“The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, ‘Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' ”

Being faced up to his debt the servant was ‘repentant'. He offered that somehow if only his lord was merciful he would, given time, find some means eventually of repaying the whole debt (‘all'). Many see God like this. They see Him as requiring them to earn forgiveness by a lifetime of devotion (and as we have seen that would not be sufficient anyway). But Jesus' point is that God is in fact not like that. He is a God Who forgives freely. All in fact knew in their hearts that this servant would never be able to pay off such a huge debt. His only hope was total and free forgiveness.

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