Matthew 18:21-35: Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars.[d] He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
What do we need to do to be saved and enter the kingdom of God?
Salvation is when someone is rescued from a planned destruction by someone who loves this person so much and decided to take his place on the ‘persecution place’. Salvation is when someone who has done nothing takes your sin and get punished for it. This person is Jesus Christ. Salvation is when you did something wrong, but because of Jesus’s work on the cross you escaped from eternal death.
It is when our destination is measured based on not how much “self-righteousness” we have accomplished in our lives, but how much we have trusted God that our sins are forgiven. In other words, you cannot guarantee your salvation by counting your good deeds and forgetting bad ones, but confessing bad ones to the Lord and lean on his mercy and grace in your life.
God forgives the humble and destroys the proud. So come to the throne of God with humble heart who always confesses his sins and stay away from them. Humbleness begins when we start to give value to the works of our savior Jesus Christ and give him honor for that instead of insisting on showing-off our ‘good’ works for others
If we honor God for sending his son as a ransom for our sins, we can make sure we have the right to come to his presence in the spirit.
If we give more value to the things we do instead of what he did for us, we are preparing ourselves for destruction because the devil can easily use the hypocrisy of such kind of person and lead to destruction.
Only true salvation can lead us to be fruitful in the kingdom of God. We cannot achieve salvation by good works, but can do many great things if our faith is based the love of God in Christ Jesus. True salvation leads to the path of righteousness. Not the other way round.
What is the problem of salvation by work instead of by the grace of God?
No one is able to make it to heaven by the goodness of his/her own work. The Bible said that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” hence cut themselves off from the tree of life. So this plan doesn’t work at all.
Adam and Eve were given by God a chance to live the life of righteousness in the perfect paradise, but could not live up to that level of standard.
We are living in a fallen world where everything is not perfect. In fact, nothing is perfect. So we couldn’t live the life of righteousness without falling back on the mercy and grace of God.
I am so thankful to God for he always washes me with his blood and give me a future whenever he finds me filthy of sin.
That is why I don’t rely on my strength on anything, let alone, such a big subject as salvation.
But despite all of these, many people still believe that one’s own work can guarantee entrance to heaven. This is absolutely from the devil who wants to undermine the power of God’s Love that is shown on the cross. His love is sufficient to save even the worst of all.
Paul mentioned this when he said God saved him even if he did many bad things in his life. I am also a witness to the power of God’s grace that is able to cleanse one’s soul from any kind of sin. That is why I want to witness this salvation to others so that they too shall have confidence when they ask God for forgiveness.
Can salvation be lost according to the Parable of the debtor and his Master?
It is so amazing when someone achieves his salvation freely since salvation is free.
Can salvation be lost? Many scholars disagree with this point. They said once a person is saved there is no way he will lose this status.
I would present this according to Matthew 18:21-35.
This guy received debt forgiveness that was way so much that he couldn’t repay. Out of kindness, this guy’s debt was forgiven.
But since he didn't show the same kind of favor to his borrower and treat him badly, his master demanded back the money and everything went bad for this guy afterwards.
The Bible warns us of a possible rejection into the kingdom of God, if we Christians treat others badly.
It specially warns us about the issue of forgiveness. The Bible teaches us if we are not like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God.
This means we have to be forgiving to those who offended us badly since our sins are also forgiven,
Also in the Lord’s Prayer, we can see that our sins are only forgiven if we forgive others.
So the point is if we did not forgive others who had done wrong in our lives and do bad to them intentionally, that is a serious thing in the eyes of God.
But I would still rely on the word of God that says, there is no sin that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse if we confess them and absolutely depart from them.
So yes, I believe if we do any sin that is against the Word of God and don’t confess them promptly, we will be endanger of eternal destruction.
In other words, if the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins and we don’t confess them, we are guilty of sins and endanger of eternal fire.
Holy Spirit speaks through our consciousness and our spirit from and in accordance the word of God. He also speaks through another person or a dream or through closed doors and empty blessings. When he doesn’t want you to do something, all doors will be closed and when he wants, all doors will be open.
It is not a good idea to fight with the spirit of conviction, common sense and truth. It is a very good idea to listen and do exactly how and when he wants us to do it, including forgiving those who have done wrong on to us.
Holy Spirit, we pray to you so that we do not respond like the story of the rich man and like what he did to his servant, but to be more like you who always forgives our sins and allows us to live without the feeling of hatred of sin, in Jesus Name, Amen!