"Forgive Us Our Debts": Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day 51

Question 126. What is the fifth petition?

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. That is: For the sake of Christ’s blood, do not impute to us, wretched sinners, any of our transgressions, nor the evil which still clings to us, as we also find this evidence of your grace in us that we are fully determined wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbor.

Kevin DeYoung: “We need daily bread that we might live. We need daily forgiveness that we might not die.”

Tanong 126. Ano ang ikalimang pagsamo?

At patawarin Mo kami sa aming mga utang, tulad ng pagpapatawad namin sa mga may utang sa amin, na ang ibig sabihin ay: Alang-alang sa dugo ni Cristo, huwag Mong ibilang sa aming mga hamak na makasalanan ang anumang pagsalansang o kasamaang nananatili pa sa amin, kung papaanong nakikita namin ang patotoong ito ng Iyong biyaya sa aming sarili kung kaya kami ay puspusang nagpapasiya na taos-pusong magpatawad sa aming kapwa.

Kevin DeYoung: “On our best days, our perfect God gets only imperfect obedience and imperfect worship from us. We are hopeless debtors.”

1 John 1:8–9 ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Romans 8:1–3 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Question 56. What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?

I believe that God, because of Christ’s atonement, will no more remember my sins, nor my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life, but will graciously grant me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never come into condemnation.

Psalm 51:1–7 ESV

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

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.

Matthew 18:21–22 ESV

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.

Matthew 18:32–35 ESV

Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Kevin DeYoung: “The unforgiving heart is the unforgiven heart.”

God does not only grant forgiveness, he also grants a forgiving heart. A forgiven sinner has a forgiving heart. God’s grace to forgive is also his grace to give us the heart to forgive. So, ask for forgiveness, and it will be given to you. Ask for a forgiving heart and it will also be given to you.