14 For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.
I'm reading a book called Forgive by Tim Keller. In the book, it mentions that the concept of forgiveness (cancelling debt) was not seen in ancient cultures. The ancient cultures recognized the virtue of pity and lessening the penalty, but not forgiveness. It's really cool that this vital virtue we all cannot live without is introduced first by Christianity. The Jews obviously had the concept of forgiveness too (the vertical dimension) but the horizontal dimension of forgiveness didn't really fully come to light until Jesus came.
