God is a forgiver. I know we say that God is love, but God is also forgiveness. He loves us so intensely that He sent His Son as the sacrifice for our sin (John 3:16). We need to understand how determined the Father is to execute His forgiveness toward us. Forgiveness is part of His very nature. God is determined to pull the guilt off us for whatever we have done or whatever has happened in our lives (Psalm 103:12). And when God forgives, He forgets.
The great covenant that we walk in says that God will forgive our sin and remember our iniquity no more.
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. … For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33–34)[1]
This covenant is repeated in Hebrews the tenth chapter.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,
“THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM
AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART,
AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,”
He then says,
“AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”
Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:14–18)
Where there is forgiveness, nothing else is necessary. How does that happen? It transpires when we forgive. Part of the Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). That is a huge dynamic in this prayer. “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14–15). God’s forgiving us is based on us forgiving others.
As Yeshua (Jesus) hung on the cross, one of the last things He said was, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Without God’s nature of forgiveness, you cannot go through the mockery and whipping, being spat upon, and having lots cast for your clothing (John 19:1–3, 24). You do not watch people injure you in that way and then hang on a cross and say, “Father, forgive them.” But Yeshua had taken on the nature of the Father, the nature of forgiveness.
And Christ is here to impart God’s nature of forgiveness to us. “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Yeshua has given us the enabling and by taking on His nature, we can forgive. Do not start by trying to forgive. Start by seeking God’s nature. Hunger after His nature. Ask, seek, and knock until His nature is imparted to you because then God’s forgiveness will flow from you (Luke 11:10). “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). We can appropriate God’s divine nature of forgiveness until we are absolutely able to forgive and forget. Then the Body of Christ will minister this new covenant of forgiveness to the whole world.
[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).