Continuing from last week)
The second human request petition in the model prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ commonly called the Lord’s Prayer is; “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us” This has been a source of much difficulty as it has been controversial.
Before going into or discussing the complications and controversies about this petition, it is necessary to exegetically consider what “forgiveness” means, in terms of our relationship with God and amongst men. Obviously the terms “forgiveness” is one of the most widely misunderstood doctrines of the Scriptures. It is not to be confused with human forgiveness which merely remits a penalty or charge. Divine forgiveness on the other hand is one of the most complicated and costly undertakings, demanding complete satisfaction to meet the demands of God’s outraged holiness. On the other hand, the great fundamental truth respecting the believer in relationship to his sins is the fact that his salvation comprehends the forgiveness of all his trespasses – past, present and future – so far as condemnation is concerned (Rom. 8:1; Col. 2:13; John 3:18; 5:24) Since Christ has vicariously borne all sin and since the believer’s standing is complete, he is perfected forever in Christ. When a believer sins, He is subject to chastisement from the Father, but never to condemnation with the world (1 Cor.11:31,32). By confession the Christian is forgiven and restored to fellowship (1 John 1:9). It must be remembered always that were it not for Christ’s finished work on Calvary’s cross and His present intercession in heaven, the least sin by a believer would lead to banishment from God’s presence – and perpetual ruin.
The two main difficulties about this petition are: there are those who feel that there is no need for a Christian to pray for forgiveness, because we are “justified by faith” (see Rom. 5:1). Justification by faith implies or connotes. God’s declaration that He has delt with the believers’ sins in full in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sins such believers have committed and the sins they shall yet commit, that He has imputed to the believer, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, regards and declares him to be righteous in Christ Jesus. This school of thought argue that if all the sins were dealt with by Christ’s vicarious death what need have they for forgives and of what sin left.
Another group plead sanctification and hold the view that having been sanctified on being born-again they do not sin any longer; they claim that they are perfect and hold the “holiness theory” which teaches that sin has been eradicated thus making them perfect and sinless, and therefore it would be wrong for them to pray for forgiveness of sins, neither need they to do so, for they do no wrong.
The answer to this error is that the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God who is one with God – His Father and our .Father, tells us to pray for the forgiveness of our sins, trespasses, debts (or whatever word we choose). He is not talking about justification. He is not dealing here with a sinner who has just awakened to the fact that he needs to have his sins forgiven and come to God and receives salvation and realizes his justification in Christ. Admittedly, there is only one “washing” of the all in Christ Jesus, and this is our justification. But having been justified; as we walk through this world, we become tarnished by sin. This is true of every Christian. Though we know we have been cleansed by the precious blood shed on the cross of Calvary, we still need forgiveness from time to time for particular sins and failures. In John’s first epistle we are taught that though we walk in the life of faith, we may yet fall into sin and what we need to do is to “… confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us form all unrighteousness” (1 John1:1) John is writing to Christians or believers, and our Lord here is also speaking to believers.
Who is the man who can say “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”. He is only the man who has the right to say “Our Father”. And the only man who has the right to say “Our Father” is one in Christ Jesus. It is “The children’s prayer”. It is not a prayer for everybody, but only for those who have become the children of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the relationship of the child to the Father, and the moment we realize that we have offended or grieved or sinned against the Father, we confess it and ask for forgiveness and we are sure of His forgiving us.
As regards those who claim to have been sanctified once and for all time, that they do not need forgiveness, such should regard 1 John 1:8 which says: “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” The man who does not know the blackness of his own heart, but is simply concerned with his own theories, is a man who is not examining himself truly. The greater the saint, the greater is the sense of sin, and, the awareness of sin within.
There is yet another great difficulty about this same petition. There are people who say that the prayer – “forgive our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us”
should never be said by Christians or believers, for to do, according to them, is to return to law since, they claim, the Christian is not under the law, but under “Grace”. They maintain that the words apply only to those to whom Christ was speaking directly, and will apply again to those who will live in the future “kingdom Age” who will be back on ground of the law. Again they expostulate that the prayer does not say “for Christ’s sake” and argue further that there is no mention of “atonement” therefore, it does not apply to Christians.
The first reaction to the foregoing is to observe that the text does not say: “forgive us our trespasses because we forgive them that trespass against us” Neither does it say forgive us on the ground of the fact that we forgive those who trespass against us’. And, take the arguments that because the Lord’s prayer does not say: “For Christ’s sake, and because atonement is not specifically mentioned, the prayer contains no gospel! To be consistent such as propagate these theories must never again use the parable of the “Prodigal Son” for it also does not mention “atonement”. It does not say anything of “for Christ’s sake”. It just gives an amazing picture of God as Father. It simply says that the son came back and that the father freely forgave him everything and showered his love upon him. But such an attitude towards this parable and this petition is quite ridiculous and pathetic. As the parable is concerned with pointing out one central truth, so our Lord in the petition was concerned with reminding Christians of the need for forgiveness and assure the fact of forgiveness. He is not concerned, with the mechanism or the process of forgiveness, any more than He is, in the parable of the Prodigal Son.
On the argument that there was a time when men were forgiven on strictly legal grounds, or that there will come a time in future when men will be on strictly legal grounds before God and will be forgiven even as they forgive. This simply means that such people will never be forgiven. Apostle Paul says the law condemns everybody implicit in “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10) and “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (v30). The whole world lies guilty before God and has been condemned. And there will never be anyone in any coming “Kingdom Age” or any other age, who can ever be forgiven by God, apart from, or outside the vicarious death of Christ on Calvary’s cross. It is extremely absurd and serious detraction from the glory of Calvary bordering on heresy to hold on to the theory that in some coming age forgiveness will be strictly on legal grounds or that at anytime it has been procured on such grounds. The only of forgiveness, before, after Christ and always is through Christ and Him crucified. The way of salvation in Him was ordained before the foundation of the world. This fact is implicit in this petition and in every other statement everywhere in the Scriptures. We must learn to take our Scriptures together, and compare Scripture with Scripture, this will help us to realize that in this petition, our Lord was simply concerned about the relationship of father and child. He could not at this point and within the same context take on the issue of the doctrine of atonement. He even pointed out at the end of life that there were certain truths He had to teach men, but which they could not bear them, but the great fulfillment was to come.
Christians must not allow themselves to be led astray by these unscriptural mundane theories. What the Lord is teaching in this petition is clearly taught in Matt. 18, in the parable of the steward who would not forgive his underling, although he himself had been forgiven by his master. This parable proves that we can only be sure that we have been forgiven our sins by our Father in heaven when we forgive others who offend us. If we ever think that our sins are forgiven us when we at the sometime refuse to forgive others, we will be making a costly mistake, we have obtained no forgiveness in such a circumstance. The man who knows he has been forgiven, only in and through the blood of Jesus shed on Calvary’s cross, is a man who must have forgiven others. And we must remember that unforgiveness hinders our other prayers and man cannot help himself.
I say to the glory of God and utter humility, that whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed Lord has done for me, I become ever ready to forgive anybody anything. Such a state of the mind in a believer grants him the right to pray to God and say – “Forgive me O God as I forgive others because of what Thou has done for me. All I ask is that Thou shouldst forgive me in the same manner; not to the same degree, because all I do is imperfect. In the same way, as it were, as Thou hast forgiven me, I am forgiving others. Forgive me as I forgive them because of what the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has done in my heart”
This petition is full of atonement, it is full of the grace of God. The importance of this petition is emphasized by the Lord, for after His teaching on the model prayer, He in verses 14 and 15 of Matt.6 points out: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” This is absolute and inevitable. True forgiveness breaks a man, and he must forgive others. So that when we offer this prayer for forgiveness we put ourselves to spiritual test. And unless we find forgiveness in our hearts that we have genuinely forgiven others, our prayer is not genuine, it is not true, it is of no avail. We then must ask God to give us grace to be honest with ourselves, and never to offer these prayers or include the petitions in our prayers – decrees or impartations – in a mechanical way.
(To be continued)
