eternal life. John makes no mention of any other conditions being necessary. There’s no fine print that says, “If you don’t forgive others, then this promise is rendered null and void.”
Salvation is only dependent upon whether you choose to accept Jesus’ grace through faith.
Complete Forgiveness
The rest of Scripture also goes on to communicate that the believer in Christ has complete and total forgiveness.
Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 1:7:
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
Look at what the apostle Paul said in Colossians 2:13-14.
13 … He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Notice that Paul doesn’t say that we are forgiven if we continue to forgive others. Paul doesn’t put a qualifier on either one of these statements.
Not only that, but in the Colossians passage it is in the past tense. In our past, at the moment of faith, we were forgiven. That is why Paul could write in the present in Ephesians that we have forgiveness in this moment.
We are forgiven for all of our past, present, and future sins when we receive Jesus’ gift of salvation.
Okay, so if Scripture communicates that forgiveness and salvation is not dependent upon our ability to forgive, then why did Jesus say what He did in Matthew 6:14-15?
Sermon on the Mount
Jesus’ statement about being forgiven only if we forgive others was made in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).
In that sermon, Jesus is preaching to a Jewish audience under the Old Covenant (the New Covenant didn’t come into effect until the death/resurrection of Jesus). The Old Covenant was a conditional covenant (if/then covenant). If the Jewish people obeyed the Law, they would experience blessing.
For these Jews under the Old Covenant, Jesus tells them that if they forgave others, then God would forgive them.
During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was trying to show this Jewish audience that the Law kills. He was revealing their need for a Savior.
They thought they were doing okay through their strict obedience to the Law, but Jesus pulled back the curtain to show them the real state they were in.
They thought they were obeying the Law by not murdering anyone or because they had not committed adultery. Jesus says that if you get angry with your brother or you if you lust in your heart then you’ve actually sinned (Matthew 5:21-20).
He had to show them the impossible standard of trying to measure themselves by the Law.
In communicating that they would be forgiven only if they forgive others, Jesus was once again trying to show them that they didn’t measure up. They needed a Savior.
Jesus was not making a statement for all people to live their lives by on the other side of the cross. If He was, then why didn’t He inspire the rest of the New Testament authors to write down that forgiveness was conditional after the cross?
Can you go to heaven with unforgiveness in your heart?
The gospel (good news of Jesus Christ) is not, “Go out there and forgive everyone who has ever committed sins against you, and you’ll be forgiven and go to heaven.”
The gospel is, “Receive God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone.”
Going to heaven is not conditional upon your ability to forgive others. On the other side of the cross, we forgive because we have been forgiven.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved…13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Once again, the apostle Paul doesn’t say, “Forgive and the Lord will forgive you.” He says, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
As those who have been completely forgiven, we are now able to forgive others when they sin against us.
Don’t live your life in fear of not going to heaven because Jesus said, “If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you.” You now know the context in which this statement was made. You also know what the rest of the New Testament declares about forgiveness and salvation.
Live in the assurance of your salvation based on Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Experience the freedom you now have from sin and the sins other people commit against you.