17 Bible verses about forgiveness
Passages for the guilt you keep carrying and the grudge you keep feeding, each with a few lines on what it asks of you now.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 11 min read
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12 · BSB
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13 · BSB
The Bible verses about forgiveness people turn to most are 1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:12, Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13. Together they say two things at once: God forgives everyone who comes to him honestly, and the people he forgives are asked to pass it on, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Both halves are hard, usually for different people. Some can forgive a coworker by Friday but cannot quite believe God has let go of the thing they did at nineteen. Others know they are forgiven and still feel their jaw tighten when a certain name comes up at a family dinner. Scripture has words for both.
Below are seventeen passages, all quoted from the Berean Standard Bible. The first ten are about God’s forgiveness, the last seven about forgiving the people who have hurt you. Each comes with a few lines on what it meant when it was written and what it asks of you now. Read slowly, and stop at the one that stings a little. That is usually the one.
Forgiving someone is not the same as excusing what they did, pretending it did not hurt, or staying where you are not safe. If you are living with abuse, please talk to someone you trust, such as a pastor, a counselor or the authorities, as well as praying.
When you need a clean start
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9 · BSB
The verse just before it is blunt: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” John is not interested in pretending. He offers the honest alternative: say it plainly, and leave the rest to God. Look at the two words he chooses, “faithful and just.” Forgiveness here is not God going soft. It is God keeping his word.
When you keep digging it back up
Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12 · BSB
Walk far enough north and you start heading south. Walk east and you can keep going forever. David picks the one distance that never closes. If God has put your sin that far away, you do not need to keep going back for it.
When the stain feels permanent
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
Isaiah 1:18 · BSB
Isaiah’s first chapter reads like a charge sheet. A few lines earlier God says of his people’s prayers, “Your hands are covered with blood.” Then, in the middle of the case against them, the tone changes: come, let us reason together. Isaiah reaches for the most stubborn colors he can think of, then the whitest things he knows, snow and wool. The invitation comes before the cleanup, not after.
When silence is making you sick
From Psalm 32:5
Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin.
From Psalm 32:5 · BSB
Just before this, David describes what hiding did to him: “When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.” Then he stops hiding, and the verse turns on one small word, “and.” He confessed, and God forgave. There is no waiting period in between, no probation. If you have been carrying something for years, this is how short the distance is.
When you feel in too deep
Psalm 130:3–4
If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand? But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.
Psalm 130:3–4 · BSB
This psalm opens “Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!” If God kept a running record, the writer admits, nobody would be left standing, himself included. The ending is the surprise: forgiveness leads to reverence, not carelessness. People who know how much they have been let off tend to take God more seriously, not less.
When you need a picture
Micah 7:19
He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19 · BSB
Micah’s own name is a question, “Who is like the LORD?”, and his book closes by asking it again: “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity” Then comes the image. Sin is not filed away for later use; it is thrown into water too deep to fish it back out. Many Jewish communities still read these verses beside a river or the sea at Rosh Hashanah, in a custom called Tashlikh, from the Hebrew word here for “cast.”
When you think God is keeping score
Isaiah 43:25
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
Isaiah 43:25 · BSB
God says “I” twice before he gets to the point, so nobody else takes the credit. He gives his reason, “for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.,” not yours. And he chooses not to remember. That is not forgetting by accident, the way we lose a phone number. It is deciding never to bring it up again.
When you have rehearsed your apology
Luke 15:20
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
Luke 15:20 · BSB
Jesus tells this story because religious leaders were grumbling, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” The younger son has a speech ready, ending with “Make me like one of your hired servants.”’” He never gets to that line. Halfway through, his father is already calling for the best robe, a ring and sandals.
Notice too that the father sees him while he is still far off. Someone had been watching the road.
Where forgiveness comes from
Ephesians 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Ephesians 1:7 · BSB
Paul piles the words up: redemption, blood, forgiveness, riches, grace. Forgiveness is not a mood God happens to be in on a good day. It was won at the cross, and it is given “according to the riches of His grace,” not according to how sorry you managed to feel. On the days your repentance feels thin, that is good news.
Forgiveness from the cross
From Luke 23:34
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
From Luke 23:34 · BSB
Jesus prays this just after he is nailed to the cross, about the men who are “casting lots” for his clothes a few feet below. Nobody has apologized. Nobody is going to. Everything in the rest of this list, all the forgiving we are asked to do, is measured against this prayer.
