Matthew
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
Our culture seems to have a bit of an obsession with rating things. The college football season is still a month away, but sports publications have already come out with their pre-season rankings. If you have cable, ESPN will be airing a one hour special on Tuesday on the 100 greatest sports moments of the past year.
This obsession is not limited to sports either. Not long ago I saw a list of the 100 greatest romantic movies ever made. Every year People magazine comes out with its list of the world’s 50 most beautiful people. Another magazine, Consumer Reports, rates everything from automobiles to appliances to cheese.
Apparently, there is a demand for these kinds of lists. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many. Apparently, people want to know who or what is the best in everything. Since these ratings and rankings are so popular, perhaps it would be a good idea to do the same on a spiritual level.
There are seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer. As you go through them in your mind, which one do you consider to be the most important? Is there one petition that stands out above the rest? Or because Jesus is the author of every petition, are you content to say that they are all equally valuable?
Martin Luther had an opinion on this subject (not a
surprise). He wrote: “If the great sublime article called the
forgiveness of sins is correctly understood, it makes one a genuine Christian
and gives one eternal life…to do so is the one, supreme, and most difficult task
of Christians. As long as we live here
below, we shall have enough to do to learn this article. No one need look for anything new, anything
higher and better.”
According to Luther, the subject matter covered in the fifth petition is in a class by itself. Not that the other petitions are unimportant, but a proper understanding of the forgiveness of sins is absolutely essential because forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door to eternal life.
With the fifth petition before us today, we will examine what God has to say about the all-important subject of Christian forgiveness. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will enlighten us as we consider what we are asking when we pray…
FORGIVE US OUR SINS…
I.
We pray that God will forgive our sins
II. We pray that God will help
us forgive others
People have come up with names like little white lies, youthful indiscretions, crimes of passion. We say that something was the result of a poor decision, a moral flaw, a momentary lapse in judgment. We minimize and rationalize, and eventually our consciences become de-sensitized.
God has his own name for what people describe in so many different ways, sin. Despite the best efforts of human beings to redefine sin, the Bible’s definition doesn’t change. Sin is not what the majority decides is wrong. An action doesn’t become sinful when it affects another person. In God’s book, sin is every thought or word or action that goes against his will and his word.
When we know what God forbids and defiantly cross the line, that is a sin. When we try our absolute best to aim for the perfection God demands and still miss the mark, that is a sin. Transgressions, iniquities, trespasses, these are all included when we pray: “Forgive us our sins.”
So who needs to pray this petition? Who needs to seek God’s forgiveness? Paul addresses that question in Romans: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (3:10-12). Every person is sinful. Every person needs God forgiveness. Not just because God says we need it, but because of sin’s terrible consequences.
Imagine that every sin you have ever committed in your
lifetime was equal to one brick. If you
took all of those bricks and used them to build something, what could you
make? A nice brick barbecue? A new school across the street? A structure that rivals the size and scope
of the
Every time we sin, we add a brick to the wall that runs between us and God. Sin by sin, brick by brick, the wall gets higher and higher until we can’t see God anymore. This wall prevents us from communicating with God. This wall keeps God’s love from getting through to us. This wall of sin separates us from God completely.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they had to face the consequences. Because of her sin, the Lord told the woman that she would experience great pain in childbearing. Because of his sin, the Lord told the man that work would no longer be a joy. But these punishments were like a slap on the wrist in comparison to sin’s greatest consequence.
God said to them: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19). To put in another way, the wages of sin is death. For Adam and Eve, that meant physical death. For every person who rejects God’s forgiveness, that means eternal death, eternal separation from God in hell.
Even if you weren’t a Christian, even if you didn’t believe any of it, you could logically understand the importance of the fifth petition. We are sinful. We need forgiveness because without it, we are dead. So we need to ask for it. We need to ask God to forgive us our sins.
But it isn’t quite that simple. The fifth petition isn’t like an eraser. Just say it out loud, and God will wipe the slate clean. Like every prayer we pray, it is meaningless if it doesn’t come from the heart. Properly prayed, the fifth petition is an expression of humility.
When we ask God for forgiveness, we are admitting our guilt. When we ask God for forgiveness, we are acknowledging that we will never be able to pay the huge debt we owe. Just like the servant in Jesus’ parable, we can only fall down on our knees and beg for God’s mercy.
Like the master in the same parable, the Lord has canceled our debt. Not temporarily. Not partially. Completely. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Because of God’s promises, we can pray with confidence: “Father, forgive us our sins,” and be sure that they are as good as gone.
Up to this point our discussion has been personal, my sin and God’s forgiveness. But this petition doesn’t end with “Forgive us our sins…” Jesus instructed his disciples to pray: “Forgive us our sins…as we forgive those who sin against us.” The fifth petition extends beyond my personal relationship with God. We are also praying that God will help us forgive others.
I had a conversation with a woman who was struggling with this concept, but not for the reason you might expect. It had nothing to do with her inability to forgive someone who had sinned against her. The problem was her understanding of the phrase, “as we forgive those who sin against us.” She told me that when she prayed the Lord’s Prayer in church, she would skip over those words because they bothered her so much.
In her mind, those words formed a condition. Jesus was in effect saying: “I will forgive you, but only as much as you forgive others.” And she knew in her heart that she wasn’t good enough. She knew that her own sinfulness kept her from forgiving freely and completely. And if she couldn’t forgive others, God would not forgive her. This woman’s problem was unique, but the cause of her problem was not. Really all of our struggles and failures in the area of forgiveness flow from a common source.
We have all been in this position before. I could probably even make it into a form and everyone here could fill in the blanks: “I can still remember the time when ____________ did ___________ to me. Because of what that person did, I was forced to ___________. It took me _________ before I was able to move on. I know that God tells me to forgive my neighbor and even love my enemies, but that is much easier said than done. I just don’t know if I have it in my heart to forgive.”
Whenever forgiveness becomes a stumbling block, whether it is my refusal to forgive or my feelings of guilt because I don’t forgive the way I should, the problem can always be traced back to me. If I have to rely on myself to be forgiving, then I am in trouble. If my forgiveness is dependent on my ability to forgive others, then the fifth petition should strike fear in our hearts.
Do you think that Joseph was able to forgive his brothers for everything they put him through because of his superior moral character? Do you think that Stephen forgave the men who were throwing rocks at his head to kill him because he hoped that God was listening and would reward him for his efforts? Joseph and Stephen are outstanding role models of forgiveness in the Bible, but they were still sinful. Their ability to forgive came from the one who forgave them, the same one who has forgiven you and me.
Jesus didn’t just teach his disciples the fifth
petition. He lived it. When Peter swore up and down that he didn’t
know who Jesus was, the Lord didn’t hold a grudge. He forgave Peter. When
the Roman soldiers drove steel spikes through Jesus’ hands and feet, the
sinless Son of God didn’t take revenge.
He said: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are
doing” (Luke
Jesus’ words of forgiveness on the cross were impressive, amazing, unbelievable, but mere words can’t begin to express the act of forgiveness that followed. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he took the sins of the world with him, the sins of the Roman soldiers who carried out his execution, the sins of the Jewish leaders who sentenced him to death, the sins of the disciples who deserted him in the Garden, the sins of every person who made Good Friday necessary. That means Jesus died for us.
Jesus died to forgive our inability to forgive, when we forget how much we have been forgiven, when we remember where we buried the hatchet, when our words and actions are motivated by anything but Christian love. Jesus died to cancel the debt of every person who ever lived, and because he did, forgiveness is ours.
The fifth petition really isn’t about me at all. It’s about God. It’s about God’s limitless love. When I forgive someone who has done me wrong, I don’t deserve a pat on the back. When I forgive and forget, it is not a feather in my cap. The very fact that a sinful human being like me can forgive at all is a testimony to the power and grace of God who loved and forgave me first.
“To err is human. To forgive, divine.” That is not only a famous quote. It’s true. Sin comes from sinful human hearts. Forgiveness comes from God. But divine forgiveness does make human forgiveness possible. Jesus knew that. That’s why he taught his disciples to pray:
“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
This petition is the prayer of every Christian. As sinners, we pray for God’s forgiveness. As forgiven sinners, we look to God for the strength to forgive others. Lord, teach us to pray this way. Amen.