Thine...not mine | Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

You sinned this week.

Does that surprise you? 

Sin is first and essentially unbelief toward knowledge of God.  I can’t know God.  I won’t ascend to knowing God’s self-revelation.

The chief attitude of such unbelief is pride.  Mine, not Thine.  (Notice sin’s attitude steadily upends the purpose of our prayer.) 

The chief act of such unbelief is idolatry.  I will place my devotion and admiration and approval – my worship – in anything other than God, Creator and Redeemer.  

Subsequently then, the attitudes and actions that precipitate from pride and idolatry are incalculable.  There is no end to sin’s expression in us and through us.  And they all become personal transgressions against the revealed knowledge and understanding of God.

Imagine God’s self-revelation as a land mass; an immense unbound piece of property expanding infinitely further than the eye can see or feet could trod.  In God’s wisdom and grace, He has afforded us the unhindered right to set foot on His property.  He has allowed you and me to explore and discover the wilds of the revealed knowledge and understanding of who He is.  But He has set the boundary within which we’ll find our footing.  When we resolve to find our footing beyond the boundary set for us, we might say we are trespassing.

Imagine God’s relational pursuit of us as a bank account; a limitless fund sourced and sufficed by God alone.  Again, in His wisdom and grace, He has availed to all humankind access to this fund in increasing measure.  He has made the way for you and me to enter the vault of relationship with God and draw on who He will be to us throughout the seasons of these lives we live.  But He has established the manner and amount of withdrawal.  When we determine to spend more than what He has allotted for us, we might say we are in debt.

“Our Father…forgive us our trespasses or debts…”

The pictures break down at certain points.  I know that.  All pictures that attempt to frame a principle on God do.  Yet it draws us closer to understanding what we’re declaring here.

Forgive us for treading on land not our own.

Forgive us for reaping where we have not sown

Forgive us for spending what you have not giv’n.

Forgive us our trespasses, debts, and sins.

Turn to the verse in Matthew 6:12.  Look at it.  Read it through a couple times.  What stands out to you about this verse?  Is there anything there that seems like it might be worth understanding a bit more?  What about the “as”?

“Our Father…forgive us…AS we also have forgiven others.”

What do we make of that?  Is forgiveness conditional? 

The context gives us some commentary here, like it did on the last line with giving.  Skip down to verse 14 and 15.  Here they are:

“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.”

What did you hear Jesus say?  Forgiveness from our Father is conditioned by our forgiveness?!  Could that be right? 

We’re helped here by peaking into a little parable found in Matthew 18:21-35.  Give it a read through…

I’ve preached on this text.  It was a lengthy sermon.  I slumped over by the end, burdened by the weight of conviction.  In a very short space Jesus uproots our understanding of forgiveness from the dry soil of “ought-to” and replants forgiveness in the rich soil of the heart.    

In the text, verse 35, when Jesus says “…forgive your brother from your heart,” he’s talking about the very core of who we are.  The heart in Scripture is the starting point for what we believe, what we think, what we say, what we do, even how we feel.  

Particularly, the heart is that intangible part of us that is born again into the Kingdom of God when we trust in Jesus; the part that is transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit from sinner to saint; the part of us that is cleansed by the blood of Jesus unto release and forgiveness of debt or sin against God.

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-14

And when we find our heart transformed; released and forgiven by God, something amazing happens from the inside, out.  And many of you have experienced this, I know you have.  Our newly transformed heart actually begins to overflow with forgiveness to others. 

We actually want to forgive.  There is nothing we can do to stop it! 

We have been forgiven much…so we spin it around and recklessly forgive others much; generously wielding grace and mercy to those who have wronged us.

Is this happening for you?

Try this, a verse:

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice…” – Ephesians 4:31

Do that…put that stuff away.  How?  Forgive!

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” – Ephesians 4:32

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.” – Colossians 3:12-13

Step to it!  Sometimes we just have to suck it up and take the nail.

Are you catching on?  Back in Matthew 6, “…forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” 

A transformed heart is poised and ready to forgive as God the Father has…and where it is not, it is poised in unforgiveness from God.  Our readiness and enthusiasm to do this; to forgive others from the heart as we have been forgiven, becomes an indicator of the genuineness of our redemption.  We might say it’s an authenticating note of cancelation on our record of debt as it was.  Where we are found forgiving others their debts and trespasses against us, there we are demonstrating the depth to which we have been forgiven by God!  

And what’s more, our willingness to forgive in this manner may point others toward Him who has done it for us to a magnanimous degree. 

Whew!  That was a lot, I know.  This line in our prayer is a biggie.  Stick with me through this quote, and we’ll be done…

“To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life – to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son – how can we do it?  Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.’  We are offered forgiveness on no other terms.  To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves.  There is no hint of exceptions and God means what he says.” – C.S. Lewis, from The Weight of Glory.

Now try this:  Look up these verses, read their context, and see if they jive with what we’re suggesting here:

Mark 11:25

Luke 6:37-38a

Luke 7:36-50

Now jot down the names of several people you need to forgive.  No matter if they’ve asked for forgiveness or not yet.  Get on your knees and declare to the Father:  “Forgive us (plural, who do you have in mind?) our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”