Forgiveness Under the Law and in Paul’s Gospel

Ephesians 4:32 reads, "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Here Paul appeals to a present forgiveness already granted to believers: God has forgiven you, and therefore you are to forgive others. There is no stated threat that failure to forgive others will revoke or block God's forgiveness toward you.

By contrast, in Matthew 18:21–35 Jesus tells the story often called the parable of the unforgiving servant. Peter asks how often he must forgive his brother. Jesus answers "until seventy times seven," then describes a king settling accounts with his servants. One servant, forgiven an enormous debt, then refuses to forgive a fellow servant who owes him a small amount. The king responds in anger and delivers him to the tormentors. Jesus concludes in Matthew 18:35: "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, Matthew 6:15: "But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." In these statements, forgiveness from the Father is explicitly conditioned on forgiving others.

This presents a clear contrast: Paul affirms a forgiveness already possessed in Christ, whereas Jesus, ministering under the law and teaching the gospel of the kingdom, articulates a conditional forgiveness tied to one's own forgiving posture. The question, therefore, is how forgiveness operated under the law and how this relates to the later Pauline teaching.

subsection*Jesus’ Teaching and the Kingdom Context

In Matthew 18 and Matthew 6, Jesus addresses Israel within the framework of the law and the promised kingdom. Romans 15:8 states that Jesus was "a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." Galatians 4:4 adds that he was "made under the law." His earthly ministry is therefore law-oriented and directed to the covenant people.

When Jesus teaches, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses," he is speaking in that legal-covenantal environment. Likewise, Matthew 6:15 presents forgiveness in a conditional framework: if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven. The logic is clear and threatening, not merely exemplary.

Those who blend Jesus’ kingdom teaching with Paul’s gospel of grace often attempt to harmonize these passages by softening one or the other. A common move is to read Matthew’s conditional statements through Paul, effectively rewriting Matthew to say: "Because God has forgiven you, you will forgive others, and if you do not, it merely shows you were never forgiven." That is not what the text in Matthew says. It states, straightforwardly, that the Father's forgiveness is withheld if one does not forgive others.

Paul, writing later, does not speak this way. In Ephesians 4:32, the pattern is reversed: forgiveness is already granted, and believers are exhorted to imitate that forgiveness toward others. There is no threat of losing or never obtaining forgiveness based on performance. This reveals a change in the administration of forgiveness between the law/kingdom context and the dispensation of grace.

subsection*Forgiveness Under the Law: Sacrifice, Repentance, and Restitution

To understand how forgiveness worked under the law, one must look primarily at the Torah. Several texts in Leviticus are instructive.

Leviticus 4 describes various sin offerings. For example, Leviticus 4:20 says:

"And the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them."

Again in Leviticus 4:26:

"And the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him."

And similarly in Leviticus 5:10:

"And the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him."

These passages show that under the Mosaic system, forgiveness was granted in connection with the prescribed sacrificial ritual. Yet that ritual did not stand alone. The law consistently ties forgiveness to several components:

1. Recognition and confession of sin.
2. Repentance and humility of heart.
3. Restitution where possible.
4. The required sacrificial offering.

Consider Leviticus 26:40–42:

"If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land."

The conditional "if...then" language is prominent. There must be confession, humility, and acceptance of discipline before covenant mercy is experienced. Likewise, 2 Chronicles 7:14 famously presents a conditional pattern: "If my people... then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin."

It is also clear that certain sins under the law were beyond the reach of sacrificial atonement, especially high-handed, defiant violations for which no full restitution was possible. In such cases, the sinner faced judgment without provision for ritual forgiveness.

Synthesizing these elements, forgiveness under the law can be described as covenantal and conditional. It depended on:

Being within the covenant people. Bringing the prescribed sacrifice. Confessing sin and repenting. Making restitution where applicable.

Only then could the priest "make atonement" and it "shall be forgiven."

subsection*Forgiving Others as Part of Covenant Faithfulness

Does the Torah explicitly say, "You must forgive others or God will not forgive you" in the precise wording of Matthew 6:15 and Matthew 18:35 ? The Pentateuch does not phrase it exactly that way. Yet the principle fits the broader legal and prophetic expectation.

The law requires love for neighbor, honesty in dealings, and restitution for wrongs. One cannot fulfill the law’s demands while harboring ongoing malice, refusing to make things right, or clinging to a vengeful spirit. The sacrificial system assumes a heart posture consistent with covenant loyalty. To seek forgiveness from God while refusing reconciliation with one’s neighbor is out of step with the legal and covenantal ethos.

Jesus, operating as a minister of the circumcision under the law, sharpens and clarifies this expectation. His teaching on forgiveness in Matthew can be viewed as making explicit what is implicit in the Mosaic context: covenant faithfulness includes a forgiving posture toward others, and the absence of such forgiveness signals a heart not rightly aligned with God's covenant standards.

