Forgive

Ancient Thoughts

Debt was considered illegal.

Debt involved pain.

Debt was more than just you.

All 3 of these ideas apply to our understanding of sin.

The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord's Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution Chapter 6: Forgive Us Our Debts: The Prayer of God’s New Covenant People

If the petition “give us this day our daily bread” emphasizes our most urgent physical needs, the petition “forgive us our debts” emphasizes our most urgent spiritual need. Saying we owe a debt to God means that we have failed to give him the obedience he is rightly due.

Gospel Focus

The gospel is central to the message of scripture. If we mess this up, we ruin the whole thing. This is true of salvation, Christian growth and of our praying.

“this petition does not say ‘forgive us our debts because we forgive our debtors,’ but ‘forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.’”

Scriptures:

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“Forgive us our debts”

We are sinners in need of forgiveness

We have hope in God’s mercy and redemption

God is willing to forgive us.

The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord's Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution Chapter 6: Forgive Us Our Debts: The Prayer of God’s New Covenant People

puritan Richard Sibbes famously said, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”

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God’s kingdom is different than man’s kingdom: God calls us to be defined by forgiveness.

“As we forgive others”

The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord's Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution Chapter 6: Forgive Us Our Debts: The Prayer of God’s New Covenant People

What Jesus is affirming in these words is that when we experience God’s forgiveness, we are fundamentally transformed into forgiving people. In other words, one way we can know if we have experienced God’s forgiveness is to see if we have become a forgiving people. It is simply impossible to experience the richness of God’s grace and remain a stubborn, obstinate, coldhearted person. Those who truly know the forgiveness of sins, forgive others.

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” ()

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. ()

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. ()

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him. ()

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, “I repent,” you must forgive him. ()

Without forgiving others, we will not be forgiven ()

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R. Albert Mohler Jr., The Prayer That Turns the World Upside down: The Lord’s Prayer as a Manifesto for Revolution (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2018).