Introduction
For the past several weeks, we’ve been reflecting on the way Jesus trained his disciples to pray. We’ve been working through a specific prayer in the Bible, in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, that Jesus taught to his disciples, which is commonly referred to as The Lord’s Prayer. And over the past several weeks, we’ve considered a variety of different ways that Jesus’s teaching here guards us against misusing or misunderstanding prayer. (Though today, we’ll see that Jesus is specifically concerned that we ask God to forgive us our debts).

Ultimately, when Jesus teaches us how to pray, his goal isn’t just to teach us how to recite a few words. Jesus is concerned about our hearts. He wants to make sure that we know the one we’re praying to. He wants us to know God as our Father, and to pray to him as such. And the things he teaches us to pray for are things that He wants us to care about. So prayer isn’t intended to be the dull extended monologue that many of us think of it as being. Prayer is a way we express our burning desires – a way that we spend time with the God we personally know, and love – a way that we labor together as a church in Mount Pleasant to seek God’s glory in the world we inhabit. Jesus wants us to have a heart, not just for prayer as an end in itself, but to have a heart for Our Father.

And in our text this morning, we’ll see that an important part of relating to God revolves around the idea of forgiveness. So I’d encourage you to grab a Bible and turn with me to Matthew, Chapter 6. I’ll be start reading at verse 9, but our focus today will be on verse 12, and verses 14 and 15. Next week we’ll come back to verse 13 as we wrap up the series. But before I read the text, please pray with me:

[PRAY/READ TEXT]
Why Is It Important to Forgive?
Forgiveness is an important part of any long-term relationship. Many of us have found this to be true from our personal experiences, or from observing the world in which we live. Without forgiveness, middle school girls can go from BFF’s to being on each other’s blacklist. Without forgiveness, many marriages haven’t endured. Without forgiveness, many parents have alienated their children, and many children have abandoned their parents. We recognize that forgiveness is important. And so it doesn’t surprise us that forgiveness would be an ongoing part of our relationship with God.  Jesus teaches his disciples to call out to their Father in heaven, praying, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

And through these words, here in verse 12, Jesus is teaching us what it looks like to engage in a right relationship with God. He teaches us to do four things here: First, to admit our debts. Second, to ask for forgiveness. Third, to anticipate forgiveness. And Fourth, to also forgive others. I’ll unpack these four points as we work through the text.
Admit Our Debts
So first, Jesus teaches us to admit our debts. This is clear in the way he teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts.”

Most of us are familiar with what it means to have a debt. It means you owe something to someone. Specifically, Jesus is saying here that we owe something to God. And the reality of this debt isn’t too difficult to explain. God has given us a body, a mind, a heart – we owe our whole lives to Him, because He’s our Creator. Yet we also owe him our adoration and respect as God – because of his authority, and power, and greatness. God holds the most prestigious office in the universe, higher than any emperor or president. And God is qualified with infinite wisdom and strength to govern the nations. We owe him our respect and submission on account of His divine greatness.

But in addition to this, those of us who have been reconciled to this God through faith in Christ – we also know God as our Father. And we should recognize that our Father-child relationship to God also informs what we owe to him.

And it’s worth noting, it isn’t just our vertical relationship with God that comes with duties and obligations. The same can be said for the horizontal relationships we have with people around us. Because of the relationship I have with my wife, there are certain responsibilities I have for her – to self-sacrificially love her, to provide for her, to protect her, to seek her personal and spiritual nourishment, to cherish her – I have duties that flow out of my relationship to her as her husband. Similarly, I have a responsibility for my children, to teach and nurture them. I have a responsibility toward my parents, to honor them and to support them as they age. As a neighbor, I owe a level of courtesy, generosity, and communication to the people who live around me. As an American, I have certain obligations that I owe to my countrymen and to my government. Almost everybody would agree that our relationships with other people help to inform the responsibilities we have toward them. This is similarly true with what we owe to God.

So when we talk about debts – it can almost make it sound like we’re just talking about a financial transaction, something very technical and impersonal. But I hope you can see, the debt we’re talking about here in verse 12, actually has a very personal element to it. We have a responsibility to Our heavenly Father, to give him our love, our loyalty, and our obedience. We have debts in our relationship with God, and Jesus wants us to admit them.

But I want to further explain, here, why these debts are significant. Because some people may not be bothered to hear that they’re a debtor. We live in a society where it seems like almost everyone is in debt. They have student loans, a home mortgage, a credit card balance they’re paying interest on – the list goes on. Taking on debt is easy, and sometimes the government even cranks out debt-forgiveness programs. So debt may not sound like such a big deal.

So It’s important to understand what Jesus is getting at when he speaks about debt. This debt he’s talking about – it isn’t just a social issue, or an administrative issue, related to account balances between us and God. It’s a serious moral and legal issue. When people do not and will not give to God what’s due to him, they’re guilty. It’s a crime. It’s an act of defiance against the universal law of rightness whenever you withhold honor and obedience from God.

Verses 14 and 15 help to confirm this is the case. Because when Jesus speaks here about what we need to be forgiven from, He uses a different word, trespasses. Of course, we can distinguish between debts and trespasses. The word debts refers to what we’re failing to give to God. The word trespasses refers to us going where we shouldn’t be going, in violation of God’s boundaries. Yet both words communicate our wrongness before God – our guilt. This is Jesus’s overarching point: we all have abandoned good, and have stepped over the line into evil. We have refused to give to God what is rightly His. We are guilty of crimes against the greatest Being who has ever existed, and who ever will exist!

And Jesus says we need to admit it. There are many other ways we try to deal with our sense of guilt. We sometimes try to downplay what we’ve done, to pretend that it’s not really a big deal. Or sometimes we try to defend ourselves, and we make an excuse for why we did what we did – because we were tired, or because we were running late, or because we were stressed out, or whatever. But when it comes right down to it, we don’t want to take ownership of our sin.

But Jesus tells us to pray, “Forgive us our debts.” He wants us to call a spade a spade. He wants us to admit that we have wronged God, and to pursue reconciliation with our Father.
Ask for Forgiveness
And specifically, Jesus urges us to pursue that reconciliation by asking for forgiveness. This is my second point – the second thing Jesus teaches us to do here in verse 12 is to ask for forgiveness.

When it comes to finding relief from our sin – and enjoying freedom from our debts – notice what Jesus doesn’t say.

He doesn’t tell us to try to make up for our debts by being a little nicer, or by working a little harder, or by saying a few more “Hail Mary’s,” or whatever. God doesn’t expect us to erase our guilt ourselves, because we can’t. Instead, Jesus teaches us to ask God, “Forgive us our debts,” because there is no other way for our guilt to be taken away! The only way a sinner can be set free is through forgiveness. We need to be forgiven.

But when we ask God for forgiveness, what does this really mean? What exactly are we asking him for?

It may be helpful, first, to clarify what you aren’t asking. When you ask God for forgiveness, you aren’t asking him to hide your evil deeds away in a bedroom closet, or to sweep them under the rug. You aren’t asking him to tolerate your sins, or to affirm their okayness. This would be contrary to God’s nature. Because God is light, and in him is no darkness at all – 1 John 1:5. He’s the God of perfect justice and goodness, who punishes all wickedness. God cannot simply excuse sin, because He will not. It’s contrary to who He is. You’d be better off asking a rock to stop being a rock then you would be asking God to stop being God – to stop bringing justice for sin.

So when you and I are looking for forgiveness, you need to understand, someone still needs to bear the penalty. Someone still has to pay the price. When we ask God to forgive us of our sins, to release us from paying the debt ourselves – we’re asking that God would pay the price for us. We’re asking him to absorb the cost himself, so that we can enjoy peace with God.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but on a human level, this is often how forgiveness works. Imagine you’ve just bought a brand new car, and it’s sitting in your driveway. Then, within a few minutes, a boy playing baseball in the street knocks a ball through your car windshield. A few seconds later, the boy sheepishly steps up to your front door and asks you to forgive him – to release him from what he owes you. There’s a cost here that someone will have to bear – either he will pay for the windshield, or you will pay so he can go free. And this gives us a picture of what’s happening when we ask God to forgive us.

Asking for God to do this – it’s absolutely a bold request. It would probably even seem disrespectful, if God’s own Word didn’t teach us to do it. But as we see the depths of our sins and misery, we’re invited, we’re urged, to bring our faults and failings to God, and to ask for forgiveness.

And the good news of Christianity is that God has, in fact, paid the cost for his people to receive forgiveness. The Divine Son of God descended from heaven, and took on human flesh so that he could be our substitute, and pay for our debts. None of the debts or sins that he carried were his own, but He bore the guilt of his people, in our place. And He went to the cross, to suffer the judgment of God against sin – to suffer humiliation, and blood loss, and dehydration, and intense physical pain. He gave himself over to death to pay for the record of debt that stood against us (cf. Colossians 2:14). Through faith in Jesus, the fullness of our sins have been dealt with.

Hebrews 9:26 confirms Jesus has “appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Colossians 1:14 confirms that in Christ we have “…redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” The debt has been paid. Forgiveness is something we have, through faith in Jesus.

But it may seem odd that Jesus would teach his followers to keep praying for forgiveness. As I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, this prayer seems to be primarily directed toward followers of Jesus, people who are able to confidently call on God as their Father. This is a prayer for people who have their hearts set on the kingdom of God. But if we already have our debts paid for, why do we need to ask for forgiveness? Aren’t we already forgiven? Why would Jesus train sinners saved by grace to persistently admit their debts, and ask for forgiveness, if Christ has already taken care of it?
Anticipate Forgiveness
It’s because Jesus wants us to enter into a deeper acquaintance with our Father, and into a deeper assurance of our salvation. He wants us to anticipate God’s forgiveness when we pray. This is my third point from the text: we are taught here to anticipate forgiveness.

In the moment we first repent of our wrongs and trust in Christ, our guilt is dealt with, and we’re covered by Christ’s righteousness. We’re declared to be righteous before God. We’re justified, securely. We don’t have to keep wondering whether or not that reality is true. It really is finished.

And the finishedness of Jesus’s work means that our prayer, “Forgive us our debts,” is possible. It’s meaningful. It’s effective. Every time we pray, “Forgive us our debts,” it’s not intended to lead us into doubt and confusion, as to whether or not we’re saved. But it’s intended to lead us into greater confidence of our standing before God. See, every day, we’re confronted with our sins against God – you and I, as Christians, even, continue to fall short in our obedience and holiness. But as we’re daily reminded of our sin, Jesus wants to make sure that we’re daily reminded of His grace. By teaching us this prayer, Jesus is summoning us into the presence of Our Father, day after day, not to hear His voice accusing us, but to hear his voice acquitting us.

And this is an important part of learning how to relate to God as our Father. You may remember, back in verses 7 and 8, Jesus wants to make sure that his people aren’t praying like the other nations pray. The other nations treat God like some sort of cosmic force they need to impress or manipulate. They pile up words, thinking they need to if they’re going to somehow get God’s attention. But Jesus wants his followers to rest in their relationship with God and to live in the reality of it.

Our Father in heaven is willing and able to forgive you of your sins. He has provided for it, by sending His Son. He confirms and applies it, by giving us His Spirit. And though you and I really do wrong him in each passing day, we don’t have to be afraid that we’re going to be disowned, or thrown out of the household. In Christ, all our sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven.

Of course, this passage can be easily misused or misunderstood. Some people have wrongly concluded that the only sins we’re forgiven of are the sins that we specifically mention in our prayers. They argue that people who die with unconfessed sins will have to pay for those sins in the afterlife, and that’s why Jesus is telling his disciples to repeatedly pray, “Forgive us our debts.” Instead of this being a prayer for the hope and confidence of God’s people, it gets twisted to become a prayer of fear and doubt. We would be led to believe that our position in the household of God is unstable – that we’re constantly being thrown out of the house when we sin, and being dragged back in when we say this prayer. These people are teaching us, not to trust in the finished work of Christ, but to instead trust in the unfinished work of our prayers.

And this misunderstanding of the text undermines Jesus’s whole point. For the Christian, even when our emotions and behaviors are wrong and unstable, the access we have to God as our Father is firm, unchanging. Each new day, as we admit our new wrongs before God, we can anticipate that we will find new forgiveness.
Also, Forgive Others
Yet you’ll notice that Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” And of course, verses 14 and 15 add: “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.”

It seems clear that Jesus is teaching here that we must ALSO forgive others, which is my fourth and final point. We must also forgive others. But I want to make sure we understand what Jesus is saying here, and what Jesus isn’t saying here.

So look with me at verse 12. When Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” notice that Jesus is not saying, “Forgive us our debts because we forgive our debtors.” The text isn’t saying that if we forgive our neighbor, God will pay us back by forgiving us. God’s forgiveness toward us doesn’t ultimately rest on something we pay or do, but it rests on the sufficiency of Jesus and his payment for sins, as I’ve mentioned before.

Yet when Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,” he’s acknowledging an important truth: that being a forgiven person and forgiving other people are things that go together. They must. The person who truly understands forgiveness is made capable of forgiving others, and is mightily compelled to do so.

If we have been cleansed by the waterfall of God’s mercy, how could we not spare a drop of kindness to our fellow sinner? If God has forgiven you of a mountain of ungodly evils, how could you withhold forgiveness from your neighbor, for a handful of earthly offenses?

God confirms to his children that they are forgiven by giving them the grace to forgive. And so Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” so that those who extend forgiveness on earth would be further assured that they have forgiveness from heaven. Because if you, who are wicked, have been enabled by the Spirit to give the good gift of forgiveness, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! You can be all the more confident that you have forgiveness from your Father.

A few important things to clarify, though, about forgiving others:

Forgiving someone doesn’t necessarily mean that the other person won’t face any consequences for the wrong they’ve done. Children who are forgiven may still be spanked, grounded, or firmly rebuked. If someone steals from your home, you may forgive them, but they may still go to prison for their crime. A pastor or elder who commits an egregious sin may find forgiveness, but at the same time lose his position in the Church. So it is, when your Father in heaven forgives you, you might still have to deal with the natural outcomes or consequences of your sin for the rest of your life.

It’s also important to note, forgiving someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll start to have happy thoughts toward that person all the time. Forgiveness isn’t just an emotion – it isn’t just the way we feel about people. And the phrase “Forgive and forget,” can be misleading, because forgiveness doesn’t necessarily mean that you forget the evils committed against you, either. But forgiveness is a decision – it’s a commitment that you will no longer demand anything from the one who has hurt you, to make peace, or to make restitution. And for some of us, the act of forgiving another person may be incredibly difficult because of the carnage of bad feelings and memories we’ve been left with. But forgiveness means, even when those bad memories and feelings arise, that you will be committed to struggling against those desires for retribution.

As you look to Jesus, who freely bore all our guilt, and paid the cost – his grace can help us in the struggle. We, too, can release others from their debts, without demanding vengeance or repayment. Jesus wants us to forgive in this way. And as we forgive others, he wants us to more deeply realize the vastness, the sweetness, and the sureness of God’s forgiveness for us.

So it is, we have those encouraging words in verse 14: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” If you have understood the gospel of God’s grace, and are living out the reality of forgiveness, you don’t have to wonder whether or not you’re right with God. There’s an assurance here of your security.

But in verse 15, Jesus gives an important word of caution: if you do NOT forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Forgiveness is so central to understanding the gospel of Christ, that a life of persistent unforgiveness is a serious warning sign – a warning sign that you aren’t forgiven. A warning sign that you don’t understand the grace of God.

Now, I speak here about persistent unforgiveness because I believe that this is what Jesus has in mind here. There may be times when a true Son or Daughter of God may struggle to extend forgiveness to someone who has deeply hurt them. It may take days or weeks, or even longer, for us in our weak, human flesh, to come to our senses, and to walk in the obedience of faith.

It could even be that right now, you might be struggling to put aside some bitterness toward your spouse, or toward your child, or toward a friend. You maybe have done something kind for someone, and you’re upset that they haven’t returned the favor. Or maybe someone sent a text message or an e-mail that sounded cold, or unfriendly, and you’re harboring some resentment toward that person.

Whatever the situation is you might be faced with, Jesus wants you to hold up the litmus test here of forgiveness to check your heart. Will you forgive? Because if you won’t, there’s something you’re missing – something you still aren’t grasping about the mercy of God. If you see how freely and fully you’ve been forgiven, you will forgive. But if you won’t forgive – if you persistently refuse, Jesus himself declares you won’t be forgiven.
Conclusion: Forgive and Seek Forgiveness
Jesus wants to help us understand the true condition of our hearts. He wants the hardened sinner to be reminded of his many debts, and the humble saint to be assured of his Father’s mercy. He wants the unforgiven man to cry out for forgiveness, and He wants the forgiven man to extend forgiveness, in all his relationships. And so Jesus urges us into prayer. When we come to God on our knees, we’ll find his grace there in rich supply. Our Father knows how to give good gifts to those who ask.

So as we close, let’s pray together once more – please pray with me: