Have you ever wondered about forgiveness, why God forgives us, or why we should forgive others? In this post, I hope to give you just a small reminder about what God’s forgiveness is like. Once we think about that – forgiving others comes close after. Here are seven Bible verses about forgiveness:
- Psalm 78:38
- Exodus 34:6-7
- Psalm 99:8
- Psalm 32:1-2
- Psalm 32:5
- James 5:15-16
- Matthew 6:14-15
Psalm 78:38
Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath.
Psalm 78:38
God forgives us because he is COMPASSIONATE toward us even when we are in sin.
God knows better than any of us that people stuck in their sin are there because they choose not to confess and turn their life toward him. Yet, God has compassion for people stuck in sin. He knew that the Israelites were purposefully choosing to worship false Gods instead of writing HIS word on their hearts, yet he still had compassion on them. He saw the hurts and the brokenness that clouded their thinking.
God wants to be gentle
This passage in Psalm 78 is referring to Israel’s generations of iniquity – meaning that parents and their children, and their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren, and on and on all refused to worship God only and stop living in sin. God explicitly warned them what would happen if they didn’t live by the covenant (promise) they had made with him, but God kept waiting to bring down punishment because like any loving parent, he did not want to have to give harsh correction.
Exodus 34:6-7
This is a moving reminder that “the God of the Old Testament,” as we Christians sometimes say, is not a short-tempered, hateful God. Rather, God told the truth when he said he is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:6-7a). My encouragement to you is to remember God’s compassion toward you even when you fall short.
If we continue in Exodus, God says “keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” Exodus 34:7b
Psalm 99:8
O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
Psalm 99:8
God must give JUSTICE yet he still makes a way to forgive us.
God is compassionate, and yet he also does not let sin continue endlessly. God must give justice. If he didn’t, people afflicting pain and death would be allowed to do so forever! Forgiveness does not necessarily mean that God will not punish wrongdoing at all. King David learned what it meant to be forgiven and still face the consequences of his actions.
Sometimes being forgiven doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences.
Some time after King David took Uriah’s wife and had him killed, Nathan the prophet confronted David with a judgment from God. “…the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife…” David confessed at that point that he had indeed sinned against God, and Nathan said “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless…”
God gave justice for David’s actions – the stories that follow in 2nd Samuel show the absolute brokenness of David’s family that was a natural consequence of his sinfulness. In this instance, God’s forgiveness meant sparing David’s life – not withholding punishment altogether.
God has done the same thing for each of us. We wade through the consequences of sin, ours and others, every day of our lives. Even though we experience those consequences, God spared our eternal lives through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus. With that promise of forgiveness, we also have the promise of a coming time when sin, death, and pain will no longer exist.
Psalm 32:1-2
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
Psalm 32:1-2
We are BLESSED when God forgives our sin
According to Constable’s notes on the Net Bible website, “Blessedness is happiness because of divine favor.”* I would certainly call freedom from sin divine favor! We know from Romans 6:23 that while our sin results in death, God has given us a free gift of “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
When I think about the ways I have failed in my life, I am so grateful that I don’t have to carry all those things through this life and into eternity. I’m grateful for God’s mercy on me to redeem me from my poor choices. I may contribute to the problem of pain and sin in this world, but God has forgiven me and promised to complete the work of making me holy instead of sinful. You, friend, are blessed in the same way.
Psalm 32:5
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
Psalm 32:5
God forgives us when we ACKNOWLEDGE and CONFESS our sin.
Just before this passage, the author described his distress under the weight of his sin. Our sin and the guilt that follows can only truly be solved by acknowledging and confessing what we did wrong. We have to own responsibility for what we’ve done. Here’s another passage:
James 5:15b-16
“And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
James 5:15b-16
God wants us to confess our sins to other believers
Confessing to one another makes us accountable to someone else for our actions. There is something about the pressure of someone else knowing how we’ve failed, and the grace in their loving response that encourages us to continue in repentance. And we should have grace for others, just as God has grace for us.
Matthew 6:14-15
“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
God forgives us, so we must forgive each other.
The reality of forgiveness is that it is within God’s right to punish us, separate us from him forever, and let us die an eternal death. Our sin against God is so great because he is so perfect, and that means his mercy to forgive us is great, too. That leaves us no room to turn around and hold another person’s wrongs against them. The weight of someone’s sin against us is not more than the weight of that sin against God, which he has already offered to forgive through Jesus.
If you’d like to hear what I’ve learned about forgiving someone who verbally abused me and intimidated me for years, I’ll be sharing that story next week.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading about these 7 things the Bible says about forgiveness. Here are 5 key takeaways:
- God forgives us because he is COMPASSIONATE toward us even when we are in sin.
- God must give JUSTICE, yet he still makes a way to forgive us.
- We are BLESSED when God forgives our sin.
- God forgives us when we ACKNOWLEDGE and CONFESS our sin.
- God forgives us, so we must forgive each other.
And here are the 7 Bible verses about forgiveness:
- Psalm 78:38
- Exodus 34:6-7
- Psalm 99:8
- Psalm 32:1-2
- Psalm 32:5
- James 5:15-16
- Matthew 6:14-15
Tell me down in the comments if anything stood out to you today! I would love to hear from you. As always, don’t forget to sign up for my email list so you can get more spiritually edifying articles directly to your email.
With love,
Almost a Walrus
