God's Forgiveness

I have been reading many of the parables for one of my Bible classes, and the things I have been learning have been so wonderful! We have a book that we have been reading through, and if you haven't read this book, you should! It is incredibly eye-opening...it makes you think....and it brings up different sides to the parables that I had never thought of before. The parable that we have just finished, is the story where a certain man owed the King a tremendous debt. This man was called upon to pay his debt, which was impossible for him to pay, so the King showed him mercy and forgave him the entire debt. (it was a hugh amount of money) Then this same man went out and found another man who owed him very little. (compared with the debt this first man owed the king, the second debt was like 5 cents.) No mercy was shown at all, and when the King heard about this he called the man back and punished him for being so cruel and sent him to prison until he paid his debt.

     "Further, this parable, by it's contrast between the colossal and unpayable debt which the servant owed the king, and the trifling sum which his fellow owed him, compels us to remember that any wrong which has been done to us is as nothing to the wrong which we have done to God. When we disobey God, when we disregard Him, when we banish Him from life or any part of life, we are not so much sinning against law, as sinning against love. We are not breaking God's law so much as breaking God's heart. It is possible to pay some kind of legal penalty which will atone for a broken law but it is impossible to do anything which can atone for a broken heart. Therefore, the debt we owe to God is infinitely greater then any debt anyone can owe to us. That is what the real Christian cannot help seeing. Knowing that he himself has been forgiven so much, he cannot be unforgiving to another person...the man who has really appreciated what the love of God has done for him, cannot but love others and seek always to forgive as he has been forgiven." - Parables of Jesus by William Barclay, page 90.