The Lord's PrayerSýnishorn

Forgive Us As We Forgive Others

Many of us, especially if we are adults, know what it feels like to have a debt that we must pay back. We have mortgages, student loans, and credit card balances. Most of the time, the debt doesn’t overwhelm us because we know that we have the ability to pay it back in increments over time.

But sometimes, when the debt we have racked up is far too large and we feel it is impossible for us to pay back, that’s when anxiety, fear, and despair threaten to crush us.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus talks about sin in relation to the notion of a debt. The theologian Adam Clarke said it like this, “God made man that he might live to his glory, and gave him a law to walk by; and if, when he does anything that tends not to glorify God, he contracts a debt with Divine Justice.”

Dear friend, you and I have racked up a disastrous debt with God. It’s just the nature of being a human being.

Our debt isn’t the kind of debt that we could ever pay back for ourselves though. Our debt is impossible for us to pay in our own earthly strength.

But this is what Jesus did for us! He completely wiped clean our debt. Our invoice now says $0. Even though we were the ones who sinned, we were not the ones who paid the price. Praise be to Jesus!

And so, here in the magnificent and merciful Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us that we can ask God to forgive us of our debts. We are to confess our sins not out of obligation, but out of celebration of what Jesus has done for us.

However, there is another element to this. We are also to forgive those who have sinned against us. This is far more than letting people off the hook for how they have hurt us – this is about seeking restoration. Dear friend, Jesus says to us in Matthew 6:15 that “if you do not forgive others their trespasses (sins), neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

This doesn’t mean that our eternal destiny is based on whether we forgive others or not – we are saved and justified before God by Jesus’ work on the cross alone. But, what it does mean is that our relationship with God will be affected if we do not forgive others.

Jesus is saying that if we ask for forgiveness from God of our own sins, but we withhold forgiveness towards others, then we are being hypocritical. We cannot expect to walk in true fellowship and friendship with God if we refuse to forgive others.

Having already experienced radical forgiveness from God, may we also seek to lavishly forgive others.

Reflection:

Is there any unforgiveness or bitterness in your heart? Ask God to help you forgive those who hurt you.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father,

My debt towards You was impossibly large. How could I ever thank You, Lord, for what You have done for me through Jesus? I stand in awe of You, of Your mercy, of Your Kindness, and of Your grace.

In the same way that You radically forgave me, I choose to forgive _________ for what they did to me. I pray that You will heal my heart and restore it.

In Jesus’ name, amen.