Catechetical sermons preached in PCC Evening Worship Services, Feb 2013 to Dec 2017
WSC 105 of 107
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
Matthew 6:12
WSC 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A. In the fifth petition—(which is, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors1)—we pray, That God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins;2 which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.3
1Mt 6:12; 2Ps 51:1–2, 7, 9; Dan 9:17–19; 3Lk 11:4; Mt 18:35.
We live in a world filled with debts. Every country in the world, including Singapore, has a national debt. Almost every adult is a debtor, whether in the developed or undeveloped world. People are so used to being in debt that well-meaning believers have advised me that it is foolish to pay up my housing loans even if I can afford to.
There is, however, a debt that none of us can pay. It is the debt that our Saviour teaches us to ask our heavenly father to forgive. “Forgive us our debt, as we forgive our debtors.” This is the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It is also the subject of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 105, “What do we pray for in the fifth petition?”
The answer, which we are given to confess, is:
In the fifth petition—(which is, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors)—we pray, That God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.
But let’s take a step back to unpack the petition as our Lord gives it to see if we can draw out the same lessons as the Westminster divines. Let’s do so by considering each phrase that makes up the petition in the order: (1) “Our debts,” (2) “Forgive us,” and (3) “As we forgive our debtors.”
1. Our Debts
Most of us who grew up praying the Lord’s prayer were taught to say, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
This is the liturgical rendering of the fifth petition based on Luke 11:4. Here we see the Lord teaching His disciples to pray again, saying:
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us
Lk 11:4
The word ‘sins’ in this verse is the Greek hamartia (ἁμαρτία), which speaks of ‘missing the mark,’ or transgressing or trespassing of God’s law. So it is not wrong to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses…”
However, the word ‘debt’ is a richer and more instructive word, which more accurately translates the Greek used in Matthew 6:12 (i.e., ὀφειλήμα, opheilēma). For when we sin against God, we become debtors to God. We become debtors to obedience and gratitude. God deserves our obedience and gratitude. We owe it to Him to obey Him and to be grateful to Him. So when we fail to obey Him or show gratitude to Him, we are debtors to Him.
And in so far as we constantly fall short of God’s glory, we are perpetual debtors to God.
At the same time, in so far as God is a holy and just God, we become debtors to God by our sin in the sense that we deserve His wrath and curse. Since God is infinite, we can never pay back what is due to God for our sins, even if we should suffer eternal punishment.
So, in teaching us to pray, “forgive us our debts,” our Lord is teaching us to approach God in the knowledge that God does not owe us anything, whereas we owe God everything, and we cannot in any way clear our debt.
Moreover, in recognising that we have a debt to God we cannot pay, we are brought to see that any relationship with God must be initiated by the Lord freely in His mercy and grace.
Therefore, if God gives us anything, it is entirely by His mercy and grace. If we approach God with this attitude, we will not fret when God does not answer our prayers as we desire.
We will approach him humbly as a child who knows he has done wrong, not as a child insisting on his rights.
But why does the Lord teach us to ask the Father to forgive us?
2. Forgive Us
In the first place, as Christians, has our debt not been paid for through the suffering and death of Christ? Did not the apostle Paul tell us that “In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14). Well, that is true, and for this reason, some years ago, I had a Bible study teacher who said that we should not be asking God to forgive us our sin. He said that if you are a Christian and you ask God to forgive your sin, then you have no faith.
But that idea runs contrary to what our Lord is teaching us. The fact is, although we are forgiven, we still incur God’s fatherly displeasure whenever we sin.
God’s judicial wrath is removed through the propitiation of Christ; but when we sin, we still incur God’s fatherly wrath! It is like: when my children dishonour me, I do not disown them. They remain my children. I do not cut them off as their transgressions deserve. But that does not mean that I will pretend that nothing has happened. No, no; until they come and ask for forgiveness, our relationship will be strained. I will not speak with them comfortably.
The prophet Isaiah is saying something similar when he says:
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear
Isa 59:2
And likewise, the psalmist says:
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me
Ps 66:18
Though we are the children of God, when we sin against Him, God will, as it were, turn His face away from us. You remember how on the Cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, was bearing the sin of the elect. He was, at that moment, the guiltiest person who had ever lived in the history of mankind. How did He Father view Him? His Father, as it were, turned His face from Him. For three hours, the Son of God was blanketed with thick darkness. At the end of the three hours, He cried out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!”
The Father did not disown the Son, but sin momentarily separated Him from His Son.
How much more for us who are adoptive sons and daughters? How can we expect God to hear our prayers when we regard iniquities in our hearts?
For this reason, we must constantly come to the Father to seek His forgiveness afresh. We must do so, especially when we become conscious of our sins.
But what are we asking for when we ask God to forgive us our debts?
We are asking for three things.
First, we are confessing our sin and asking the Father to turn His fatherly displeasure from us, for the sake of His Son. So we pray: “Lord, we confess that we have sinned. We plead Thy forgiveness. Forgive us our sin, not because we deserve to be forgiven, but for the sake of Thy dear Son.” Psalm 130:3-4:
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared
Ps 130:3–4
Second, when we pray, “Father, forgive us our debts,” we are praying that God will withhold His hand of chastisement, or temper His anger that we can bear under it. So we pray: “Lord, we have sinned. We deserve Thy chastising hand. Yet we plead Thy mercy. Spare us, O Lord, for the sake of Christ our Lord. If Thou should scatter us, what will the world do with the holy name of Christ? Lord, spare us. Yet not our will, but Thy will be done.”Thirdly, when we pray, “Forgive us our debts,” we are praying that God will restore unto us the joy of our salvation. So, especially when we sinned grievously against the Father, we pray with David:
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.… 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit
Ps 51:4, 10-12
This, then, is what we should learn to pray from the fifth petition, “Forgive us our debts.” We should ask Him to take away His fatherly displeasure from us, withhold his hand of chastisement, or restore us unto the joy of salvation.
But that is not all to the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. The complete statement taught by our Lord includes a qualification: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
3. As We Forgive Our Debtors
What does this mean? Now, we must not make the mistake of thinking that when we forgive our debtors, God owes it to us to forgive us, or that God should follow our example and forgive us.
No, no; God does not owe it to us to forgive us, and neither does God need to follow our example! Our Lord is undoubtedly teaching us that we should be encouraged to ask for forgivenessif we find ourselves enabled from the heart to forgive others.
Forgiveness is not something that we have by nature. Fallen men, by nature, do not forgive. We may give the appearance of forgiveness, but we do not naturally forgive. Instead, we will take revenge if we have the opportunity.
But by God’s grace, the children of God are enabled to forgive. And when we see that we have been enabled to forgive by the Spirit of God, we know that God will forgive us when we go to Him. So we go to Him boldly.
Thus, our Shorter Catechism, question 105, teaches us:
In the Fifth Petition—(which is, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors)—we pray, That God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others
WSC 105
Notice the careful wording. Does it not suggest that if we do not find it in our hearts to forgive others, we cannot expect God to forgive us?
This point is hard to swallow, and the Lord knew it. So He adds immediately after He teaches the Lord’s Prayer:
14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses
Mt 6:14-15
What is the Lord saying, but that you should not expect God to forgive you if you don’t forgive those who trespass against you?
But wait a minute, you say: “If I am a Christian, I am forgiven. How can it be that the Father will not forgive me if I don’t forgive someone?”
Well, this is the point: If you don’t forgive someone, it may well be that you are still in the bonds of iniquity. You may be an unforgiven man. I am not saying that if you have not forgiven someone for something he did to you, you are definitely unregenerate. Sometimes, we may be hurt so badly that even if we want to forgive and say we forgive, we find it hard not to act in a way that may suggest unforgiveness.
But I am saying that if you are not willing to forgive when the person has come up to you sincerely to ask your forgiveness, then you have no basis to be assured of forgiveness by the Father.
In like manner, if you think that someone has wronged you, but you refuse to approach the person, and so you never forgave him, then you have little reason to believe that God has forgiven you. Yes, sometimes it is hard. Someone sinned against you and you find it very difficult to go up to the person to talk to him because whenever you go up to him, he responds unreasonably towards you. You know you want to forgive him, but he is just not willing to be reconciled.
Nevertheless, the point is that Christians cannot bear grudges. It does not matter whether the person has come to you or not. If you bear a grudge, there is an indication that you are still in the bonds of iniquity. It is worse if the person comes to you in sincere contrition and asks for forgiveness, and you refuse to forgive. But it is no better if the person did not come to you, and you refuse to go to him and, therefore, continue to burn in your heart against him.
Indeed, I believe it is because a forgiving spirit is such an essential mark of regeneration that our Lord, in teaching us to ask the Father for forgiveness, reminds us that we can expect His forgiveness only if we also forgive those who trespass against us.
No child of God will refuse to forgive. The child of God knows that the Father has forgiven him despite his wickedness and rebellion against Him. He knows that no one can owe him a debt greater than what he owes his heavenly Father. And so he forgives everyone who desires his forgiveness. This is the crucial lesson in our Lord’s Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.
This servant owed his master ten thousand talents or sixty million denarii. The master forgave him. But this ungrateful man would not forgive his fellow servant of a debt of a hundred denarii. So when the master has called him up, he says:
O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mt 18:32-35
The Lord Jesus adds:
34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses
Mt 18:34-35
Notice the phrase, “ye from your heart.” This is the key. You see, we are all by nature stony of heart. Nothing good dwells in us apart from grace. We cannot truly forgive apart from grace. Only those in whom God has begun a good work will be able to forgive from the heart. Thus, those who are truly justified in Christ will forgive from the heart because the change in the heart that gives them faith to believe also makes them forgiving.
Conclusion
The Lord teaches us to pray: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Upon closer examination, we see that He is teaching us to pray—as we are taught in our catechism—that:
God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others
WSC 105
What shall we say to these things?
Well, the Lord teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Thus, one of the first things to do is to learn to do so. We must learn to pray this prayer daily. If you are still a stranger to God’s grace, you can have no rest in your soul until you enjoy God’s forgiveness. Therefore, go to Him, asking forgiveness for your sin. Only then will you be able to forgive others. Only then will you be able to enjoy the peace of heart that all true children of God enjoy. So, go to Him if you have never experienced the forgiveness of the Lord. Go to Him, asking for forgiveness. But even when you have experienced forgiveness, go to Him whenever you are made aware of your sin. Daily, learn to seek the Lord’s forgiveness. Do not have the attitude that you don’t really sin.
Someone once asked me why we should we always pray forgive us our sin every day. “I don’t sin every day,” he claimed. Well, I am not so sure, for we all fall short of the glory of God. Even our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God’s eyes.
Daily we should be aware of our failures, and daily we should come before the Lord to seek His forgiveness. “Open my eyes to see where I have fallen short and how I may do better. The words I have spoken: how could I have said it better? The things I have done: how could I have done better? What I failed to do: give me the courage and strength to do it.”
But apart from praying this prayer, may I encourage you to think about all the unresolved relationship issues you may have. They have been nagging you for months or years, and you have not done anything about them. Do you have such issues? If so, may I encourage you to go to the Lord tonight to confess your unforgiving spirit.
Go to Him, acknowledging that you are a debtor to Him in more ways than one. Go to Him asking for courage and grace to seek reconciliation with whoever you have had aught against, and whoever you cannot talk to. Go to Him for grace in the heart to forgive as He has forgiven you for Christ’s sake. Amen.
—JJ Lim
Edited by: LPS