Forgive Us as We Forgive

We know that it was just as shocking because Jesus has to give a bit of a summary statement in verses 14 and 15, doesn't He? Sort of like He smacks us with it and then He finishes the prayer and then He says, let me explain it a little bit more or give some more meat to this. For He says, "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." Now I don't know about you.

I don't know if you've had the time to really think about and reflect on this emphatic conditional statement that Jesus gives in the Lord's Prayer, but it is a shock to the system. It is deeply concerning, isn't it? And it has led the likes of the great preacher Charles Spurgeon to say, "Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death warrant when you repeat the Lord's Prayer." Thomas Watson, the noted Puritan preacher, went as far as to say on this passage, "A man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing." That's very confronting.

It leaves us, however, if we are biblical theologians, Christians who read the Bible as a whole. It leads us to ask some significant questions though, doesn't it? The first one is, can Christians or are Christians forgiven or unforgiven? This need to pray for forgiveness as we have forgiven others, what is the state of what is our condition as we pray this prayer? In other words, are we only forgiven every time we pray? So we have to say the Lord's Prayer.

And if we miss out on the Lord's Prayer and we die, we pass away before we have asked forgiveness and have forgiven others, are we doomed? Is this what Jesus is saying? Now if we read the Lord's Prayer here, that's what we may end up thinking. If we didn't know the rest of the New Testament, you would think that our forgiveness is only available every time we pray the Lord's Prayer. And in fact, there are church traditions, aren't there, that do say this?

You know, our Catholic friends that will have to say a certain amount of "Our Fathers", they call it, for forgiveness. But this is where every Christian must read the Bible with a biblical theology in mind. We must be theologians. Because if you read the rest of the New Testament and you read the likes of the Apostle Paul and the author of the Book of Hebrews, we get a very clear understanding that our forgiveness is only based on the single, all encompassing, powerful act of God in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Book of Hebrews calls it "a once and for all sacrifice" that washes us clean. And so they so emphatically make this case.

Paul especially just labours that point over and over again as to say there can be no doubt about it. The true condition of the true Christian is that they are forgiven because of that once and for all act of Jesus. Theologian W.G.T. Shedd puts it this way. He said, "The sinner, the justification of a sinner, that being made right of a sinner, is an all comprehending act of God. All the sins of a believer, past, present, and future are pardoned when he is justified."

He says of his sin, all of which is before the divine eye at the instant when God pronounces him a justified person, the sum total of their sin is blotted out, covered over by one act of God. Consequently, he says, there is no repetition in the divine mind of the act of justification, as there is no repetition of the atoning death of Christ. Book of Hebrews makes that very clear. There was only one cross, only one death. Jesus does not need to be crucified over and over again.

So, in other words, just as Jesus dying on the cross was the act, the one act that paid for my sins, so it is with this one moment, that first moment where I first believed this good news, that first moment where I first placed my trust in the finished work of Christ. That moment is when my entire life's collection of sin, past, present, and future was washed, was cleansed, was removed. The Bible says, "As far as the East is from the West." Justified means it is just as if I'd never sinned. Can someone then say, however, that okay, that might be Paul. That might be Paul's theology and people and some Christian scholars will say that.

That's Paul's theology, but Jesus' theology is very different. Paul taught something else to what Jesus did. And so if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, well, Paul must have had it wrong. But to them, I would remind them, as I remind us, that remember the foot washing moment in John chapter 13, the upper room, the night before Jesus goes to the cross. Remember that where Jesus washes His disciples' feet?

In that moment, He provides some teaching as to why He's doing this, what it is symbolising. And Jesus says this as He washed His disciples' feet: "A person who has had a bath, Jesus said, needs only to wash his feet. The rest of the body is clean." He says to His disciples, "In view of the cross, you are clean."

"A person who is clean needs only to wash his feet." Now this is the difference between that once and for all justification which happens for the Christian through faith and this ongoing process, this requirement for us to pray forgiveness of sins, this ongoing process of growing and maturing of a Christian which is called sanctification. Justification and sanctification. Sanctification is the washing of our dirty feet. Now this is what Jesus is teaching in the Lord's Prayer. To pray "forgive us our debts" is to acknowledge that there is still more growing that needs to be done.

And again, remember how Jesus instructed His disciples to pray at the start of the Lord's Prayer. He said you are to pray to "our Father", didn't He? Your Father. So we are praying to a God who is eternally bound to us through our forgiveness. He can only be our Father because we are forgiven.

