Forgiveness is a gift, but it is not a small gift. It releases a real debt and restores a relationship damaged by real sin. Paul uses the language of gracious giving both for God’s forgiveness and for Christians forgiving one another.
The Word
χαρίζομαι (charizomai) means to give freely, grant graciously, or forgive, depending on the context. It is related to charis, grace. The relationship helps us recognize a family of words, but does not make every occurrence a technical statement about salvation.
The middle-form verb can describe a favor granted, a person handed over, or an offense forgiven. The object identifies what is being granted or released. Translating it with the same English expression everywhere would often obscure the sense.
Range of Meaning
Romans 8:32 uses the verb in the promise of God’s giving with his Son. Philippians 1:29 speaks of both believing in Christ and suffering for him as granted to believers. Colossians 3:13 uses it for forgiveness between Christians.
That last use does not mean that we originate the grace by which sinners are justified. Paul makes God’s forgiveness in Christ the pattern and ground of the forgiveness Christians extend. The direction begins with what they have received.
Where You’ll Meet It
Colossians describes God’s life-giving work as including:
“having forgiven all your transgressions.” (Colossians 2:13, NET)
The people addressed were dead in trespasses. God’s action joins them to Christ’s life and cancels the hostile record described in the next verse. Forgiveness is not the reward paid after they have made themselves spiritually alive.
In Colossians 3:12–17, the same letter turns to patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving complaints. The chosen and beloved people are called to live together in a way shaped by the Lord’s prior mercy.
What Confessional Lutherans Hear
Augsburg Confession IV excludes our merits and satisfactions from the basis of forgiveness. Colossians supplies the same pastoral direction: God gives life and forgives sinners through Christ. Faith receives the gift without turning it into compensation for something God owes us.
The resulting forgiveness of others is serious. It is not merely feeling less irritated, and it is not a way to earn back what God gave. It means refusing to make personal revenge the governing purpose of the relationship.
Forgiveness does not require pretending an offense never happened. Truth, restitution, protection of the vulnerable, and the proper work of civil authority still have their places. A person can relinquish vengeance without declaring every boundary unnecessary or every claim trustworthy.
Where People Get It Wrong
The command to forgive can be misused to silence the person who has been harmed. Paul calls a whole community to a life under Christ; he does not give an offender permission to demand continued access to another person’s vulnerability.
The opposite error treats God’s forgiveness as irrelevant to our conduct. Receiving mercy while deliberately nurturing vengeance contradicts the life Paul describes.
So What
Begin with Christ’s forgiveness of your own real sins. Then consider what faithful forgiveness of a neighbor requires in the actual circumstances, including honesty and needed protection.
Aphiēmi explores another major verb of forgiveness, especially in Christ’s commission concerning absolution.