God’s Way of Forgiveness

The Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed, arrested, tried, sentenced to death, and taken to a place called the Skull (i.e. Calvary) where He was crucified. He was nailed to a cross, and as He suffered upon the cross, the Lord said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).¹ This is the first of the seven sayings uttered by Jesus upon the cross.²

What we have in Luke 22:34 is Jesus’ petition to the Father to provide forgiveness to those participating in the crucifixion, whether it be the ones who had an active role in the perverting of justice to secure His execution or the ones who were simply favorable to seeing the Lord being put to death, and willing to shout out “crucify Him!” to the Pontius Pilate.

I suppose if anyone were unjustly sentenced to death today, the condemned just might wind up saying, “To all you folks who want to see me dead, may you all burn in Hell!” But Jesus says nothing of the sort. Neither does the Lord say anything close to what His own first century Jewish kin would say. Craig Keener in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament notes,

Despite the precedent of Old Testament prayers for vengeance (e.g., 2 Chron 24:22; Ps 137:7–9; Jer. 15:15; 17:18; 18:23; 20:12), Jesus prays that God will forgive his persecutors. Those who were executed were supposed to say, “May my death atone for all my sins”; but Jesus confesses instead the sin of those who falsely convicted him, who under Old Testament law were liable for his penalty before God.³

Likewise, in Jesus According to Scriptures: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels, Darrell Bock writes,

Jesus urges that those executing him be forgiven because they do not know what they ae doing. Jesus again is interceding for those who hate him, following he urged in Luke 6:27-36. Stephen follows this model in Acts 7…Jesus is interceding for his enemies because they have made an erroneous judgment about him. This should not be their last chance. More chances to respond were graciously given as the disciples preached to them often in Acts about the opportunity to receive forgiveness. There is no vindictiveness in Jesus, only hope for a reversal.⁴

Unspeakable things were being done to the Son of God, but He petitions the Heavenly Father to forgive them. The yearning to see forgiveness between God and sinners is reflected in the ministry of the first Christians. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter pointed out “this Jesus…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” but “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:23b-24). Later in the same sermon, Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). He then tells the audience to “repent” (Acts 2:38), and about three-thousand sinners repented (Acts 2:40).

On another occasion, Peter healed a crippled man at portico of Solomon in Herod’s Jerusalem Temple complex, and then preached to those who took notice of the miracle. He explicitly tells them, “You killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). Then he goes on to say, “I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:17-19). Many of those who heard Peter’s evangelistic call to repent responded positively and the Christian community grew to five-thousand members (Acts 4:1-4).⁵

How wonderful and marvelous is the Lord of the universe who pours out a bounty of grace and mercy upon sinners! God forgives even those who have committed the most unspeakable offenses against Him.

Christ also bids us to forgive others too. We are to forgive our offenders “seventy times seven,” (Matthew 18:21-22), i.e. over and over again. Just as God has forgiven us a multitude of sins, we are to extend forgiveness to our offenders. The Apostle Paul writes, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Elsewhere, the same point is repeated and expanded upon: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” Colossians 3:12-13).

I have to admit following Christ on the way of forgiveness is far easier said than done. What come instinctive for me is to remember all my offenders and imagine ways to serve them up some stone-cold vengeance. The problem is this: harboring grudges separates me from others, but it is far more advantageous for me to be united with others than divided against them. There is always strength in numbers, like a threefold cord.⁶ Moreover, harboring grudges sets me against God, for God’s way is to extend forgiveness to penitent sinners. I am to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Him (Mark 8:34; cf. Luke 9:23).

— WGN.

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Notes:

1. All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
2. Folks out there may be wondering why some modern English Bible versions add a footnote indicating that the words “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” do not appear in some of the ancient manuscripts (see, for example, the ESV, NASB, and NIV). Others suggest the sentence was from a later edition of the text (see, for example, note in the NKJV). Still others simply have the verse in brackets (see, for example, the NRSV). I believe Jesus spoke these words upon the cross, or that at least Luke preserves for us the gist of what He said. I found helpful the discussions in Darrell Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, vol. 3, ed. Grant R. Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994) 373, Joel B. Green, Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, ed. Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, and I. Howard Marshall (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 150, and Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Luke, Leon Morris, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974, 1988), 356.
3. Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 254.
4. Darrell Bock, Jesus According to Scriptures: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 386.
5. Peter never actually finished his sermon for the Sadducees had him along with John arrested. The Sadducees rejected belief in the resurrection from the dead, and they got very disturbed hearing all the talk about Jesus resurrecting from the grave, which incited them to order the arrests.
6. A wise preacher once said, ^“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).