Our justification and our subsequent adoption is what gives us the right to come to God in that way. And so when we ask forgiveness, we don't do it to a God, a holy God even out there, but we do it to a Father. He already is our Father, therefore. And when we do pray this, we say sorry to a Dad we've disappointed. There's a big difference, isn't there? And so Christians are forgiven.

On the question: are we forgiven or unforgiven when we pray this? We are forgiven once and for all. But we need to wash our feet as we recognise our imperfection and our weakness and as we resolve our hearts to continue maturing in Christ likeness. That's the first point. And the second question is: why then do we ask forgiveness in relation to forgiving other people?

Why does Jesus make that part of the sort of equation? Why does Jesus seemingly give this conditional statement that we can only be forgiven if we forgive others? Let's be clear. This is still a very serious thing that Jesus is teaching here. Now like I said, it was obviously shocking to the disciples when they first heard this because He had to explain. He had to give it a bit more weight.

But what Jesus is doing here is He's setting up a spiritual heart check. He's doing a test of our spiritual health. And the test is: Lord, deal with us how we deal with one another. Deal with us as we deal with one another. And powerfully, Jesus highlights how the Lord's Prayer can be a curse rather than a blessing.

For example, when we pray, "I ask you, Father, deal with me as I deal with my sister in the faith. I despise her, Lord. And the first opportunity I get, I will get her back and that will give me great satisfaction. Deal with me, Lord, as I deal with her." Or we pray, "Lord, this person has neglected me and they have ignored me.

I simply cannot forgive that. But when I have ignored You and when I have neglected You, please forgive me. Deal with me as I deal with them." This is the part of the Lord's Prayer that puts a spotlight on us. This is the part that instructs us on the need for confession in our prayer.

That we regularly need to take stock of our lives and confess our sin. And friends, it should make us take serious stock of ourselves because the reality is that this part of the prayer may actually show you, it may actually show you that you are not a Christian in the first place. Let me explain. You see, a Christian is absolutely completely forgiven by the all sufficient, completely restorative power of Jesus' death and resurrection, the once and for all sacrifice. Now this prayer then for the Christian is a foot washing moment.

For the true Christian, when they reflect at this point, that they still have lingering unforgiveness, the holy making power of God at work in them will naturally incline them to seek forgiveness and restoration. If that has been revealed to them, they will desire that. The Holy Spirit living in the Christian, in other words, will prick their conscience, will upset them and break their heart to such an extent that they cannot be peaceful when praying to their Father. Because they know there is unforgiveness. They know it is not right.

They know that there is a damaged relationship still out there. Yet for the unbeliever who hasn't been born again, this issue doesn't rouse them. It doesn't move them. Unforgiveness can remain there forever and ever. And Jesus says this unforgiveness towards others is a sign of their unforgiven state before God.

So why will a Christian therefore move towards forgiveness, even forgiving the most intense pain and hate? Because a Christian will truly understand the full extent of their painful and hateful sin against God, who they now know as their Father, who loves them, who they love. But they are so overcome by that knowledge of what they've done. And so a Christian will therefore, at this moment, think and pray something like this: instead of "deal with me how I deal with them", the Christian prays, "I'll deal with them how You have dealt with me.

Lord, my sister in the faith has so painfully hurt me, but oh my Father, how much more have I not hurt You? They have so mistreated me and abused me, but oh my Saviour, how much did I not mistreat You by sending You to the cross? Yet You have forgiven me. Why do I think I cannot forgive them? I can forgive them, and because of the power of Your forgiveness of me, I will."

Amen. This petition right here at the Lord's Prayer therefore acts as a stark warning. It does that. It makes you stop. And it makes you assess the condition of your heart.

And for the honest person, it might show, if you're honest, that you aren't a Christian yet. In that way, Spurgeon is right when he said, "You read your own death warrant when you repeat the Lord's Prayer." It might show you what your true condition is, that you can't forgive because you haven't received forgiveness yet. You can't forgive the big offence people have caused you because you don't believe you've caused big offence to God. But for the person who has understood the enormity of their sin, who have gladly received His forgiveness and salvation, forgiving will be something they will be more readily willing to do.

And like a good Reformed sermon, this leads us to our third and final point: the life giving power of forgiveness. This is the motivator. Forgiveness doesn't quite mean we forget and move on. That is not how forgiveness works. You know how people say, "Forgive and forget."

Just forgive and forget. Forgiveness more precisely means you forego something, and what you forego is justice. It means you pass up the opportunity to get even. Forgiveness isn't a case of, "Ah, it's okay. Let's just ignore it and we'll kind of dance around it and move on."

