From Right from the Heart by Bryant Wright
Consider: Seventy Times Seven
Then Peter came and said to Him, “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.” – Matthew 18:21–22
Chuck Colson tells about an amazing event that occurred at one of his prison ministries. In this program, prisoners who come to Christ go through an eighteen-month discipleship period and then have a graduation. When one of the prisoners came forward for recognition, a very stately woman rose in his support. She was the mother of the young woman the prisoner had killed fifteen years before. The man had denied his crime for many years. And then he came to Christ and, while going through this discipleship program, became convicted of his need to come clean with both God and those he had hurt. He confessed the crime and then asked forgiveness from the victim’s mother.
But that’s not the amazing part. Before that woman received his letter, she had called on the Lord to help her forgive the man who had murdered her daughter. So in that graduation ceremony, this woman stood beside the man who had killed her child and announced, “This is my adopted son.”
My friends, that’s true Christianity. When we are reconciled with God through faith in Jesus Christ and confess our sins, the Holy Spirit blesses us with a supernatural power. That power causes us to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged and forgive those who have horribly wronged us—even up to seventy times seven.
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