The Lord's Prayer: The PatternSample

Time to Cancel the Debt

If you’re human, you owe God an unpayable debt. You desperately need Him to bail you out. And if you’re human, it’s likely you owe some people, and some people owe you. Thankfully, Jesus taught us how to pray for forgiveness, and how to extend it to others. It’s time to cancel the debt.

This next part of Jesus’ prayer encourages us to do something: forgive those who owe us. The word forgive as it’s used in this context means to release, or to set free, or to deliberately send away. And the word debt describes a loan which is justly, legally due, but which is impossible to ever repay. Romans 4:4 is the only other place in the New Testament that this particular word for debt is used. Using Abraham as an example, Paul explains in this chapter of Romans that God doesn’t just bring our account to zero by cancelling our debt. He adds to our account, so that we have a credit of righteousness (right standing with Him). We can’t earn this lavish gift through the best of works. It’s all an outpouring of God’s grace.

With this in mind, we’re to focus on forgiving our debtors. We are to deliberately send away the debt and set the person (and ourselves) free–and then fill up their account with right standing, just as God has done for us. Our human bent for retaliation contradicts this over-the-top picture of grace. Nevertheless, Jesus tells His disciples they are to forgive over and over … and over. When you start living this way, forgiveness is more than just trying to move on and forget what happened. Forgiveness in the deepest sense acknowledges value and righteousness. That’s why it’s no longer seeing the person for what they’ve done wrong to you. It’s seeing the person for how restored they are in Christ–whether they’ve discovered that, or not.

Hebrews 12:14–15 reads, "Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many." May you refuse to let unforgiveness spread its tangled roots in your soul. Rather, as you commit to praying the way Jesus taught you to pray, may you be known as part of a people who gratefully, joyfully receive God’s forgiveness, and extend it to others.