Jesus teaches us to forgive others, but forgiveness and rebuilding trust aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Suppose someone repeatedly breaks a promise or takes advantage of your kindness. You may genuinely forgive that person, but does that mean you should continue trusting them?
Can we fully forgive someone while still maintaining boundaries?
To restore a relationship the offending party needs to ask for forgiveness. People seldom think that they have done anything wrong so this seldom comes up.
If someone actually did ask to be forgiven, it might mean the restoration of a modified relationship. If you had assumed that you had a relationship with someone who could be trusted and they proved they could not be, you have every right to redefine the relationship in terms that are adjusted to your new level of understanding.
The bible teaches that forgiveness is Always preceded by repentance.
The Levitical sacrificial system presumes that every sinner offering a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin is repentant.
There are many statement made by God through prophets where God denounces the hypocrisy of sacrifices where sinners are not actually repentant.
Jesus taught the importance of repentance see Luke 17:3.
Our own salvation is because we all repented/said sorry for our sins.
The many N. T. verses about forgiveness presume that there has been repentance.
Please reread what Jesus actually prayed on the cross. He did Not say ’ I forgive them ', but ’ Father forgive them. ’ That is our example, if there is no repentance from an offender, we are to hand the situation over to God.
For him to deal with us, and the offender.
I don’t completely trust anyone, including myself, to begin with. I don’t think, then, I’d trust someone completely after they do something requiring my forgiveness.
70 x70 comes to mind but I agree with your point many things like this seem simple at first glance.
I heard recently on a podcast that forgiveness is more for the person who was wronged than for the perpetrator of the wrong. I found that framework helpful. So, forgiveness is always possible, but reconciliation is not. Sometimes, even though we have forgiven someone, we need to be wise and hold a boundary.