Forgiveness is not passive. It is very active. And why is that? Because forgiveness has a cost. Forgiveness has a cost.

Let me explain. We had a youth meeting, as John was saying last night, at Toby and Michelle's house. Are they here this morning? No, I think they're recovering still.

And this was a great night, but let's say Noah who was there, they have a spa pool, okay? And Noah decides to hop into the spa, and he somehow manages to break the spa pool. He cracks it. He does a bomb dive into the spa pool.

Now getting justice, getting justice would mean that Noah would have to repay Toby for the spa or he would replace it with the same spa pool. Justice would cost Noah something: either by paying with cash for a very expensive spa pool (I don't know if you have that sort of money, Noah) or it means replacing it, right? It would mean that. But on the other side, if Toby was to forgive Noah for this, Toby would decide to absorb the cost either by replacing the spa himself at his own expense or going on with life without the luxury of the spa. I'll just put this in parentheses.

This is not an invitation now to go and knock on Toby and Michelle's house for a spa now that you know that they have one, but you understand the absorbing of the cost. Now forgiveness, if it truly is forgiveness and not just ignoring something, forgiveness costs something. You forego justice. Yet we don't forgive because we think of forgiveness. You and I are worried when we think about forgiveness of becoming doormats, aren't we?

You and I are worried about giving people too much permission. Yet Jesus, we see, He was not worried about that at all. Jesus seems almost reckless with His love, inviting people into His confidence knowing that they would betray Him at His darkest hour. Jesus gave people permission to doubt Him, to accept Him or not, and to ultimately reject Him by killing Him. Even though as God, He could fairly have called down, as He said, legions of angels to protect Him and to annihilate all His enemies.

This reckless love of Jesus that served us and gave permission to people to love or betray Him. This love of Jesus forgives as well. When the whole world turned its back on Jesus and He had every right to turn His back on the world, He embraced and He forgave. And that forgiveness is not an ignoring of our evil. That was not simply really the turning of the other cheek or skirting around the issue. That forgiveness for Jesus relinquished justice by not punishing us as we deserved, but going a step further, absorbing the punishment that we deserved on the one who never deserved it and did so in our place.

Thank you, friend. You can only forgive deeply and fully and lastingly because you've been forgiven far worse. You can forgive because you've been set free to forgive. And then God goes on and once again, He blesses us even more by enabling our hearts to forgive so that we may experience freedom. We may experience a life of joy instead of bitterness.

Free from harbouring hatred. And so not only are we forgiven, we are set free. Many years ago, I read a book, I think it's called "Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wurmbrand, who was a Romanian pastor during the communist era in Romania. You can imagine the incredible persecution that was going on for Christians at that time. Now Wurmbrand had been locked up in a communist prison in Romania at the time, and he at that point remembers lying in a prison, a prison cell that had been set aside for people who were dying.

People that had either been so malnourished or so badly beaten that they were expected to die. And he said that at that time, he remembers that there was a pastor on his right, on his right side in a cot, that had been beaten so badly he was expected to die within the next hours or days. And he says on his left, in the left cot, a prison guard was lying there who had become a Christian, amazingly through the witness of these Christians being tortured, had become a Christian and therefore was beaten so badly by the prison guards, his communist comrades, that he was dying next to him. And the story goes, Wurmbrand writes that one night this prison guard, during a terrible nightmare, wakes up and he cries out to this pastor who he had personally beaten, cried out and said, "Please pastor, say a prayer for me. I have committed such crimes.

I cannot die tonight." The pastor weakly got up, stumbled past Wurmbrand's cot and sat beside the bedside of his enemy. As he watched, Wurmbrand saw the pastor caress the hair of the man who had tortured him and he spoke these amazing words: "I have forgiven you with all my heart," he said, "and I love you. If I, who am only a sinner, can love and forgive you, how much more can Jesus, the Son of God, who is love incarnate, return to Him?" He says.

"He longs for you much more than you long for Him. He wishes to forgive you much more than you wish to be forgiven. You just repent." And there in the prison cell, the communist began to confess all his murders, all his tortures. And when he had finished, the two men prayed together, embraced, then returned to their beds where each died very shortly afterwards.

This Romanian pastor knew what his forgiveness meant. He knew what the forgiveness of his Saviour Jesus meant. This same Jesus forgives us and delivers us because by His death on the cross, He has cancelled our debt. He has destroyed the power of the devil and He gives us the power to live a life of freedom, to forgive. Let's pray.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.