Are Forgiveness and Judgment Conditional?

Verses for this morning - Matthew 7:1-6 NIV:

[1] “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. [2] For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 

[3] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? [4] How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? [5] You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 

[6] “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

Verse two caught my attention this morning, as it is certainly worth thinking about - for apparently, like forgiveness, judgment is also conditional.  Earlier in Jesus' sermon on the mount, He had said the following, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." ( Matthew 6:14-15 NIV).

I find it interesting that our attitude towards others in both judgment and forgiveness affect God's attitude towards us. IN verse 2 above Jesus does not specifically say "The Father" (At least in the NIV) but judgment by one who will judge is clearly implied, and there is only one ultimate and eternal judge.

This morning I find my curiosity rising as I reflect on these statements by Jesus.  I am reminded of one more statement Jesus made, found in Matt 10:8b "Freely you have received; freely give."  While Jesus was talking about Kingdom authority to heal, cleanse and raise the dead in that instance I believe that these two statements about judgment and forgiveness are directly related to the Gospel of grace, and Kingdom realities.  We have received forgiveness freely, and have not been judged because of that forgiveness, and as representatives of His Gospel  and Kingdom, we are called to do the same.  

Jesus tells another parable later about the unforgiving debtor, and rather than adding that here, lets just say it is related and proves this line of thinking.  It is found at Matt 18:21-35 if you want to review it. 

Anyway, back to these two statements, about apparently conditional forgiveness and judgment in the Kingdom.  Some have called Jesus' sermon on the mount the constitution of the Kingdom, and it is clear He is speaking about a new paradigm, and included in that Kingdom paradigm are important perspectives on forgiveness and judgment. That these do not affect our overall forgiveness and judgment as related to our salvation must be clearly understood.  We can't lose our salvation by judging someone else, or by our unforgiveness, for that would mean that Jesus didn't die for all our sins, or pay the price required.  However, there must be a relational context that is impacted by our judgment and unforgiveness of others.  

My question is how do judgment and unforgiveness impact my relationship with God?  I think that first and foremost that what is being addressed is attitude, and understanding of our own judgment and forgiveness.  

Looking at forgiveness first, If we have been forgiven for every sin, and yet we will not forgive others, we clearly don't understand the gift we have received.  Our unforgiveness is essentially a form of unbelief, and shows we are living with an attitude towards God.  We believe that somehow we know better than Him, that our perspective is more true, or that even though He has paid for this other person's sin, we demand additional payment.  As I wrote that, I realized how absolutely ugly that attitude was, and can't imagine  holding onto that attitude in the face of God who has graciously forgiven every one of our sins, paying the price,  We are telling Him it wasn't enough!  Yikes!  

This idea and attitude will poison our own thinking and experience of our own forgiveness, and this is the enemies plan!  He wants us to live in the place of unforgiveness, wants us to believe that we haven't really been forgiven, and have to earn or pay for our own sins, and so should everyone else!  This is a completely false narrative, but if we hold onto it, it will poison our thoughts, our relationships, even our experience of God's grace and mercy, for we won't believe it is true.  While God doesn't view us this way, we think He does, and we apply our thoughts to our own lives and live under the weight of unforgiveness.  

The Greek word that is translated forgive (Matt 6:15 above) is the word aphiémi:

Definition: to send away, leave alone, permit

Usage: (a) I send away, (b) I let go, release, permit to depart, (c) I remit, forgive, (d) I permit, suffer.

If we think of the Father's response to our unforgiveness towards others, He is essentially allowing our sin to stay with us, and not sending it away, or releasing us from it, which is what Jesus says.  I think that is exactly what I described in the paragraph above, we end up living under our own misconceptions and beliefs, rather than experiencing the freedom that is actually available to us.  This is part of our free-will, the Father won't force us to forgive someone else, and when we don't, we end up living in our own poisoned mind-set.  Wow!  Why would anyone choose to live in this way?  

In the same way, judgment is a false perspective, based on a wrong idea of our own relationship to the Lord.  As I said before, there is only one eternal judge, and it is not us.  When we take on judgment, we are essentially putting ourselves in God's place.  Again, we are wrongly thinking about the Gospel of grace, and we think that our judgment is required, for clearly God has not appropriately judged this person, who we have encountered. We think we know better than God!  Judgment isn't hearing an argument and making a well-balanced decision, it is our taking the place of judge, jury and punisher, after a very uninformed review!  God is the only one who knows every thought, every experience, every wounding, every sorrow, every pain experienced by the other that we are judging.  He is the only one that can judge fairly. Once again, we are saying we don't trust His judgment, or don't agree with His judgment and demand our own sentencing, and punishment.

In the same way that our unforgiveness of others can poison our own experience of God's forgiveness and mercy, our judgmentalness can affect our view of God's attitude towards us.  If we believe that God is misjudging others, He clearly can't have gotten His judgment about us correct either.  With this attitude, we will clearly live under condemnation that is not from God!  We will think that we are too sinful, too broken, too far-gone and think we must live under a sentence of punishment that is not from God.  Again, the enemy works overtime to try and get us to think wrongly about God, and as individuals with free-will, God won't force us to change.  When we think wrongly about God, our experience of His mercy, compassion and love becomes tainted, for we don't really believe the Gospel.

Bringing this all back to the Kingdom paradigm, if we don't learn how to forgive and live as non-judgmental people, others will only receive  a tainted Gospel reality from our witness.  I hate to say it, but I think that I am seeing the very fruit of that in our culture and church today!  

In summary, our forgiveness and judgment are not conditional from God's perspective, but they are experienced as such when we operate in that mindset.

Oh Lord, help me to forgive others, to stop judging, to allow Your Gospel of Grace, and offer of salvation to flow freely from my life!  Help us to be true witnesses to Your great and glorious Gospel!  Help us to step free of our own unbelief and misunderstanding, refusing to hold onto anything other than what You say about us!  

We are Your sons and daughters, greatly loved, and You have paid for every sin, and forgiven us of every one!  Help us to live under this great and freeing reality!

Amen and Amen!