In Jesus' Name: The Gift of Forgiveness

INTRODUCTION

"and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." ()

FORGIVE US

Even though the word daily is not used in this verse, we are still in need of God’s grace EVERY day! Every day, the child of God desires the closest possible relationship with God. They desire that any obstacle to their relationship with God be removed.

We are desperate for God’s mercy. We talked in our last lesson about the idea that we are desperate for God’s daily provision for us physically. If He did not provide for us on a daily basis, then we would surely perish. The same is the case spiritually also. Without His daily provision of mercy, we would starve to death spiritually. We would be cut off from the source of spiritual life. There would be no hope for us…

We need to see this fact… As Jesus says in , we need to be poor in Spirit. We need to see our utter dependence on God, and we need to see that especially in this area… We must come to God’s throne of grace so we can have our sins removed… so that our sin does not take root in our hearts and lead us to become hardened…

OUR DEBTS

Scripture uses many similar ideas to talk about our sin:

• Defilement ():

• Darkness ():

• Bondage ():

• a Burden ():

• Sickness ():

• “Lostness” ():

All of these show how terrible sin is and the effects of it. The word that Jesus uses here in does the same. He uses the word debt; talking about the debtor-creditor relationship; a relationship that was just as well-known and understood at Jesus’ time as it is today.

Most of Jesus’ listeners probably knew that the Aramaic word sin that Jesus would have used when He taught here also meant ‘debt.’ This would be one of the ways they would have commonly thought of sin, and it would be a sobering thought. For personal debtors at that time, an unmanageable debt could mean the end of their freedom. They, along with all that they owned, could be sold and they would end up being slaves until the year of Jubilee (and that is if it was practiced – it often was not!) or if freedom was graciously granted by the master. A debt for them, as it is for us, is a legal obligation. We see this today even in all the paperwork that we sign in order to be able to buy a vehicle, a home, or to borrow money from a bank. We are signing a contract obligating ourselves to pay the debt.

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This picture of debt is a great parallel to sin. When we sin, there is a legal obligation… a price that needs paid for the debt to be removed. We see in that the wages of sin – the price that needs paid – is death. That is the legal obligation. What is sobering about this is that, when it comes to our obligations to God, we are so spiritually bankrupt that we cannot even begin to pay for forgiveness or make an adequate restitution for the damage we have done and the pain we have caused.

The only way to have this debt paid for is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The forgiveness that we receive initially upon becoming Christians, as well as the daily forgiveness we receive as Christians as we confess our sins to God only comes because God is willing to forgive the debt. It would not be possible without God’s willingness to do so.

This reminds me of a parable that we have in . In this passage, Jesus teaches a lot about forgiveness. Let’s look at the first half of the parable. Let’s read verses 23-27.

READ

We have an unthinkable display of mercy here. The debt owed to the King was beyond what this servant ever could have paid off. He could have worked his whole life and still not pay this debt off. Even if he, his family, and all that he had were sold, it probably would not have been enough to pay the debt. This man was desperate… He pleaded with the King for mercy, and told the king that he would work himself to the bone to pay this debt. Then the king is moved with compassion, and doesn’t even respond to the request of the servant. He goes above and beyond the request and completely forgives this debt. At great cost to himself, the king was willing to just forgive the debt! That is amazing!

This servant here is a picture of the debt that we owe. The sin that we have committed has indebted us so much that it would be impossible to pay. But God is willing to show us mercy when we come to Him with a repentant heart and a willingness to do whatever is necessary to make things right. He just releases us of the debt that we owe. All of the sin we have committed against Him, washed away – blotted out – removed from our account by the blood of Christ.

AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS

Those who are in fellowship with God desire to show the same kind of mercy that God does, even to the point of being willing to say to God in a prayer, “forgive me as I forgive others.” Show mercy to me as I show mercy to others. This shows how bad they want to be like God in showing forgiveness.

Paul says in , "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." ()

God was willing to make reconciliation possible ever for His enemies. Those who were helpless and lost. Those who were in rebellion against Him… He went out of the way to try to make our forgiveness possible.

Does this describe us? Are we willing to show this type of attitude towards those who wrong us? Not only do we have a spirit that desires restoration, but we do what is necessary on our end to make this restoration possible.

If someone sins against us, we go through the process that Jesus gives in . We go to the person who sinned against us, and we try to reason with them. We tell them about their sin and try to bring them to repentance. This is what God did for us when we were in sin. He acted first! So must we!

##### UNFORGIVENESS #####

This matter of showing forgiveness was so important that he added this immediately after teaching his disciples this prayer, " For 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" (). Jesus says that if we are unwilling to forgive, then God will not forgive us… That is a big deal. Your ability to receive mercy is removed if you are unwilling to show it yourself.

And what is interesting about this is that there are many times when we are unforgiving or bitter towards someone and they do not even know it! Some become so bitter when they are sinned against that they do not even think of obeying the Lord’s instruction in to go and seek restoration with one who has sinned against them. One sin brings about another sin…

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We may respond by saying this about someone, “I will forgive them, but I won’t forget what they have done to me” as though this is any better than saying, “I won’t forgive them.” Yes, it may be true that when someone hurts us that it is near impossible to remember. But the heart that says this is saying, I am going to keep what they did in my heart. I am going to remember this when I see them. I will still hold it against them in my heart. This is not a forgiving kind of heart. It is a heart that says, “I will forgive, but I will still be bitter.” I will still treat them differently. I don’t want complete restoration… It is saying, “I desire restoration, but I don’t desire restoration.” I desire forgiveness, but I so not desire forgiveness.

We talked about in our last point the parable of the unforgiving servant in didn’t finish talking about this parable.

There was a conversation that brought this parable about: Peter comes to Jesus and asks Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus showed him that this was not the limit, and that there should not be a limit because of the mercy that has been shown to us. Jesus said, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Jesus, point was not, “Just keep a tally, and when they reach 490 , then you don’t have to forgive. Jesus point is that there should not be a limit. This number was so far beyond the number Peter had given. It was unimaginable that someone would forgive someone who would sin against them that much. But this is what God did, and Jesus shows Peter, and us, that this is what we should be willing to do also in this parable in .

We see that, after this man was forgiven of his unpayable debt by the king, that he found a servant that owed him a debt and was unwilling to show mercy to him. Let’s read .

READ

As we read this passage, hopefully we were having this emotional response, “I just cannot believe that this servant did this!” How unmerciful! How ridiculous that he would not forgive such a small debt when such a big debt was forgiven him… This would be the right response. This was probably the response of the man’s fellow servants. They went to the King, reported to him what this servant had done, and this man’s unwillingness to forgive cost him dearly.

This passage in and this part of the Lord’s prayer should cause us to reevaluate our relationships with those who have sinned against us… To examine our hearts to make sure we have a heart that desires to show mercy and to do what is necessary to have a completely restored relationship with them.

CONCLUSION

This is what the Lord wants with us when we sin against Him. Even if we completely turn our backs on Him like the prodigal son, He desires for us to return. He desires us to come back home, to be restored to a relationship with Him and His people.

The Proverbs writer writes, “"Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (28:13)

Brothers and sisters, God offers you and I mercy today… He promises it to you if you will humble yourself before Him and confess your sin… Let’s make sure that we have a heart that desires reconciliation – with God, with one another, and with anyone who has wronged us. Let’s seek to have hearts that want to please God by forsaking our sin and confessing it to God and to one another, and let’s follow in the example of our God in showing mercy to others…

If you have not yet become a Christian, there is a promise for you also to receive mercy…