Therefore
is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which
owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord
commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and
payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which
owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the
throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his
feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the
debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and
came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he
had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that
debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on
thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth,
and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto
him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye
from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses (Matt.
18:23-35).
ARMINIAN ARGUMENT:
Arminians, in opposition to
the perseverance and preservation of the saints, appeal to Matthew 18:23-35 to
teach that a person can be saved (have his debt paid) and then lose that
salvation (be thrown into prison again).
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
The
passage records the parable of the wicked servant who was forgiven a large sum
which he owed to his king. Rather than being thankful for the kindness of the
king, he went to one of his fellow servants and compelled this man to pay him
back a very small sum which his fellow servant owed. The basic meaning and
point of the parable is stated by the Lord Himself: “So likewise shall my
heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one
his brother their trespasses” (v. 35).
The
servant owed his king an immense debt, which he could never pay back. Here the
Lord gives a vivid picture of the enormous debt which we owe God because of our
sin. We can never pay Him back.
The
servant earnestly pleaded with the king to give him time to pay the debt,
something the servant could never have done. The king’s great mercy in
forgiving his servant depicts the infinite mercy of God towards undeserving
sinners.
Yet
the servant showed no mercy at all to a fellow servant who owed him only a few
pennies. When his fellow servant asked for time, the forgiven servant refused
to grant it. In this way Jesus teaches that, though we all sin against each
other, in comparison with what we owe God, the debt we have towards our fellow
saints is almost nothing. Yet when our fellow saints sin against us, we refuse
to forgive them and harbor grudges and hard feelings towards them!
The
Scriptures are very pointed and emphatic about the truth taught in this
parable. Not only is the point Jesus is making spoken of time and again in
sacred Writ, but Jesus underscores the point in His instruction concerning our
prayers, when He gave us what has become known as the Lord’s Prayer (Matt.
6:9-13). This prayer includes a petition for the forgiveness of sins, a most
important petition that we must make. But even in the prayer, those who ask for
forgiveness confess that they seek forgiveness from God “as we forgive our
debtors.”
In
addition, this fifth petition is the only petition to which the Lord
immediately calls specific attention afterwards: “For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt.
6:14-15).
The
question has to do with the Arminian interpretation
of the parable. The Arminian argues
that the servant was forgiven, but that forgiveness was revoked when he failed
to forgive his fellow servant. Hence, a person may be forgiven by God, but lose
that forgiveness if he fails to forgive his brother. This would imply the
possibility of losing one’s salvation. Such is not, however, the case.
This Arminian interpretation
is superficial and erroneous.
We should note that Matthew 18:23-35 is a
parable. In a parable, not every point may be made to
designate some heavenly or spiritual truth. In the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus, Jesus speaks of a conversation between the rich man in hell and
Abraham in whose bosom Lazarus has found rest. We may not deduce from this
parable that the wicked in hell are able to converse with the saints in heaven.
No more here may we press the point that the servant who was forgiven his huge
debt was truly forgiven by God.
Nevertheless,
an important point is made here, if only we remember that the Lord is speaking
of our conscious experience of forgiveness. The fact is that
the work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was so perfect and complete that at the
moment He died on the cross, all the sins of all the elect for whom He died
were forgiven by God. A child of God who appropriates the great blessedness of
forgiveness can confidently say, “2000 years ago, when my Savior said, ‘It is
finished,’ my sins were forgiven by God.”
Our
sins were objectively blotted out.
One
of the blessings of salvation is the conscious assurance of forgiveness which
is given us by the Spirit of Christ. The believer sings Psalm 32:1: “Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” In the parable,
the Lord is saying several things about that conscious assurance of
forgiveness. First, He is saying that there are people who claim to be
forgiven, but who, in fact, are not. They can be recognized by the fact that
they will not forgive their brother. By their failure to forgive their brother,
they show they are not really forgiven. Second, if they really knew the wonder
of God’s forgiveness and the immensity of their own sin, they would easily
forgive the minor and relatively insignificant sins their brother has committed
against them. Third, we come to the assurance of forgiveness only in the way of
forgiving our brother. If he sins against us, and we continue to hold our
grudge—if we say, “I will forgive, but never forget”—we will never know
forgiveness ourselves. We ask, according to the Lord’s Prayer, forgiveness for
ourselves, as those conscious of having forgiven our brother.
The
teaching of the parable is true in the absolute sense of hypocrites in the
church who claim to be forgiven, but are not. In a relative sense, we must
apply this parable to ourselves. How difficult it is for us to forgive our
brother when we are the one sinned against! But God will have none of this!
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(II)
Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
But
he who values the principle of explaining Scripture with Scripture and who
wants to abide by the pure Reformed truth … knows that God is unchangeable. He
also knows that with God the forgiveness of debt means the blotting out of the debt in the blood of Christ. There is no
forgiveness except through atonement, and there is no atonement except through
satisfaction, and there is no satisfaction except through the payment of the
debt and the bearing of the punishment.
If
Christ has suffered for someone and has paid the debt for him, that person’s
sins are forgiven—and that, too, forever—and they can never again be imputed to
him. Therefore, also, another explanation of the parable shall have to be
sought, and it will not be possible simply to transfer the parable in all its
parts to the spiritual reality of the kingdom of heaven. And then the
explanation is certainly not to be sought in a change on God’s part, so that He
at one time forgives someone’s sins, only to impute them to him again later;
but the explanation is to be sought in the subjective experience of the
forgiveness of sins. He who is altogether unable to forgive his brother his
trespasses has also never felt the need of the forgiveness of his own sins,
much less tasted the great blessedness of that forgiveness. But also in the
relative sense of the word it is true that the child of God cannot taste and
experience the forgiveness of his sins, that the Holy Spirit does not cause him
to experience that grace in his heart, that the prayer for forgiveness dies on
his lips and the heavens remain closed for him, as long as he does not forgive
his brother his trespasses.
He
who never can forgive does not only not taste the forgiving grace of God, but
such a person’s sins are also not blotted out, and his debt is also not
remitted in the objective sense of the word. But he whose sins are indeed
blotted out in the blood of Christ, also does not always taste the forgiving
grace of God, namely, not when he does not forgive the brother. In that sense,
it is true that our heavenly Father does not forgive us our trespasses unless
we also forgive one another from the heart. And therefore, for the forgiveness
of our sins, it is precisely requisite that we can pray from the heart: “Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors their debts.”
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(III)
More
to come! (DV)
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