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"Seventy Times Seven" by Tony Thomas: Forgiveness Without a Calculator


Grudges or grace — which one am I holding onto? 

“Seventy Times Seven” by Tony Thomas opens with a guess. “Three? Seven?” Tony wonders, unsure how many times forgiveness is required before it’s enough. It’s a fair question. Most of us keep some kind of tally, even if we’d never admit it out loud. ‘Enough is enough…’, ‘This can’t go on…’, ‘There’s a limit to my patience…’, etc. The lyrics go back to a real conversation between the apostle Peter and Jesus. Peter once asked Jesus the same question, wondering if seven times was generous enough. Jesus answered with “seventy times seven”. The message here is that math was never the point. It’s about breaking the habit of counting altogether. 

Tony Thomas - Seventy Times SevenThat answer sits at the center of Matthew 18:21–22 (NKJV), where Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus replied, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” 

In Biblical numerology, both 7 and 70 symbolize completeness, perfection, and divine fullness. By multiplying 7 and 70, Jesus isn’t teaching us that there is a limit of 490 times that we need to forgive. Instead, Jesus combines two supreme symbols of biblical perfection to teach us that forgiveness has no limit at all. Jesus wasn’t giving Peter a bigger number to track. He gave Peter (and us) a different way of living. 

Think about the last person who wronged you. Are you still counting what they owe you? Forgiveness feels impossible when we treat it like a ledger, but Jesus never asked us to balance the books. He asked us to release the debt entirely. That’s not weakness! It takes real strength to let go of what you’re owed. The song puts it simply: “He will teach us how to love, he will teach us how to live.” Love and life, tangled together, both requiring the same muscle. 

So who’s on your list today? Start there. Ask God to help you loosen the grip on your ‘ledger’, and watch what opens up in you. Listen to the song and let the message settle in. “70 times 7 / That’s how he taught me”

(Related scripture: Matthew 18:22; Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32)

Background:

“Three? Seven?” opens with a question about how often we should forgive. The “three” is a guess in the song, while “seven” refers to Peter’s question to Jesus in Matthew 18:21: should he forgive someone up to seven times? Jesus answers, “seventy-seven times” or “seventy times seven,” depending on the translation (Matthew 18:22), teaching that forgiveness is not about keeping count.

Release date: September 23, 2026

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