Do you like Peter? It seems his name comes to the top more often than any of the other disciples. Often people confess to identifying with him. He took chances. He dared to ask the wrong questions. He risked giving the wrong answers.

Peter was the one who came to Jesus with the classic question on forgiveness, recorded in Matthew 18:21.

“Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”

He was mostly asking a rhetorical question; he was pretty sure of his conclusions. Seven times seemed like a lot to Peter. The Pharisees stopped at three. Peter was willing to double their limit, and even go one step farther, arriving at the “perfect” number. Good for Peter!

Now wait a minute before you judge Peter. Of course, you already know Jesus’ reply.

“I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Verse 22.

But set that aside for a minute and remember the last time your neighbor or friend or family member did something for which you needed to forgive them. And you forgave them. But they did it again. So you forgave them again. Until seven times. Weren’t you about finished forgiving by that time? After all, 490 is a lot of times!

Our family lived for seven years at Pacific Union College in northern California. The college is located up in the mountains, as they say locally, “eight miles from the nearest known sin.” It’s an Adventist ghetto if you ever saw one. And in that kind of atmosphere, the preacher gets called upon to be a sort of town marshall, judge, and jury all rolled into one.

One Sunday the telephone rang. One of the parishioners wanted me to deal with his neighbors. The neighbors’ horse had run through his petunias. And he felt that I was the logical one to handle the situation!

The answer I should have given this caller is found in Luke 17:3, 4.

“If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”

(Even Peter would probably have thought it was too much if the “seven times” happened in a single day!)

What if I had told the man with the petunias, “What you need to do is forgive. And if the neighbor’s horse runs through your petunias six more times today, forgive six more times. Biblically speaking, that horse can still come through 489 more times! By which time there will have long since ceased to be any petunias left to run through!”

Jesus recommended unlimited forgiveness. And He would not ask us to be more forgiving than God is, so we know that God’s forgiveness is also without limits, as long as we keep coming to Him and asking for pardon and receiving His gift of forgiveness.

But sometimes people get nervous right there. They ask, “Won’t that lead to license?” If the neighbors with the horse were forgiven 490 times, or even 7 times in a single day, wouldn’t they start thinking their horse had a right to run through the flowers? Won’t the teaching of unlimited forgiveness lead us to play fast and loose with God’s grace?

Jesus answered that question in His parable to Simon about the two debtors. See Luke 7. He told Simon and Mary and the listening disciples, that whoever is forgiven much, loves much. The more you are forgiven, the more you love.

Now we need to add only one more text, John 14:15.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” NIV.

There you have it. God’s forgiveness is limitless. But this does not lead to license, because the one who is forgiven much, loves much. And the more you love, the more you obey. It’s just that simple.

“Jesus knows the circumstances of every soul. You may say, I am sinful, very sinful. You may be; but the worse you are, the more you need Jesus. He turns no weeping, contrite one away. He does not tell to any all that He might reveal, but He bids every trembling soul take courage. Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration.” - The Desire of Ages, p. 568.