Forgiving others: the reason why
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 (BSB)
Paul does not ask you to forgive because the other person deserves it, or because holding a grudge is bad for your blood pressure. His reason is in the last few words: just as in Christ God forgave you. You give out of what you have already received. It is short enough to keep on your Lock Screen and read on the way into a hard conversation.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:32 · BSBTurn this verse into your Lock Screen wallpaperWrite it over a photograph in MySavior’s wallpaper maker and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen.
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When it is small and constant
Colossians 3:13
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13 · BSB
“Bear with one another” comes first, and it is the less dramatic half. Most of what needs forgiving is not betrayal. It is the brother-in-law with opinions, the colleague who takes credit, the spouse who forgets again. Paul expects complaints in any church, and he treats forgiveness as ordinary daily housekeeping.
Every time you pray the Our Father
Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Matthew 6:12 · BSB
This is the one line of the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus comes back to as soon as the prayer ends (Matthew 6:14–15). Matthew says “debts”; Luke’s version says “sins.” Either way, you ask to be forgiven in the same breath as you say you have forgiven. It is worth slowing down at the comma.
When it keeps happening
Matthew 18:21–22
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!
Matthew 18:21–22 · BSB
Peter probably thought seven was generous. Jesus’ answer (some older translations read “seventy times seven”) is not a higher quota to count toward. It means: stop counting. Then he tells of a servant let off “ten thousand talents was brought to him.” who went out and choked a man over “a hundred denarii.” The gap between the two debts is the whole point.
Before you pray
Mark 11:25
And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”
Mark 11:25 · BSB
Jesus has just told his disciples that faith can throw a mountain into the sea. Then he brings it straight back down to earth: the grudge you are holding as you stand there praying. Forgiving is part of prayer, not a separate errand for later. Some people find it helps to say the person’s name out loud before they begin.
When you would rather be the judge
Luke 6:37
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Luke 6:37 · BSB
Three commands, three results, from the Sermon on the Plain. This is not a trade, your mercy handed over in exchange for God’s. It is closer to a law of the heart: a hand clenched against other people is hard to open toward God. The next verse promises a measure “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”
When forgiveness takes years
Genesis 50:20
As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.
Genesis 50:20 · BSB
Joseph’s brothers sold him to traders for twenty shekels of silver. Decades later, with their father dead, they panic: “What if Joseph bears a grudge?” When their message reaches him, Joseph weeps.
He does not tell them it was fine. He calls it evil, plainly. He simply refuses to let it have the last word, and then he promises to feed their children.
A small practice for this week
Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left, write what you need God to forgive. On the right, write the names of anyone you are still holding something against. Then pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly once a day, and when you reach “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”, stop and look at both columns. You do not have to feel warm toward anyone yet. Forgiveness often starts as a decision you repeat until the feeling catches up.
For a reminder through the day, add MySavior’s Bible Verse widget to your Home Screen and include the Living Grace topic, which is about receiving mercy and extending it.
Keep mercy where your eyes already go
Add the Living Grace topic to MySavior’s Bible Verse widget, and short texts about receiving and giving mercy turn up on your Home Screen, changing by themselves on the schedule you pick.
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Questions
What does the Bible say about forgiveness?
That God forgives completely, and asks the people he forgives to forgive in turn. 1 John 1:9 promises forgiveness to anyone who confesses, Psalm 103:12 says that as far as the east is from the west, “so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” and Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13 ask Christians to forgive others as the Lord forgave them.
How many times should a Christian forgive?
When Peter offered seven, Jesus answered “not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (Matthew 18:22); some translations read “seventy times seven.” Either way, the point is not a bigger number but no number at all. In Luke 17:4, Jesus speaks of forgiving the same person seven times in a single day.
Does forgiving someone mean trusting them again?
No. Forgiving lets go of the debt and the wish to get even. Trust is rebuilt over time, and sometimes it cannot be. Joseph tested his brothers before he told them who he was (Genesis 42–44). Romans 12:18 is realistic: “If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone.”
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
How can I keep verses about forgiveness on my iPhone?
Add MySavior’s Bible Verse widget to your Home Screen and include the Living Grace topic in the Widget Studio. It moves on to another text by itself, on the schedule you pick. To keep one particular verse in front of you, such as Ephesians 4:32, write it over a photograph with the wallpaper maker and set it as your Lock Screen.