Thus, in the kingdom and law framework, God’s forgiveness is not an unconditional, pre-existing reality to be exemplified. It is a covenant blessing conditioned on obedience, sacrifice, repentance, and a right relationship with fellow Israelites. Jesus’ severe warnings about withholding forgiveness are an intensification and clarification of that covenantal pattern.

subsection*What We Do Not See Under the Law

There is, however, something conspicuously absent in the law: we do not find a statement equivalent to Ephesians 4:32 , "forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Under the Mosaic covenant, Israel is not told, "You are already forgiven in a once-for-all sense; therefore, imitate that forgiveness." Rather, forgiveness is repeatedly presented as something sought and received through ongoing sacrificial and repentant practice.

Old Testament passages that celebrate forgiveness, such as Psalm 103:12 ,

"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us,"

or prophetic anticipations like Jeremiah 31:34 ,

"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,"

are looking forward to a future, climactic expression of forgiveness tied to the new covenant. They do not indicate that Israel, under the Sinai covenant, lived in a blanket, unconditional state of forgiven status. Rather, they anticipate something better yet to come.

Consequently, one does not find in the Torah a doctrine of universal or settled forgiveness that then becomes the basis for an exhortation to forgive others. That Pauline pattern belongs to a later revelation.

subsection*Pauline Forgiveness: Post-Resurrection and Grace-Based

When we come to Paul, we encounter statements such as Ephesians 1:7 :

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."

Here, forgiveness is rooted in Christ’s accomplished work and is described as a present possession: "we have... the forgiveness of sins." This text, though related to kingdom expectations for Jewish believers in Christ, is written after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and reflects a post-cross perspective.

Later in Ephesians, Paul applies this reality ethically: "forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" ( Ephesians 4:32 ). Forgiveness is not held out as a conditional future benefit to be gained by meeting requirements; it is presented as a gracious, already-given gift that now shapes behavior.

A similar pattern appears in 2 Corinthians 5:19 :

"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."

The language here emphasizes non-imputation of trespasses—a stance God takes toward the world on the basis of Christ’s work. This stands in marked contrast to the ongoing imputation, sacrificial requirements, and conditional forgiveness of the Mosaic system.

When Paul exhorts believers to forgive, he does so on the basis of this completed reconciling work, not as a condition for obtaining forgiveness. His ethic flows from grace received rather than from fear of judgment withheld.

subsection*Rightly Dividing the Word on Forgiveness

If one insists that God's offer of forgiveness has always been the same across all eras, one must produce Old Testament and Gospel texts that match the Pauline pattern of forgiveness: a present, settled forgiveness in Christ, rooted in grace apart from works, not conditioned on acts such as forgiving others.

However, the Old Testament record shows:

Forgiveness administered through a sacrificial system. Repeated emphasis on confession, repentance, and restitution. Conditional covenant language: "if they confess... then will I remember." Prophetic promises of a future, fuller forgiveness in a new covenant.

The Gospels, in Jesus’ earthly teaching, show:

A law-based, kingdom-oriented framework. Explicit conditionality: "If ye forgive not... neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" and "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you." No assertion that all hearers already stand forgiven as a settled reality on which they are to model their behavior.

Paul’s epistles, by contrast, present:

Forgiveness and reconciliation anchored in Christ’s completed work. A present possession of forgiveness: "In whom we have... the forgiveness of sins." Ethical exhortations to forgive others because God has already forgiven us in Christ, not in order to secure God's forgiveness.

Recognizing these distinctions is part of rightly dividing the word of truth. It clarifies why Matthew 18 and Matthew 6 sound so different from Ephesians 4. Jesus, under the law, speaks in covenantal and conditional terms to Israel. Paul, as the apostle of the Gentiles and steward of the mystery, proclaims a forgiveness grounded in grace and in the finished work of Christ, then urges believers to extend that same kind of forgiveness to others.

subsection*Summary of Forgiveness Under the Law

Under the law, forgiveness worked as follows:

raggedright Covenantal framework: It applied to Israel as the covenant people.par raggedright Confession and repentance: Sinners were to acknowledge their sin and humble themselves.par raggedright Restitution: Where possible, wrongs against others were to be made right.par raggedright Sacrificial atonement: The prescribed sacrifices were to be brought, and the priest would make atonement.par raggedright Conditionality: God’s forgiveness and covenant favor depended on these responses; some sins had no sacrificial remedy.par raggedright No universal, settled status: There was no assertion that all were once-for-all forgiven and then simply exhorted to imitate that forgiveness.par

By contrast, in the present dispensation as articulated by Paul, forgiveness is presented as a gracious, present reality in Christ, to be reflected in our relationships but not conditioned upon our performance of forgiving others.