The Perfection Of Forgiveness
Sections In This Study:
Introduction (see below)
Part One - Forgiven Seventy Times Seven (see below)
Part Three - Sevenfold Covenants And The New Covenant
Part Four - The Spotless Lamb Of God
Part Five - The Perfection Of Christ
Part Six - We Are Spotless In The Eyes Of God
Part Seven - Sevenfold Forgiveness
Introduction
One thing that I have been amazed at lately is what I am going to call “the perfection of forgiveness.” There are so many verses and words used to describe the forgiveness we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, from various perspectives. As you study these out, you may come to find that these terms and passages are often connected in the Bible with the number seven itself. The significance of the number seven is that it indicates perfection or completion all throughout the Word of God, so when a seven or a multiple of seven* is used in reference to forgiveness, God is indicating the perfection and fulness of His complete forgiveness towards His children, towards those who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
*Multiples of a number have the same basic meaning as that number itself, though sometimes it intensifies the meaning thereof.
When God does something seven times, states something seven times, gives a list of seven people or things (such as 14 names given in each section of Matthew’s genealogy, 14 Judges), the complete range of something is indicated, often showing something brought to completion or wrapped up. Think of the seven days of creation week, the seven dispensations of man’s history, the seven parables of Matthew 13 (showing the complete downward progression of professing Christendom), the seven churches of Revelation 2-3 (showing the complete church ages). The same thing can be seen in a word or phrase being used seven times in the Bible, a person being mentioned seven times (or seven people being mentioned in a certain context - such as the book of Genesis being primarily about seven specific patriarchs in the line of Christ - the same first seven men mentioned in Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith chapter), a sevenfold promise or covenant, etc. So many illustrations, but I am sure you can see what I am getting at.
1. Forgiven Seventy Times Seven
Forgiveness is also associated many times in the Bible with sevens. Think of the following statement made by Jesus after Peter asked him a very important question:
Matthew 18:21-22 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Seventy times seven. Not just seven times seven, but seventy times seven. Complete and utter forgiveness. If we are counting out each time someone does us us wrong and then comes back to us to make it right, adding them all up till we get to the 490th time, we are not really forgiving one another, and instead we are holding onto those faults and perhaps letting them cause us to be bitter towards those brethren.
If a person who has sinned against us truly repents, we are to forgive them completely, and let the sin go. Contrary to the modern mindset, when God says He does not remember (or forgets) our sins, it does not mean they never come back to His mind - it means He does not hold them against us, He does not act on that knowledge. God still has knowledge about our sins; otherwise, how could He justly correct us if we choose to walk in them again. BUT He does not condemn us for them, He does not accuse us of them judicially, like a judge in a court of law. They are forgiven, wiped out, taken away forever from His sight.
This is beyond the scope of this study, but look at how the word remember is used throughout the Bible. When God remembers someone (like Israel under oppression in Egypt) or something (like a covenant He made with someone), He acts on that knowledge and does something about that situation. For more on the use of this word, see the following study that looks at this theme: Genesis: God Remembered.
The opposite is also true.
Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Hebrews 10:16-17 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Here God is saying if our sins are forgiven, He will no longer hold them against us. Likewise, we are to treat our repentant brethren the same way. Even if these same sins come back to our mind, we must choose not to act on that knowledge or hold those faults against those we have forgiven.
One theme I love in the Scriptures is that God deals with us on a day to day basis. We are to seek Him each day for our daily bread (both physical and spiritual - see Matthew 4:4; 6:11), our daily needs (Matthew 6:31-34), and even for a new beginning each and every day (see Lamentations 3:21-23).
Consider the following verse from two perspectives: us towards others, and then the Lord towards us.
Luke 17:3-4 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Why does the Lord emphasize forgiving our brethren daily? Because He forgives us daily! If we are being honest and examining ourselves in the light of God's Word, we will have to admit that we falter daily, we sin daily - sometimes on a seemingly small scale (to ourselves), and other times we walk right into sin, allowing sin to influence our hearts and lives.
