You Have a Place at Grace - 11/13/2025

“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Jesus lays out ways to handle sin in Matthew 18:15-20. This isn’t about that, but the aftermath once the dust has settled. You start afresh only to find the pain remains and some memories just won’t die.

This idea needs attention, “I forgive them, but I won’t forget what they did.” Just what are we saying? I suppose for some it’s a legitimate defense, a reminder against placing yourself in danger with a person who’s wronged you. For others, it’s a smoke screen. You’re just not ready to let go, and the flame keeps burning. Forgetting would be too much, unfair, and undeserving for the offender. This thinking creates an easy stepstool for the devil. Sin brings anger flaring up like a small flame erupting into a blaze at the smallest breeze. What you won’t forget becomes engraved in the memory like leprosy on flesh. It hangs around and slowly decays the body destined to die without God’s aid.

We don’t need to work at remembering affliction. The Old Adam won’t let you forget. Our battle is fighting the memories that bring pain every time they conquer the mind. Our battle is fighting the rage towards the neighbor, the anger corrupting our view of someone else while resting in self-justification at the exclusion of grace. We shouldn’t keep calling transgressions back to the stand, raising sin from the ashes to emblaze a mind that should be meditating on the precepts of God (Ps.119:15).

Forgiving the neighbor as God has forgiven you means the trial is done, the verdict is spoken, the guilty is proclaimed innocent and forgiven, all on account of Christ. “Forgetting” entails acknowledging it’s over, dealt with in the blood of Christ Who calls you to forgive as He has forgiven you. God weighs the heart and knows what’s behind veneer. He knows our lack of love and that our forgiveness is tainted by the sin of anger bubbling beneath the surface. Yet our sins He forgives and even remembers no more (see Is.43:25, Jer, 31:34, Heb.8:12, et al.). This is striking language, for how is it God doesn’t remember what we did? The answer comes from the Gospel. They’re not remembered because the sins have been blotted out, washed and forgiven. There’s nothing to remember because they’re no longer on the record with Jesus. His blood has made sure of it, covering all and making us righteous in His sight.

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In this 5^th petition Luther comments in the Small Catechism “we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” We tend to forget this at the devil’s glee. But Luther’s words reflect the perspective of the baptized believer. We’ve been hurt but have also hurt others. At the end, our appeal is in that 5^th petition, “forgive us our trespasses.” God does forgive in Christ, remembers our sin no more, and for that we should be thankful. We should forgive the neighbor knowing we serve a God who forgives us richly in Christ, even the sins we’re “unaware of.” They, too, are covered by the blood of Jesus, and thus we should forgive “up to seventy times seven.”  

By Rev. Ryan J. Ogrodowicz, “You Have a Place at Grace,” November 13^th, 2025.

Grace Lutheran Church - Brenham, Texas

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod