A Tough Question from a Gentle Passage

We love the Lord’s Prayer

…but it’s got a part that catches in our throat

To the Text

Matthew 6:9–13 “Pray then like this: “Our Father 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 debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (ESV)

Matthew 6:14 ESV

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

Matthew 6:15 ESV

but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

YIKES!

How does that square with John 10:27–30 ?

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.””

Two Forms of Forgiveness

Judicial

When it comes to the matter of our punishment for sins committed against God—all sins are

Those of us who have repented, confessed, trusted Christ to forgive them…we are forgiven

Judicially, we are justified—just as if I’d never committed the act

Parental

BUT, should we refuse to forgive one who has sinned against us, that leaves us—in this temporal world—in a precarious position