The Importance of Forgiveness

Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God. “What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. “And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today. I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.” [Matthew 11.20-24]

Forgiveness yields healing, deliverance, provision, and all manner of miracles. According to what Jesus said here, His earthly miracles were not dependent upon repentance, but were entirely the result of His forgiveness. Remember the man let down through the roof and what Jesus said?

So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” [Matthew 9.6]

Miracles are earthly manifestations of forgiveness. When Jesus sent out His disciples and commanded them to perform miracles on earth, it was for the purpose of inspiring saving faith from those people so they might believe and be saved for eternity. Miracles, again, are earthly manifestations of forgiveness, but salvation (eternal life) is the heavenly manifestation of forgiveness. While Jesus performed miracles on people upon whom we have no record of their prior repentance, we see the proper response to miracles is repentance. No unrepentant person (healed or otherwise on earth) will become a citizen of heaven.

Perhaps this relieves some of the confusion surrounding John 20.23:

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” [John 20.23]

Because Jesus commissioned His followers to "do the same works He did" (John 14.12), John 20.23 then reveals the absolute necessity of forgiveness by them. Their giving of forgiveness on earth (miracles) is dependent only upon the genuine forgiveness of the person performing the miracle. This earthly manifestation of miracles serves one purpose: to draw the recipient(s) of the miracle(s) to repentance. The earthly manifestation is designed to elicit the faith of genuine repentance (or, the repentance of genuine faith) of the recipient(s) for heavenly benefit - eternal life - salvation.

The depth of this conversation is staggering. However, the audacity to walk this out is exactly what Jesus promoted among all His followers. The implications upon the miracle-less Church are not good. While there is one facet of this conversation that applies to the individual, there is another that applies to the corporate body of believers. This would account for this passage about Jesus:

And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. [Mark 6.5]

This was JESUS Who was LIMITED by what? Unbelief. BUT! Remember that Jesus equated forgiveness and faith to heal in Matthew 9.6 above? Consider that the corporate unforgiveness (lack of faith) seen in Mark 6.5 limited even the Messiah Himself from widespread miracles like was seen in other places.

To ignore the importance of forgiveness both individually and corporately is devastating.

Father, help us to push in to forgiveness and explore all the potential it affords Kingdom work today.