From: Matthew 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” and 6:14–15 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Forgiveness isn’t a simple matter.

No one who has ever been truly hurt by another or betrayed knows this well. Hurts remain. Sometimes they are but bruises which heal in time, and sometimes they are deep wounds which leave big, ugly scars. How do we forgive the unrepentant? DO we forgive the unrepentant? What do either of those look like? Does forgiveness remove all personal responsibility? Does forgiveness mean we just ignore the past? Does forgiveness mean we extend unexamined trust in the future?

Like I said, forgiveness isn’t a simple matter.

All that needs to be said about forgiveness isn’t unpacked in these few verses either. But what is here, we need to consider carefully. Because as Jesus’ words indicate, for the Believer, our experiences of forgiveness and of being forgiven are tied together in some capacity.

Let’s consider some of the implications laid out for us here.

1 – Note first in context, that this need for forgiveness of others is directly connected to being led out of temptation.

The petition to be spared from temptation in vs. 13 comes directly on the heels of asking for forgiveness. That’s not an accident.

I don’t know about you, but if there is any place where I am weak and fall so easily into temptation, it is in the area of letting offenses go – of forgiving others.

If the truth be told, many of us like to hold on to our grievances. We want to stay hurt – and to hold something against those who sin against us. In our twisted sinfulness, it gives us a perverse sense of power over the other. They hurt us and we had no power to defend ourselves – so we’ll hang on to their guilt and not let them off the hook for anything.

It makes no sense. Our lack of forgiving them doesn’t actually hurt them back. It doesn’t even the score. It just makes us miserable and bitter. But it deceives us into thinking we have some sort of power over those who injured us. It is a lie.

And what comes along with our unforgiveness is this: Nothing kills the true spirit of prayer more than a hard heart toward others while we are seeking God’s tenderheartedness toward us. Such is the heart of hypocrisy.

As J.C. Ryle noted so rightly on this point: “The plain object of it is, to remind us that we must not expect our prayers for forgiveness to be heard, if we pray with malice and spite in our hearts towards others. To pray in such a frame of mind is mere formality and hypocrisy. It is even worse than hypocrisy. It is as much as saying, “Do not forgive me at all.” Our prayer is nothing without charity. We must not expect to be forgiven, if we cannot forgive.” _{(Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on Matthew, 6:9-15)}

How often, we’d rather hang on to our hurt than be disabused of our hypocrisy. We’d rather muse on their sins against us, than wonder at the glory of our sins forgiven in Christ. We’d rather lick our wounds, than feast at the table of His abundant grace.

Stupid. But then, sin always is.

2 – Second, law cannot forgive, law can only mete out justice.

At times the law may pardon, but it cannot forgive, because forgiveness is personal. Jesus is calling us to forgiveness, not just pardon.

In a pardon, the perpetrator walks free, but there is no concern for personal reconciliation. You go your way and I’ll go mine, and never the twain shall meet.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes true reconciliation can’t be accomplished. Rom. 9 calls us to live at peace with others, as much as it depends upon us. But some do not want to live at peace with us. So be it. We’re not responsible for how others respond. But there is always a desire in the heart of the Believer that a true peace between us can be reached, even if there are extenuating circumstances which will not allow for things to go back the way they were. An abandoning spouse who goes and marries another, can never return to the one they left at first. But there can be peace between them.

3 – Forgiveness is not forgetfulness.

This is so often misconstrued by absolutizing a verse like Isaiah 43:25 ““I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” – as though God is possessed of some form of divine amnesia.

We know that isn’t what the passage is saying, when we consider that it is part of a pronouncement where God is recounting Israel’s sins! The sins of many of the saints fill the pages of Scripture.

The idea here is that in reconciliation, He no longer remembers our past sins against us. That He remits His right of recompense. For He was recompensed for our sins, fully, in Jesus.

Two parties may pardon one another but still not be reconciled. But in forgiveness, personal reconciliation is the goal. And in absolute justice, a declaration of innocence is indispensable.

In Christ, all of these are met. He takes our sin and we His righteousness. The Father personally forgives. In His sovereign authority He pardons. And in grace He imputes righteousness that we may be rewarded.

3 – Third, we must be aware that God does not forgive at the expense of justice, and thus He does not require us to do more than that and forgive without regard to justice either. When He forgives, He does so on the basis of the atonement made in Christ where justice is meted out in full.

So it is, when we forgive, we give up our right to prosecute the matter on our own behalf, surrendering the justice needed into the hands of the Father. We do not deny justice altogether but willingly suffer a particular loss in treating the individual as no longer an offender, while committing justice into the Father’s hands.

Yet, while forgiving sets aside any personal vengeance, it does not ignore what might be needed in loving our neighbors as ourselves and protecting them, and, if needed, getting the authorities involved.

Forgiveness only has reference to my right and requirement to be made whole in the aftermath of being sinned against. But I cannot forgive for others. I have no right to leave my neighbor in danger if the perpetrator I’ve forgiven is still at large and still poses a danger to them. My love for my neighbor requires I act in their best interest.

