Let's discuss a parable 4)- The Unforgiving Servant

[Symmetry]

Symmetry - You keep mentioning that it cost nothing for God to forgive our debts.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Jesus was crucified, ridiculed, and tortured for us. I would say it at least cost him something. This next parable is an example of the cost.

Wikipedia
The parable (from Matthew)

From the King James Bible, here is the parable as Matthew has written it :

There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.

But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.

When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet [1]

It's simply my take on the issue. I did kind of emphasise that I'm athiest, or perhaps agnostic, so that obviously colours my take. If God can be somehow lessened or caused to suffer in some way, surely he's not omnipotent. Human action can lessen Him.

[daddy1gringo]

The parable makes clear the importance of forgiveness. As I understand the new Testament, it is made absolutely clear that salvation and the forgiveness of sins are not dependent on works (what we do) but rather are a free gift from God, bought with his blood, to which we can neither add nor take away anything. There are various passages that seem to contradict that however, and this one is the strongest. It states pretty clearly that forgiveness is indeed dependent on something that we do, and a darn difficult thing at that: forgiving others, even if they have grievously wronged us.

When speaking to the crowds, Jesus said a great many things that are puzzling in how harsh they seem: plucking out eyes and cutting off hands, being liable to hell for just calling someone a fool, etc. These things seem extremely at odds with such statements as, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(Mt 11:28-30)

It’s puzzling until you realize that Jesus was going to die and rise again to establish a new covenant, not like the old one. The old covenant was based on what you do. So some of the things Jesus said were pointing forward to the new relationship he was going to establish with God, and some of them were making clear the need for that new covenant because no one could really live by the old one. Even if you managed not to break the letter of the law, which no one could do anyway, there is a spirit behind the letter that you still violate. An author I recently read refers to these statements as “Moses 2.0.” Concerning the forgiveness of sins before God, this parable is “Moses 2.0”, but it still applies in the new covenant in other ways.

My wife and I have been in a position to counsel a lot of troubled people, and almost always, when they have a destructive behavior pattern that they cannot break, or emotional problems they can’t shake, we find that there is something in their past that they have not forgiven, and it steals their present. Problems in relationships, and especially marriages, are frequently traceable to something that one or more of the people has not forgiven, either to the other, or to their parents, or someone else in their past. So in that sense, even in the new covenant, things we don’t forgive are not forgiven us; they hold power over us. Author Max Lucado said, "Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!"

Forgiveness is what Jesus went to the cross for; it is what the cross was all about. Forgiveness is the power of the cross. To the degree that forgiveness is a reality in your life, the power of the cross will be a reality in your life.

For a person who has been seriously wronged, forgiveness is the natural expression of really coming into the relationship that God wants with you. It means first of all receiving him as savior, because it is the result of realizing how much you were forgiven. It also means receiving him as Lord, because it is taking ourselves off of the throne and off of the judge’s seat, and giving those places back to God, where they belong. It is humbling myself, laying down my rights, and acknowledging that it is not all about me.

That is why it is so important to God.

[Symmetry]

The parable makes clear the importance of forgiveness. As I understand the new Testament, it is made absolutely clear that salvation and the forgiveness of sins are not dependent on works (what we do) but rather are a free gift from God, bought with his blood, to which we can neither add nor take away anything. There are various passages that seem to contradict that however, and this one is the strongest. It states pretty clearly that forgiveness is indeed dependent on something that we do, and a darn difficult thing at that: forgiving others, even if they have grievously wronged us.

When speaking to the crowds, Jesus said a great many things that are puzzling in how harsh they seem: plucking out eyes and cutting off hands, being liable to hell for just calling someone a fool, etc. These things seem extremely at odds with such statements as, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(Mt 11:28-30)

It’s puzzling until you realize that Jesus was going to die and rise again to establish a new covenant, not like the old one. The old covenant was based on what you do. So some of the things Jesus said were pointing forward to the new relationship he was going to establish with God, and some of them were making clear the need for that new covenant because no one could really live by the old one. Even if you managed not to break the letter of the law, which no one could do anyway, there is a spirit behind the letter that you still violate. An author I recently read refers to these statements as “Moses 2.0.” Concerning the forgiveness of sins before God, this parable is “Moses 2.0”, but it still applies in the new covenant in other ways.

My wife and I have been in a position to counsel a lot of troubled people, and almost always, when they have a destructive behavior pattern that they cannot break, or emotional problems they can’t shake, we find that there is something in their past that they have not forgiven, and it steals their present. Problems in relationships, and especially marriages, are frequently traceable to something that one or more of the people has not forgiven, either to the other, or to their parents, or someone else in their past. So in that sense, even in the new covenant, things we don’t forgive are not forgiven us; they hold power over us. Author Max Lucado said, "Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!"

Forgiveness is what Jesus went to the cross for; it is what the cross was all about. Forgiveness is the power of the cross. To the degree that forgiveness is a reality in your life, the power of the cross will be a reality in your life.

For a person who has been seriously wronged, forgiveness is the natural expression of really coming into the relationship that God wants with you. It means first of all receiving him as savior, because it is the result of realizing how much you were forgiven. It also means receiving him as Lord, because it is taking ourselves off of the throne and off of the judge’s seat, and giving those places back to God, where they belong. It is humbling myself, laying down my rights, and acknowledging that it is not all about me.

That is why it is so important to God.

I think you're right about the problematic aspects of the parable with regard to covenant theology. I had a (maybe) interesting thought about it reading your reply. I wonder if it can be seen as a bridge between the two. Covenant theology tends to argue a strict distinction between New and Old Testament covenants, but there are plenty of problematic points, as you point out, which can't be quite comfortably rationalised into one camp or the other.

Jesus is the transitional figure within the Bible, although others could certainly be included, John, the disciples, Paul, etc. Obviously he's grounded, at least in terms of his human side, in Old testament theology, or more specifically, Judaic tradition. Matthew is kind of a transitional book in a lot of ways in that it starts to lay out what the future of Jesus' church will look like. So I kind of wonder if it's a good idea to force the parable into a pigeonhole of being New or Old covenant, especially given that the New covenant has yet to be made. The disciples are still, theoretically, under the old covenant while being asked to conform to a new covenant yet to be made, and which they can't anticipate exactly.

In that sense the parable could be seen, in terms of theological history, as a kind of transition phase.

Does that make sense? You raise some interesting questions.

[kentington]

I think you're right about the problematic aspects of the parable with regard to covenant theology. I had a (maybe) interesting thought about it reading your reply. I wonder if it can be seen as a bridge between the two. Covenant theology tends to argue a strict distinction between New and Old Testament covenants, but there are plenty of problematic points, as you point out, which can't be quite comfortably rationalised into one camp or the other.

Jesus is the transitional figure within the Bible, although others could certainly be included, John, the disciples, Paul, etc. Obviously he's grounded, at least in terms of his human side, in Old testament theology, or more specifically, Judaic tradition. Matthew is kind of a transitional book in a lot of ways in that it starts to lay out what the future of Jesus' church will look like. So I kind of wonder if it's a good idea to force the parable into a pigeonhole of being New or Old covenant, especially given that the New covenant has yet to be made. The disciples are still, theoretically, under the old covenant while being asked to conform to a new covenant yet to be made, and which they can't anticipate exactly.

In that sense the parable could be seen, in terms of theological history, as a kind of transition phase.

Does that make sense? You raise some interesting questions.

I think I see what you mean and I can agree with it. His parable would be unheard of as far as the Old covenant goes. The Old covenant required you to follow a law you couldn't follow and so you constantly had to do things to cover up your sins. Rituals and what not. Theological foreshadowing?