The Mathematics of Grace Matt. 18:21–35; Genesis 50:15–21; Romans 14:1–12 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

With school starting up again, it’s a good time for us to talk about math. Who enjoyed or enjoys math in school? Was it a favorite subject for anyone? I didn’t mind it, but didn’t love it. But I love the mathematics of grace. I love how it works.

In basic math we learned that 1 +1 = 2, 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 is 8. 4 x 4 is 16. 16 x 16 is, I’m not sure. Anyone know? Even more basic to math is that 1 = 1, and 2 = 2, and 3 = 3, and on and on.

But the mathematics of grace works differently. In the realm of God’s grace, 1 = 0, 100 = 0, 1000 = 0, 10,000 = 0. 

What’s the highest number you can think of? It equals 0, when God’s grace is applied. 

All your sins equal zero when God forgives them. He doesn’t hold a single one against you. 

And, all the good works you do equal zero, as far as earning your salvation. Jesus has done it all for you.

In our Gospel, Jesus teaches us the math of grace as it pertains to our relationships. 21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Or some translations render it 7 x 70.

77 or 490, either way, the point Jesus is making, is that, as God’s forgiveness knows no bounds, so our forgiveness should be free and unlimited.

The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was so great, that it covered all the sin of humanity. 

Back to that highest number you can think of. Jesus has covered that much sin, and more.

There’s not a sin, nor crime, nor trespass, nor wrong-doing, nor act of selfishness, nor evil thought, or evil word, or evil deed, or evil desire, or evil feeling, that Jesus didn’t win forgiveness for; He earned forgiveness for them all.

We sin daily, more than we even know. Even our acts of goodness and deeds of kindness, have sin and selfishness mixed in. Our sins are more than we can number.

And yet our God forgives them all. He forgives us when we wake and when we sleep, and every minute in between.

He forgives us in the morning, and what do we do before the day is over? We sin. 

He forgives us in the evening, and what do we do before we wake? We sin some more.

God forgives us through the day, and through the night. 

His patience is amazing; and His steadfastness to forgive is inspiring. It helps us to be better forgivers, and better people in every way.

Living in God’s grace, 1 sin equals 0. God completely forgives it. Then the next sin equals 0. He completely forgives it. And so our days and our nights go.

So our weeks, and months and years go. So our lifetime in Christ goes.

We accumulate more sin than we can count. Some of them we forget. Others stick with us.

Jesus reapplies the mathematics of grace, to help us with a guilty conscience. He assures us that even the sins that trouble us the most are as forgiven as those sins we’ve long forgotten about. 

Each one equals 0. Each one deleted; each one erased; each one blotted out; each one infinitely removed from us: As far as the east is from the west, so far does God remove our sins from us, Psalm 103 promises.

All our sins equal exactly zero, when we remain in Christ. But without Him, they all come back to haunt us, every one of them. And in the end, they destroy us. We need God’s grace to handle the evil in our lives, or we’re doomed.

All the sins of the world were covered by one act of righteousness on the cross. 

In Christ, they all equal zero. That doesn’t mean we don’t sin anymore. We know do. But it means there are zero sins God keeps track of and holds against us.

If God holds a grand total of zero sins against us, how many should we hold against our brother, or sister, or neighbor, or enemy? 7, or 77, or 7 times 70?

When we let Jesus take our sins from us, and wash them away, then we forfeit our right to hold onto the sins of others to use against them. Their sins against us equal zero to us.

Jesus teaches us to calculate by a new math, the math of grace: 7 x 0, or 77 x 0, or 770 x 0, or the highest number you can think of times zero, that’s the number of sins to hold against your neighbor, zero.

Jesus teaches us, and the Holy Spirit empowers us, to apply the math of grace to our lives and relationships.

In Baptism, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit, we’ve pledged away the right to get even, renounced the right of retaliation. Which was never really ours to start with: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. 

In Christ, God repays our sins with forgiveness, and our selfishness with blessings.

In the movie, “The Count of Monte Cristo”, we learn a lesson of grace. 

A young man is framed by his jealous friend, and falsely imprisoned on a remote island. But he escapes. And he finds a treasure trove and becomes rich. 

He vows to use his riches to enact revenge upon the man who stole his life and his wife from him. 

But before he does, he’s reunited with the woman he loves, and his heart changes. When he finally has the chance to kill his sworn enemy, he refrains, because he realizes he’s been given something better: not a treasure trove, an abundance of love. 

The Count of Monte Cristo, dare we say, learned to count differently… He learned that that one great sin committed against him equaled zero. And that’s when his bitter, broken heart was healed.

The Gospel teaches us a new math to live by, the mathematics of grace. All the sins others have committed against you, equal zero retaliation on your part, zero bitterness, and zero grudges. 

It’s not easy to think and act this way, but Jesus did. And he helps you to live by this new math of grace, that heals the heart.

In our Old Testament, we see Joseph applying the mathematics of grace in his relationship to his brothers, repaying the evil they had done to him, with forgiveness.

Their crime equaled his kindness. He didn’t just forgive them, he provided for them, and for their families.

God’s grace in Joseph’s life made him a better person: more courageous to believe, more capable to forgive, and more caring to help others. 

That’s what God’s grace in us adds up to: more godliness and goodness.

God’s grace in us doesn’t add to the evil we do, it subtracts from it; and it multiplies the good we do. More grace doesn’t mean more freedom to sin; it means more power to love, and less weakness to sin.

In the Gospel, God has given you a new and amazing math to live by, the math of grace. 

May God’s grace multiply in your life, that your deeds of godly love world grow, and that God’s peace in you would increase, to guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who gives us infinite grace to live by. Amen.