Forgiveness is Hard || Learning the Lord’s Prayer || Week 4

What are we saying when we recite the Lord’s Prayer? It’s a practice for most Christians to say in their daily lives when they get up, go to bed, and at church, among other practices. Yet, how often do we think about and dig deeper into what we are saying to God? Over the next five weeks, I will take the Lord’s Prayer, as told by Jesus in Matthew 6:9-13, apart line-by-line. We will examine what each line is saying and how it’s reflected throughout the rest of the Bible. Let’s dive into it!

Last week, we talked about what it means to ask God for our daily bread. This week, we’re going to look at Matthew 6:12. Here’s what it says from the NLT:

12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.  

You may have heard, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This line feels straightforward to me. We’re asking God to forgive us for how we miss the mark in Christlike towards Him. Forgive us in the same way we forgive those who miss the mark in being Christlike towards us. This concept also begs the question: Does God forgive me if I do not forgive others? The answer is yes, I believe because God forgives all who repent, but we also have to learn how to forgive others as part of being a Christian. This view will lead to a more extended discussion in this blog. Let’s get into it. 

Spiritual Debt Relief

A parallel passage uses a word that means “sins” instead of “debts.” It’s Luke 11:4, which says this: 

4 and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.

In this context, it includes those spiritual debts. Let’s think of it this way: when you owe someone money, you have a debt to them. You would work to pay off that debt until you don’t owe them anything. When someone does something for you, they may say you have a debt to pay. This view could include doing the same thing for them or something of equal value. In this sense, God offers us a lot of different things. Our response is to follow him with all of our being and to treat others with love, kindness, and forgiveness. If God treats us by giving us things we can’t repay, the least we can do is follow the two commands Jesus taught us. Let’s continue this conversation.

Sinners = Debtors

Sinners are debtors to God for violating God’s commands. Here is what it says in Matthew 18:23-27, which comes from the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant:

23 Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 

24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who him millions of dollars. 

25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold – along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned – to pay the debt. 

26 But the man fell down before his master and begged him, “Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.” 

27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 

First, let’s talk about the servants mentioned in verse 23. Due to the large amount of money involved, these “servants” would have been provincial governors who owed the king the money from taxation. The servants were province leaders that owed the king taxes. One of those servants owed millions in a non-literal sense. The amount of money just represented an absurd amount of money. The master ordered that he gets sold so that the master and recover some of this loss. Then we hit verse 27. 

We are picturing the generous, compassionate forgiveness of God (the master) to a pleading sinner who owes him an unpayable debt. The story shows that God will forgive our debts, no matter what. There’s no limit to when the forgiveness stops. There are no sins that get excluded. We go to God, willing to repent or turn away from the things we’ve done wrong, and God forgives us. Our debts are paid for ultimately by the death of Jesus, who paid the sinner’s price for us. Let’s continue this discussion by getting to the heart of this:

The Heart of the Prayer

This line was the huge focus of this prayer. Matthew 6:14-15 says this:

14 If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 

15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

This verse doesn’t say God will not forgive those who’ve already committed to being a believer. In that sense, forgiveness is a permanent and complete acquittal from sin’s guilt and ultimate penalty – it belongs to all believers. Scripture also teaches us that God corrects his children for disobeying. Christians are to confess their sins to get a daily cleansing or a simple washing from the worldly defilement of sin. It is not a repeat of the wholesale cleansing from sin’s corruption that comes with justification. Forgiveness, in that sense, is what God threatens to withhold. 

In simple terms (because I shared notes from my study Bible), God threatened to withhold our daily forgiveness of sin if we didn’t forgive others. We were given the ultimate forgiveness through Jesus’s actions. Still, daily cleansing is something that we should always do. It gifts us a fresh start to make a new day better. There will always be something to improve on as a Christian, and this improvement continues until we die. We will always have a fresh start to do what God calls us to do. 

Thank you for reading Week 4 of my series called “Learning the Lord’s Prayer.” Next week is the finale, where we’ll talk about God’s plan not to lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil. Until then, stay blessed!