As we come to the heart of the Prayer our Lord gave us we will consider how we pray for our greatest need, our need for forgiveness and what it means to be forgiven.
MATTHEW 6:12: “FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.”
INTRODUCTION
The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer. It is especially precious to us because in it we have Jesus’ own words.
It is a prayer that many churches—including mine—use every Sunday as we unite our hearts to meet God in prayer.
I’m sure that Jesus didn’t mean that this prayer should take the place of our own prayers.
Many of my prayers come from my heart: prayers of thankfulness and praise, intercession for others, prayers for strength and wisdom to live for God.
Others of my prayers come from the psalms or other prayers in the Bible.
I also use the prayers I’ve memorized of other believers from long ago.
Our prayer life would be very poor if this was the only prayer we use.
But this prayer has a special place because Jesus gave it to us for a model of how to pray.
In the first part of the prayer, we take our place as children of our loving heavenly Father; we honor his name, and we joined our wills to his in praying that his purposes may be accomplished on earth.
In the next part of the prayer we prayed for our physical needs, under the heading of “daily bread.”
Now we pray for our greatest need.
I. “FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.”
A. Some churches say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
Some churches say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
And other churches say, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
“Debts,” “Trespasses,” “Sins”: the meaning is the same.
But the original Greek word is the word for “debt.”
Jesus calls sins “debts” because we owe God obedience.
Whenever we fall short, we increase a debt that can never be repaid, because if God is God, we owe him perfect obedience.
B. As we pray for forgiveness, let us remind ourselves that most of our sins are hidden from us.
Our sins are in two heaps—one in front of us that we can see, and a larger one behind us that is hidden from our sight—
We unaware of many of our faults. They are hidden because of spiritual blindness, ignorance, pride, self-righteousness…
I once knew a woman who for most of her long life could never speak of a sister-in-law without criticizing her.
When I suggested to her in her very old age that she should speak more kindly of the woman she had always criticized, she was surprised.
She denied ever having negative feelings toward her Christian sister. She said, “I always got along well with her; in fact, I was about the only one who did.”
So blind are God’s children to their faults. I knew that woman well, and she was a good and Godly person.
I see each other’s faults easily enough—as I saw that woman’s fault—but it is hard to see my own.
C. The holier we become, the more we become aware of our sinfulness.
The closer to God we grow, the more gentle we become concerning the sinfulness of others.
I am an old man now, and every now and then I realize that I have been committing a serious sin all my life without being aware of it. And I need to repent of what the Lord has brought to light.
II. “…AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS.”
A. We might expect the prayer to say, “Forgive us our sins, for we truly repent of them and come to you for forgiveness.”
This is a true and necessary prayer; it is foolish to ask for forgiveness without sorrow for sin and the intention to amend my life.
But here Jesus passes by that issue and emphasizes something that is easy to overlook—the necessity to pass forgiveness on to those who have offended us.
B. This is the only part of the prayer that Jesus comments on.
Listen to what Jesus says about this part of his prayer: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.”
Although grace is free, dependent on nothing I can do, grace requires that I reflect it in my life by being gracious to others.
God has shown with the blood of his Son, that he loves me, that I may be his child, and that my conscience may be free.
This is the gift which he offers me.
But now I must receive the gift and make it part of my life.
And the way I make it part of my life is by taking that gift of forgiveness and passing it on to others.
C. There is a lot of misunderstanding about what forgiveness means.
Forgiveness isn’t necessarily reconciliation.
People who have been terribly wronged stumble at a seeming requirement that they replace the hurt in their hearts with kindly feelings toward those who have wronged them and never repented of the evil they have done.
Jesus tells us to forgive our enemies and forgive those who offend us, but he never says that we are to pretend that the offences never happened.
We forgive by letting go of the bitterness and by praying for the one who has sinned against us.
When people are terribly wronged—such as by a murder—what forgiveness means is sometimes a problem.
But often when we are offended by another, it isn’t because we have been horribly wronged; it’s just that some people’s habits and mannerisms irritate us, or that they’re thoughtless.
Let us remember that as we want others to cut us some slack because of our sometimes obnoxious ways, so we need to cut them some slack—knowing how much we all offend God and each other.
CONCLUSION
From the middle ages comes this prayer from a godly saint: “We ask you, Lord, to set us free from all evil, and graciously grant that, as we seek forgiveness for ourselves, so we may be forgiving to others.”
As we end our message from God’s Word today, I invite you to think of someone who has wronged you, or who dislikes you, or offends you.
Lift that person in prayer to God. Forgive them and ask for God to bless them.
If that person is no longer living, just tell the Lord that you forgive him or her and let go of your bad feelings about them.
That is what we agreed to do when we prayed the prayer our Lord taught us.
Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27).
Who said that following Jesus would be easy?
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