Forgiveness is a very interesting topic that we all should learn by heart. Thus, I have decided to make a series talking about forgiveness, and of course we will be using the Bible to help us with the process. To get things started, I have created a post yesterday to serve as an introduction to the series.
In Matthew 18 verse 23 we read,
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The king in the parable represents God. Thus, the story reminds us that God holds us accountable. He knows us; He knows our sins; He charges our sins to our account; and He will someday "settle accounts" when in the Day of Judgment He will call us to account for every deed we have done, whether good or evil (Romans 2:6; Revelation 20:12; Ecclesiastes 12:13).
In verse 24 we learn:
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The thing that immediately impresses us is the amount that the man owed: ten thousand talents! The footnote in most Bible translation says that a talent was probably worth about $1,000. That is a conservative estimate, factor in 2 millenium worth of inflation, and the figure is very much astounding.
What do we learn from that?
This man owed a debt far beyond his ability to pay!
How could a man owe so much?
The answer, it seems to me, is that he could not! It was impossible for a man to get so far in debt!
Why did Jesus use such a figure?
He wanted to show what forgiveness was like in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:23).
To impress upon His hearers the magnitude of God's forgiveness,
He had to impress upon them the magnitude of the debt, the sin, of which they are forgiven when they become God's children.
The lesson, then, is that because of our sin, we, too, are hopelessly in debt. Sin is so terrible that it offends Almighty God to the extent that we can never of ourselves make it right. We owe Him a debt that we cannot possibly pay!
We read in verse 25:
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How long would it be until he could pay off?
Suppose the debt was the equivalent of $10,000,000 (10,000 talents x $1,000). At 5 percent interest, the interest alone would be $500,000 a year! What chance would he have of paying off that amount while he was in jail? Even if he had a hundred men working for him "on the outside," they could scarcely make enough for him to pay the interest on his debt! The fact is that he had no chance of ever paying off what he owed. He was in jail for the rest of his days. His punishment was age-lasting.
And so it is with us:
Our sin is so terrible that the only just punishment for it is hell. There we can never suffer enough to pay off the debt we owe. Our punishment, therefore, is like that of the servant, except that where his was age-lasting, ours is everlasting!
Consequently, in this parable we have a perfect picture of an unforgiven sinner: He has sinned, for all have sinned (Romans 3:23). God holds him accountable for his sin. His sin is so terrible that it creates a debt he can never pay. He is hopelessly lost. He cannot do enough for God to make up for the sins he has committed against Him. Finally, God calls him to account for his sin and punishes him for that sin. What is that punishment? "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). That death is eternal separation from God in hell! What an unhappy picture!
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But the story does not end there.
We will see the same man in another state, stay tuned for the next post! :)
Notes:
Some of the information here are excerpts from Coy Roper.
published by Truth for Today in the year 2005.
Cheers,
Kaizen