To give grace
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G5483 is a verb for giving freely, granting a favor, releasing a debt, or forgiving graciously. Its twenty-three governed forms include healing, debt cancellation, a legal release request, preservation of life, divine gifts, suffering granted in relation to Christ, practical favor, and interpersonal or divine forgiveness.
Reader summary
Full entry for χαρίζομαι (G5483) · Open the biblical lexicon
G5483 is a verb for giving freely, granting a favor, releasing a debt, or forgiving graciously. Its twenty-three governed forms include healing, debt cancellation, a legal release request, preservation of life, divine gifts, suffering granted in relation to Christ, practical favor, and interpersonal or divine forgiveness.
The BSB source-word alignment has 23 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include forgave (2), Forgive (2), he forgave (2), be released (1), forgiving (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Luke 7:21. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (5), Acts (4), Colossians (3), Luke (3).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G5483 is a verb for giving freely, granting a favor, releasing a debt, or forgiving graciously. Its twenty-three governed forms include healing, debt cancellation, a legal release request, preservation of life, divine gifts, suffering granted in relation to Christ, practical favor, and interpersonal or divine forgiveness. The subject, object, and setting determine whether the act is generosity, permission, release, or pardon.
Forgiveness uses do not mean that every harmed person must restore trust, waive civil remedies, avoid reporting, resume contact, reconcile without repentance, or remain exposed to danger. The legal scenes do not turn human authorities into models of divine grace, and passages about suffering being granted must not be used to seek harm or block care and escape.
Grace-shaped forgiveness tells the truth about wrong, protects vulnerable people, preserves boundaries and accountability, and cannot be compelled by an offender or institution for its own benefit.
χαρίζομαι moves between free giving and gracious forgiveness. In Colossians it names both God's forgiveness of trespasses and the pattern by which believers forgive one another in Christ.
When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Which one, then, will love him more?”
Jesus uses the word in a debt-forgiveness setting. The free cancellation of debt becomes a doorway into love, gratitude, and mercy.
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
The word can mean gracious giving: God freely gives all things with the Son He did not spare. The verb is grounded in divine generosity.
Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
Paul makes God's forgiveness in Christ the pattern for church life. The word is explicitly relational and communal.
When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,
God's forgiving act is joined to being made alive with Christ. Trespasses are not minimized; they are forgiven in the saving action of God.
Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
The forgiven church becomes a forgiving people. The Lord's forgiveness supplies both the model and the motive for bearing with one another.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. To give or forgive freely as an act of grace, never implying obligation or debt repayment.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 23 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseI show favor to, forgive
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 22 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 23 lexical occurrence verses.
χαρίζομαι is built from this root:
Highlights God’s gracious preservation of all aboard. Acts 27:13-26
This word lets a preacher connect the vertical and horizontal life of grace without confusing them. Colossians 2 comes before Colossians 3. God forgives trespasses and makes dead sinners alive with Christ before Paul tells believers to forgive one another. That order matters. The church's forgiveness is not a self-generated moral achievement and not a denial that wrong was done.
It is the overflow of received grace. Preach χαρίζομαι by showing how God deals with real guilt in Christ, then how that mercy trains the church to bear with one another. Forgiveness is not pretending the record never existed; Colossians says God canceled the record at the cross.
Col.2.13
The verb is related to χάρις and can mean either to give freely or to forgive graciously. In Colossians, the forgiveness sense is explicit and is tied to trespasses, the cancelled record, and life together in the church.
The Old Testament repeatedly joins divine forgiveness to covenant mercy and restored life with God. In Colossians, that mercy is announced through Christ's cross and then embodied in a forgiving community.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain