Forgiveness

What exactly is forgiveness?
The dictionary defines it as excusing a fault or offense, renouncing anger or resentment, absolving from payment. What it is not I don't think is completely forgetting and trusting the person who causes you offense. It is a very sticky subject as to how you can fully pardon a person and yet not harbor a sense of unforgiveness.

"The stupid neither forgive nor forget, the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." --Thomas Szasz

Does Biblical wisdom call us to a higher level of forgiveness that involves forgetting? I don't see anything in scripture that would indicate this. Micah says that as far as the east is from the west this far has he taken our sins from us. Then there is the biblical idea that Christ ahs completely removed all our sins. I think though that this can be weighed against Proverbs which talks about watching out who you trust.

When is it appropriate to forgive?
In Matthew 18:22 Jesus tells Peter that he is to forgive the brother who sins against him 70 times 7 times which is representative of an infinite amount of instances of forgiveness. There does seem to be an appropriate way in which to extend forgiveness though which I will mention further on.

Why should we forgive?
There is plenty of motivation to forgive in scripture for me the most extreme example is in Mat 18 in the parable of the unmerciful servant who is tortured for his unforgiveness. Jesus follows this parable saying "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (vs 35) As Christians we ought to be compelled to forgive as the result of our salvation is that our sins were forgiven (Acts 3:19). Jesus even goes as far saying that the proportion of the way we forgive others will be the extent to which God forgives us (Mat 6:14-15, Mk 11:25, Lk 6:37). Jesus paved the way to make forgiveness possible (Eph 1:7, Col 1:4) and so if we embrace his life and death we will be motivated and enabled to extend forgiveness to others.

Why do we need forgiveness?
Beyond the fact that we need the forgiveness made possible in Christ's atonement we need to be forgiven for our everyday sins. It is not that we need to be justified before Christ all over again because that was accomplished in Christ's death resurrection, and our repentance and acceptance of his sacrifice. Sin does disrupt our relationship to God (Isa 59:2) and this is why the Lord's prayer contains the verse "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us" (Mat 6:9-12).

Who is called to forgive?
Every Christian is called to forgive others but it is more natural for those who have been forgiven of a lot to love and be able to forgive all the more (Lk 7:47). This doesn't mean that just people who have done a whole lot of obvious sins have an advantage to be able to love and forgive more for if we embrace the conviction of the sin in our lives which lead Jesus to the cross we can see that each one of us has been forgiven much.

How are we called to forgive?
I concur with "Believer's Bible Commentary." that it seems like the Bible supports some sort of stages of forgiveness:
The first is that forgiveness must be from the heart (eph 4:32) The second that we ought to rebuke the one who offended us and wait until he apologizes to declare our forgiveness to him (Luke 17:3)

Perhaps this indicates that our hearts should be in a place where we are ready to extend forgiveness and not harbor the sins of unforgivenss in which the devil gains access to our lives. Yet we also should wait to accept the unrepentant person back. Perhaps this is just in the context of church discipline but it still seems to have parallels to our personal interactions.

Concluding observation concerning other religions
I don't think that there is this concept of forgiveness in response to confession in any other religion. Either there is no need for forgiveness since we bear the consequences of sin (Buddhism) or there is the working out of one's sins in an effort to have the good works overpower the sins committed.