The Lord’s Prayer: Forgive as We Forgive (Part 6 by Anthony Cooksey)

The Lord’s Prayer: Forgive As We Forgive

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” Matthew 6:9-13

Part 6: Forgive us our sins. Forgive us our trespasses. Forgive us our depts as we forgive our debtors. Give us our daily bread and forgive us our dept. This is again a daily request. But what is it exactly that we are requesting of God here? What debt does Christ claim that we owe?

By virtue of being creator, God establishes how His creation is to function. He put in place the very order-set the standard- determined laws that are not to be broken. We, therefore, by coming into conflict with that order, falling short of His standard, and breaking His laws, must be held to account because our God is holy. And being holy, He requires holiness. Of that standard, we fall short. This situation must be remedied. The scales of justice established by the Lord of hosts must be balanced. If we spent from this very moment to our last breath attempting to right our wrongs and “atone” for our sins, we would still be lacking. The mark is too high-the commandments too lofty for us to obey.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, will all your soul, with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.” 

Matthew 22:37-40. 

Dear reader, if you are capable of keeping these two commandments, then worry yourself not to pray this portion of the Lord’s prayer. If you can muster the perfection required in them, then concern yourself not with the need of forgiveness, grace, or for that matter the cross of Christ. This is the standard of which we fall short and of which we desperately need to be forgiven. It is only by reflecting on this greatest of commandments that we can begin to be poor in spirit, that we can begin to be contrite, and that we can begin to truly seek forgiveness.  Forgiveness only follows remorse. It only follows repentance. It is only possible when you have the recognition of its need and make the appeal that it be given. 

So now, with clear picture in mind- with the unbearable weight of our sin in tow, we come to God. We come to Him with humility and love because we know the gift of grace that He offers. And we also know what it cost Him to provide such a gift. We know what it took for Him to offer us atonement and the right to be called sons and daughters. A gift that costly will not be given to the unrepentant, the unremorseful. It is too great; too unimaginable. Do not cheapen it with your arrogance or lack of understanding. So, it is with that knowledge in our hearts we should run to Him as quickly as an offense is made that He may freely shower us with His unending forgiveness.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” 

Isiah 55:7-9.

No offense too great-no amount of sin too excessive that the abundance of God’s pardoning cannot wipe clean. That He cannot scatter as far as the east is unto the west. Gone. Permanently. Ask as if your very life was dependent on His forgiveness. Ask as if your eternity relied on the nullification of your transgressions. Ask also with the assurance that it has been made so. His ways are higher. He alone is capable. Go to him. 

Dear reader, in my opinion, we would be remiss to not spend the lion’s share of our attention on the latter portion of this prayer. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Forgive AS we forgive. As. What does this mean? What does the word “as” mean in this context? It means do unto me in the same way that I do unto others or treat me with the same care and grace that I treat people who have wronged me. Take a moment here. Rather spend a lifetime in contemplation of what Jesus bids us pray. Wrestle with this because the answer of what He is truly saying here is not easily discerned. What I do know is that forgiving those who have wronged us is no easy task. What I do know is that Christ-like forgiveness is supernatural. What I do know is that the ability to forgive in such a way is evidence of our salvation and the holy work being done in us. It is evidence of us being sanctified.

None have modeled this fuller than Christ himself. “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34. On the cross, sinless, asking forgiveness for the ones responsible for beating Him and humiliating Him. Asking forgiveness for those who were at that very moment cheering His death. How was he capable of this level of forgiveness? Love. And supernatural love is the only way that we would be capable as well. Supernatural love and the knowledge of our own sin and how freely we were offered undeserved grace. We are unworthy of such forgiveness and others are unworthy of it all the same. But who are we to deny when our Lord was willing? Willing to humble Himself to the point of the cross to offer forgiveness for all?

Forgiveness must be immediate. It must be full. It must be honest and final. Many would say: “I will forgive but I cannot forget.” How true then is this “forgiveness?” Shall we pardon and still hold grudges? Shall God pardon us in the same manner? Forgive our debts as we forgive. Remember? Our absolution given to us by God is complete and total. We should go and do likewise. In fact, we are instructed to do so.

Who can earnestly pray this prayer? 

Who would be satisfied to pray that the forgiveness they ought to receive be equal  to the forgiveness they give? 

We need help to pray this prayer. We need to have had an encounter with Christ and felt the warm covering of grace. 

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” 

Eph. 4:31-32. 

Brothers and sisters, I tell you we are utterly incapable of doing so to the degree that we must. We must forgive all who wrong us, no matter the severity of offense or quantity of transgression. Only a true follower of Christ is has the capacity. So I urge you to search your heart as I search mine.

Directly after the Lord’s prayer, Christ again brings up the point of forgiveness to His disciples. He warns that that if they will not forgive, their Heavenly Father will not forgive them. Again in Matthew, Jesus tells Peter a parable of the unforgiving servant. In the parable Christ tells of a servant who, himself, was forgiven an enormous debt by his master and directly after receiving his pardon, had another servant thrown in prison to a small debt owed to him. How was the unforgiving servant met by his master- his master that had just wiped away a dept that could have never been paid? To say unfavorably would be a substantial understatement. I cannot say that I fully understand want the Bible means when it says, 

“But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will you Father forgive your trespasses.” 

Matt. 6:15. 

I do not believe this to be a question of the security of our salvation, however, how can we be saved and with the knowledge of that salvation, not extend grace to all the other “undeserving” people on this planet with us? We cannot gloss over this because it makes us uncomfortable. We must wrestle. We must pray for the ability to forgive without reserve- to forgive with the heart of Christ.

“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving on another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” 

Col. 3: 12-13.