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
According to these verses, even a righteous (ie. just) person, a believer who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, is still a complete failure in the eyes of the Lord (NOTE: this is not our identity in Him, but a statement of our proneness to wander day by day - more on how God sees us later in this study). We still have a sinful nature, we still think wrong thoughts, we still compromise and allow sin to come into our lives) - BUT if we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work upon the cross of Calvary, the blood of Jesus Christ has completely washed our sins away - past, present, and future. When God the Father looks at us in Christ, He does not see the Law we have broken, but He sees us through the blood of Christ, through the perfect, sinless blood of the perfect, spotless Lamb of God which taketh away (not just “took away”, past tense, but “taketh away” - ongoing present tense - continually) our sins.
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Every single day, we are to offer true forgiveness to the brethren who have done us wrong and who have since repented of that wrongdoing toward us. Complete forgiveness - just like the Lord Jesus Christ offers to us.
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
We are to strive against sin, but when we do falter and allow sin into our lives, we are to go to our Advocate, and seek His forgiveness to restore our fellowship with God the Father and with our brethren.
1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Consider the following passage about the purpose for Daniel's 70th Week, as found in Daniel 9:24-27.
Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
The seven purposes of Daniel’s 70 weeks:
1. To finish the transgression,
2. And to make an end of sins,
3. And to make reconciliation for iniquity,
4. And to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. And to seal up the vision
6. And (to seal up) prophecy,
7. And to anoint the most Holy.
In various passages, a prophetic week indicates seven years, a day for a year. (See Numbers 14:33-34 and Ezekiel 4:4-6.) These 490 prophetic years (seventy times seven weeks) regarding the nation of Israel are to deal with their sin completely - to finish transgressions, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity - multiple words used to describe the sinfulness of Israel (and of all mankind!) All 490 years are set aside to deal with their sins (and ours). After 483 years, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and died upon the cross to pay for the sins of the world literally four days later.
Daniel 9:25-26 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
The first seven weeks were to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (49 years to do so, counting from 445 BC, from the decree found in Nehemiah), and the next sixty two weeks (434 years) were to be counted from that time until the coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
“It was Nisan 10 (April 6), A.D. 32, the very day the prophets had declared that this amazing event would occur — 483 years to the day (69 weeks of years as Daniel 9:25 foretold it) after Nehemiah, in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (465-425 B.C.) had received (on Nisan 1, 445 B.C.) authority to rebuild Jerusalem (Nehemiah 2:1)!” - Taken from A Woman Rides The Beast by Dave Hunt.
There is still one final week left - seven years of Daniel's prophecy remaining - to deal with Israel's sins as a nation.
Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
This final seven years is what Jeremiah refers to as the time of Jacob's trouble (see Jeremiah 30:7) - the final seven years of this 490 years is the tribulation period, in which the nation of Israel will finally be saved.
Romans 11:25-27 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
This mystery is completed in the book of Revelation, at the exact end of the seven years in which the Antichrist rules the whole world (but still thirty days before Armageddon - see Daniel 12:11).
Revelation 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
By the time the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and sets His feet on the Mount of Olives, this prophecy will be completely fulfilled for the Jewish nation - though it comes at such a great cost. Two thirds of the nation will die during those seven years (see Zechariah 13:8-9), but the rest (ie. the remnant) will get saved when they see Jesus Christ face to face in the wilderness and realize that He is the Messiah, yea that Saviour, that they have so long rejected.
Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
Ezekiel 20:35-38 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Zechariah 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
The ever-flowing fountain of Jesus' blood, long since applied to all true believers since the time of Christ, will now be applied to the remnant of the nation of Israel. Daniel's 70 weeks will be completely fulfilled - seventy times seven years - and then they will be completely forgiven because then that remnant will finally know the Saviour, will finally receive the Lord Jesus Christ, will finally bow to Him in their lives.
Revelation 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Truly, Jesus is the name above all names, above every name!
Philippians 2:9-11 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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