4 – Fourth, note too as above, that some offenses are purely personal – and others have several dimensions to to them.

Some offenses cross over into crimes and are sins against the State or others as well. I have no right to usurp the State’s, nor anyone else’s authority and forgive on either’s behalf. The offender may well still need to face that reality beyond my sphere of forgiveness.

Overstating forgiveness is as dangerous as understating it.

I must forgive when it is in my power and within my sphere, but I cannot and must not usurp that issue on behalf of any other entity. I can only forgive for myself alone. And I do so, committing it all to the Father’s just disposal.

On the cross, Jesus can forgive His tormentors for Himself, but note how He prays that the Father would forgive them. For He cannot overstep in the issue of His Father’s offense. This, He appeals to the Father for. And when we forgive, we do well to follow suit. We too can pray – “Father, lay nothing to the charge of their account on my behalf.” How He may deal otherwise is up to Him.

5 – Fifth, note too how Jesus cannot and will not usurp the Spirit’s own sphere and pretend to forgive blasphemy against Him.

The unpardonable sin as it is called – is against the Holy Spirit. And Jesus simply says it will not be forgiven. Ever. He does not say it cannot, but that it will not. God refuses.

6 – Lastly, note how there is a difference between forgiveness in restoring relationship, vs. simple offenses from strangers where there is no relationship to restore. And how it is Christ does all of this in regard to our sins against Him. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

We must always remember that Believers forgive out of the boundless ocean of the forgiveness we have received in Christ.

Ps. 103:8-14 “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

Hallelujah!

Matthew 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

If you have ever thought much about this verse, no doubt you’ve wrestled with whether or not Jesus is saying that the Believer’s being forgiven of our sins, is dependent upon our forgiveness of other’s sins. That forgiveness with God is at least in part a form of quid pro quo. And that in the end, our salvation is works based and not grace based.

Given the balance of New Testament teaching, we would be faced with a true contradiction if this is the case. So we do need to sort out what is really being taught here. We especially need to see it in terms of our overall theme of how the elements of this prayer together are calculated to re-tune the Believer’s heart with the heart of God each time we enter into it.

Forgiveness is a huge category in Scripture. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system is built upon it, and as Peter and Paul make it central to all the preaching in Acts and in their letters: Acts 10:43 “To him (Jesus) all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Mankind’s greatest need is that we be forgiven of our sins in order to be reconciled back to the Father. We share the universal condemnation that we want the right of supremacy over our own lives and goods, rather than being submitted to the rightful Lordship of the God who created us for Himself. We want to say what is right and what is wrong for ourselves without His imposition. We want to justify ourselves for all of our actions, words, thoughts and attitudes irrespective of God’s requirements. We want to be god unto ourselves, being responsible to no one else but ourselves. And as a result, every other sin we commit flows from this central corruption.

So it is, the plain teaching of the Bible is that we can only be forgiven for this cosmic rebellion, through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross who died in our place. Thus the resurrected Jesus Himself told the Disciples in Luke 24:46–47 “[A]nd (He) said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

So what are we to make of this? First and foremost (and I plan to come back to this topic again next time) – that an unforgiving, grudge-bearing, bitter spirit is so irreconcilable with the Spirit of Christ, that as long as we entertain such, we cannot live in harmony with the Triune God we claim to love and serve. We cannot be tuned to Him. For such an heart-set is in direct opposition to the Gospel of grace we claim to have been saved by. That a spirit or attitude of unforgiveness is wholly antithetical to the Spirit of God, and to the message and work of the Cross.

No wonder then, that Jesus, in teaching us to pray so as to be tuned to His own heart and mind, directs us not only to seek forgiveness regularly in recognition of our own ongoing battle against indwelling sin and our constant failures in that regard – but that as the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit overflow so as to provide forgiveness for all who believe in the Cross of Christ – so being ourselves forgiven of cosmic crimes, forgive others out of the abundance of our having been forgiven. We do not forgive others out of our own largess, but out of that which we have received.

Do you remember Jesus’ encounter at the Pharisee’s house in Luke 7? A woman with a bad reputation made her way into the gathering, and anointed Jesus with perfume, weeping, kissing His feet and wiping them with her hair. The Pharisee was indignant at her garish display. But Jesus rebuked the man by pointing out that she acted out of love, knowing the forgiveness of her many sins. The Pharisee, thinking he had little to be forgiven of, didn’t love much either, and even ignored some common courtesies toward Jesus.

The more we try to view ourselves as not needing forgiveness, the more we will need to harp on other’s sins, and in direct proportion, will fail to love Christ.

What a Savior He is. He gave His very life, that we might have the full and free forgiveness of God Himself. In comparison, what microscopically little I have ever had to give in forgiving others.

Father forgive me.

As right now, I ask you to lay nothing to the charge of anyone else on my account. For my sins have been many, perpetual and truly evil against you. Their’s, have been so little against me.

Tune me to your heart afresh today.