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What does the Scripture say about forgiveness?
Biblical forgiveness from God’s character through the cross, confession, and the church’s call to forgive as we have been forgiven, with classic commentary notes.
Scripture context and classic commentary notes below. For a live, retrieval-grounded conversation, Ask Bible.
Divine forgiveness in the canon
Forgiveness begins with who God is. At Sinai the Lord proclaims his name: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7). The same confession is echoed in the Psalms (Psalm 86:5; 103:8–12) and prayed in repentance (Psalm 51).
In the New Testament, forgiveness is explicitly christological. Paul writes that in Christ “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Ephesians 1:7; cf. Colossians 1:13–14). John’s first letter ties ongoing confession to God’s faithfulness: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Matthew Henry’s Commentary · Matthew Henry
Henry on Exodus 34 treats the divine name as the church’s standing comfort: God is known as one who forgives, even while he does not clear the guilty without regard to justice. On Ephesians 1:7 he locates forgiveness in the blood of Christ as the price of redemption.
Jesus’ teaching: prayer, parable, and practice
Jesus places forgiveness at the center of discipleship. In the Lord’s Prayer, disciples ask, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), and Jesus immediately warns that refusing to forgive others stands in contradiction to receiving the Father’s forgiveness (Matthew 6:14–15).
Matthew 18:21–35 develops the point in the parable of the unforgiving servant. Peter asks how often to forgive; Jesus answers with a number that signals unlimited readiness, then tells of a servant forgiven an unpayable debt who throttles a fellow servant over a trifling sum. The king’s verdict exposes the moral incoherence of receiving mercy while refusing to extend it.
Reconciliation practices accompany forgiveness: seeking a brother who has sinned (Matthew 18:15–17), and leaving the gift at the altar to first be reconciled when you remember someone has something against you (Matthew 5:23–24).
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary · JFB
JFB on Matthew 18 stress that the parable’s “ten thousand talents” versus “a hundred denarii” dramatizes the disparity between our debt to God and horizontal offenses. Forgiveness does not deny justice; it refuses private vengeance because the greater debt has been remitted.
Apostolic application in the churches
Paul repeatedly grounds horizontal forgiveness in the vertical gift already received: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32); “Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). The pattern is imitation of divine mercy, not minimizing harm.
Scripture also holds forgiveness together with truth-telling and, where needed, church discipline (Matthew 18; 1 Corinthians 5). Forgiveness in the biblical sense is not a demand that victims pretend injury never occurred; it is the release of personal vengeance under the lordship of the One who judges justly (cf. Romans 12:17–21; 1 Peter 2:23).
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible · John Gill
Gill on Ephesians 4:32 connects kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness as fruits of being sealed by the Spirit, arguing that the measure and motive of Christian forgiveness is God’s forgiveness in Christ.