You Owe It To Them

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Matthew 5:7

One of the chief ways we show mercy to others is by forgiving them when they sin against us. Sometimes it may seem difficult, even impossible to forgive because of the nature of the sin. We may be so harmed by what another person has done that we convince ourselves we could not possibly forgive them. It’s at exactly this point when we owe others our forgiveness, when we ought to be merciful. That’s because it’s at exactly this point that God the Father, for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ, was merciful and forgave us.

There is no greater sin than the sin you and I have committed against God. God is immensely holy, perfectly righteous, altogether good. Everything about God is right and true. Nothing about God is false. Nothing about God is deficient. God is infinite in all his perfections. The heavens are filled with his glory and he reigns over all creation as sovereign.

Contrary to his nature is mankind. We are incredibly sinful, boundless in our rebellion, and there is not one of us who is good. Every rule God has made we have broken. Every word God has spoken we have ignored. We have inverted the order of worship, serving the creature rather than the Creator. The earth is marred by our sin, and we are ruined and condemned spiritually.

Except that Almighty God chose to have mercy upon rebellious man. The apostle Paul put it this way: “God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” That God has had mercy upon us means that there is quite literally no one to whom we do not owe the same mercy. 

Father, the sins of others against me are small in comparison to how I have sinned against You. Help me forgive all because I have been forgiven all.