Exhortation

Every week we repeat the following words in the Lord’s Prayer:” … forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) This phrase has been immortalized as part of the model of Christian prayer by Christ in his inspired Word. If we say it with the conviction Christ requires of us, then we should tremble every Lord’s Day as we place ourselves at the mercy of God. For we are a self-righteous people given to bitterness and anger living in a culture of entitlement. We are not quick to forgive.

The failure to forgive in fullness and quickly anyone who sins against us is inexcusable. Our hesitancy, our half-heartedness in forgiveness presupposes a holiness that we lack. When sinned against, we must be very slow to respond with a position that justifies and defends our behavior, for our behavior is seldom as holy as we think. But even given these fallen circumstances, the Lord does require the sinner to apologize and the sinned against to humbly, quickly, and forgetfully forgive.

It should be our goal in forgiveness to forgive as we want God to forgive us. In case we miss this point in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus warns us again after the Prayer with a brief exposition of what He had just said. Verses 14 and 15: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

So, how does this play out in a way that reflects our understanding of Christ’s words.

Here are a couple of scenarios of what it should not look like. Assume the sinner in these conversations really is sorry for a legitimate trespass.

“I have sinned against you, and I am sorry. Will you please forgive me?”
“I don’t know. What you did really hurt me.”

In this scenario, the victim is suggesting that an apology isn’t good enough. Some groveling and begging and maybe repetition are in order. The theological consequences of this model are terrifying. The victim is essentially communicating that God doesn’t merely want humble confession and repentance. He wants something more, some greater expression of humility. If such is the case, then we are wholly without hope. How about this:

“I have sinned against you, and I am sorry. Will you please forgive me?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it.”

What! Don’t worry about it! What forgiveness is there apart from sin? My ultimate hope is that God sees all my sins, and fully forgives me each one, indeed my very nature. I want forgiveness not denial of my sins. What did Jesus die for if my trespasses are “nothing to worry about?”

How about forgiveness with a memory?:

“I’m sorry for talking about you behind your back. Will you please forgive me?”
“Yes. I forgive you.” (but then the victim stashes away in his or her mind this ammo for future transgressions) If we don’t forget the trespasses of others then we are effectively asking God to remember our sins, so He can blackmail us in the future. What hope is there before a petty, false god such as that?

And now the correct scenario:

“I have sinned against you, and I am sorry. Will you please forgive me?”
“Yes. You are forgiven.”
“I know I don’t deserve it.”
“I’m sorry. Deserve what?”

And thus, in a very everyday transaction we confer the gospel to a brother or sister in Christ. We preach to them our hope. We are indeed sinners, but we are wholly forgiven.

So, having fully and quickly forgiven our trespassers let’s go before the Lord and lay ourselves bare before Him, so His forgiveness- full, immediate and forgetful may be granted to us.