Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Extending Grace to Others

Extending Grace to Others

Last updated on: August 22, 2024 at 8:30 am by Randy Alcorn

0 Comments

Extending Grace to Others 2024-07-20T19:47:05-08:00 Randy Alcorn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jesus told of a servant whose debt to his master was 10,000 talents, the equivalent of millions of dollars. The servant begged forgiveness. Though the master had every right to imprison him for the rest of his life, he offered full pardon.

Then this servant went out and found a fellow servant, who owed him a much smaller amount—1/600,000 of what he’d been forgiven.

He demanded full and immediate payment. The debtor fell to his knees and pleaded for mercy. But he showed no mercy, throwing him into prison.

When the Master heard about this, he said, in essence, “Had my forgiveness really touched your heart you would have extended it to your brother.”

The master withdrew forgiveness, since a man who won’t extend grace shows an utter disregard for grace.

This parable teaches:

Our debt to God is infinitely beyond our capacity to pay.
Our debt to God is infinitely greater than any person’s debt to us.
When we truly experience God’s forgiveness for our sins, it will transform us into forgiving people.

“But how can I forgive my father for abusing me, my ex-wife for betraying me, my business partner for cheating me? That would take a miracle.”

Exactly. Grace is that miracle.

“Do you expect me to pretend he didn’t do those terrible things to me?” Not at all. God doesn’t pretend we didn’t do all those terrible things to Him. He doesn’t pretend the nails in His hands didn’t hurt.

He says, “I died to forgive you…and to give you grace to forgive others.”

Extending grace frees us from the terrible burden of resentment and bitterness. Bad as they may be, anyone’s offenses against me are far less than my offenses against God. If He’s forgiven me, by His grace I can forgive them.

God’s grace to us is lightning. Our grace to others is thunder. Lightning comes first; thunder responds. We show grace to others because He first showed grace to us.

For more on grace, see Randy’s book The Grace and Truth Paradox.

Photo: Unsplash

Grace and Truth

forgiveness

grace

Previous Post

August 21, 2024

Does God Exist? A Summary of Some Arguments

Next Post

August 26, 2024 We Are Always Being Examined by God, the Audience of One

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"The biblical references and examples make the message easy to follow, while the focus on ..."

harry085drop

Being with God Is the Heart ..."

"As we do good works (no matter how small), and struggle to live holy lives ..."

Tom Hering

How Can We Be Ready to ..."

"Katy Faust's "articles" are junk science at best."

Roger J.

Every Child Is Known and Loved ..."

"People can feed their thoughts or a few notes into AI and be delighted with ..."

rrhersh

AI, Ghostwriting, and the Ethics of ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category About Me Animals Books Books and Resources Christ Christian Life Christians Past and Present Church Creation Culture and Worldview Doctrine and Theology Eternal Perspective Ministries Fun Grace and Truth Grief Happiness Heaven Marriage and Family Missions Money and Giving Persecuted Church Politics Prayer Prolife Salvation Sexual Purity Sovereignty and Free Will Suffering and Evil Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz