The Christ-Born Love For Sinners Who Sin
Forgiveness and the Debt Paid For By the Savior
Good Morning,
This part of the Lord’s Prayer may be the most difficult for us to handle. Mostly because it involves us doing two things we don’t like to do: being vulnerable with God and being open with each other. Admitting we are sinners in need of forgiveness is not something that comes naturally to us as human beings. Our pride and fear of shame often prevent us from receiving the spiritual healing that we need. Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden is the position we often find ourselves assuming, especially when our transgressions find us out. However, just as our LORD does for His first couple He comes to us in mercy and grace and calls us unto Himself, not by ignoring what we have done, but by providing a sacrifice by which the penalty and power of sin is taken away forever.
Here is the joy we deny ourselves when we refuse to be humble before God.
As we consider the gospel and the goodness of His love this morning there is hope to be found in reconciliation, and not just that which exists between us and Jehovah in Christ. There is also an important aspect we need to remember, and that is the way forgiveness brings men and women who are at odds with one another over all kinds of situations, both deserved and undeserved, from being enemies to being friends once more. Here is today’s Q/A from the WLC:
Q. 194. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A. In the fifth petition, (which is, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, ) acknowledging, that we and all others are guilty both of original and actual sin, and thereby become debtors to the justice of God; and that neither we, nor any other creature, can make the least satisfaction for that debt: we pray for ourselves and others, that God of his free grace would, through the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, accept us in his Beloved; continue his favour and grace to us, pardon our daily failings, and fill us with peace and joy, in giving us daily more and more assurance of forgiveness; which we are the rather emboldened to ask, and encouraged to expect, when we have this testimony in ourselves, that we from the heart forgive others their offences.
God in His wisdom when He was designing the old covenant ceremonial system imbued every part with a picture of what would take place when His Son, Jesus Christ, would be born and live and die, and be raised again. He did this so that the Israelites would always remember that their hope was not in the blood of goats and sheep, but in the Messiah. A friend shared Exodus 28:29-30 recently and thinking about this subject made me think of it. Moses writes:
“So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart, when he goes into the holy place, as a memorial before the Lord continually. And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually.”
The breastplate was to have all the names of the tribes emblazoned on it in a precious stone as a sign of the fact that when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies he was carrying all of Israel with him, and they were to see this and be at peace. Paul picks up on this when he speaks in Ephesians 2:4-6, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”. Our redemption is so wonderfully described in this image of Jesus carrying us on His breast into the very Heavens as the judgment of the children fell on Him. This is what our Savior has done for us, and there is nothing more beautiful or wonderful in all the Christian life.
It is in the light of this marvelous mercy that our catechism comes into focus. Notice how the language of Q. 194 is grounded not in anything good in us, but wholly in the person and work of Jesus. As we see Christ our heart is humbled and brought to remembrance of our inability to do what we are required, and yet in the same breath we are moved to rejoice at the remembrance of what the Lord has accomplished at the cross and the empty tomb. We struggle sometimes to deal rightly in forgiving others because we forsake the majesty of our own forgiveness. As a good Presbyterian when I say Debts and Debtors in the Lord’s Prayer what I am doing is putting myself in both statements. I am a debtor to the law (Gal. 5:3-6) and a debtor to grace (Rom. 8:12-14). As one who has been redeemed from the curse and given new life I have a free gift which I can never repay. The golden rule is founded in what has been done to us by the King of Kings.
In closing, the last word of the answer to the question brings us full circle to where we began. In forgiving others we are not mimicking Christ, we are pouring out from our life of thanksgiving where our hearts and souls cannot but grant forgiveness to those who have sinned against us due to the fact that we have no standing by which to demand anything. If our Lord can say to those who literally killed Him, Father forgive them for they know not what they do then what right do we have to demand others do something for us? As believers we respond to evil with grace, because that’s what God did when we did evil against Him, or as the apostle says once more from the book of Ephesians:
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).
Here’s another way to think about it:
https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/the-major-obstacle-in-forgiving-others
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church