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A Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer by W. Phillip Keller

The second petition in the Lord’s Prayer that deals with our human dilemma is, “And forgive us our debts.” The first three requests relate to the role of God as our Father. The last four focus on our very human needs as God’s children.

Consider these different translations:

• “Forgive us our shortcomings” (Weymouth New Testament – 1903 – modern Victorian English)
• “Forgive us our trespasses” (Knox Bible – 1945-1955 – Catholic)
• “Forgive us what we owe to you” (J.B. Phillips New Testament – 1958-1972)
• “Forgive us the wrong we have done” (New English Bible – 1961-1970)
• “Forgive us our sins” (The Living Bible – 1971 – Paraphrase)

Through this prayer, we are openly and candidly admitting ourselves to be guilty of wrongdoing.

Ironically, uncounted people feel quite innocent. Consequently, this petition, instead of being a genuine desire rising from a penitent heart, is often little more than an empty repetition of words by a self-satisfied soul.

The very recognition and admission that we are debtors and trespassers produces within the human heart a genuine humility that opens our whole being to the presence and Person of God Himself.

No doubt the thought held uppermost in Christ’s mind when He taught this prayer was that of a human heart coming humbly to seek restoration from a forgiving Father.

We live in a world where men and women often feel deep down inside that something is basically missing from life, a sense that somehow they are out of touch with eternity.

Deep down, they know something is wrong, something is missing, but what?

When Christ taught His disciples this prayer, this petition was included to cover and deal with this deep need in the human heart.

“Forgive us our debts” may well be the four most important words that ever cross our lips, provided we really mean them.

 

The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

The Gospel Theology of “Forgive Us Our Debts”

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” is a gospel primer in miniature.

First, this prayer establishes that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. Our fundamental spiritual problem is not a lack of education, lack of opportunity, an inability to express ourselves, or unmet social needs. Our problem is sin.

Second, Jesus teaches us not only that we have sinned but also that we have the hope of forgiveness. It is easy to miss just how audacious the words of Jesus actually are. Jesus is teaching sinners, rebels against God, to have the audacity to approach God’s throne—a throne established in justice and holiness—and ask for forgiveness.

Third, we see in this passage that God is willing to forgive our sin.

 

Indeed, the only thing that surpasses our constant need for forgiveness is God’s determination to forgive sin.

From Forgiven to Forgiving: The Transformative Power of God’s Forgiveness

Not only does Jesus teach us to petition God for forgiveness, He also teaches us to pray that God forgive us in the same way that we forgive our debtors.

Jesus is decidedly not saying that we are forgiven by God because we have forgiven other people.

Jesus’ words on forgiveness are clear. Without forgiving others, we will not be forgiven. Forgiveness is a necessary evidence that we have received forgiveness.

Just as He forgives us when we rebel against Him, so the citizens of God’s kingdom forgive one another.

 

The Lord and His Prayer by N.T. Wright

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Once you replace morality with the philosophy that says “if it feels good, do it,” there isn’t anything to forgive. If you feel hurt by something, our culture suggests that you should simply retreat into your private world and pretend it didn’t happen. In that sort of world, I don’t need God to forgive me, and I don’t need to forgive anybody else, either.

Instead of genuine forgiveness, our generation has been taught the vague notion of “tolerance.” This is, at best, a low-grade parody of forgiveness. At worst, it’s a way of sweeping the real issues in human life under the carpet.

Jesus went from village to village, throughout the lovely Galilean countryside, announcing that the kingdom had arrived, that forgiveness of sins was happening, that God was transforming his people at last into the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Wherever people responded to his call, he gave them instructions as to how they should live, as the new-Exodus people, the forgiveness-of-sins people.

In particular, having received God’s forgiveness themselves, they were to practice it among themselves. Not to do so would mean they hadn’t grasped what was going on.

So, the Lord’s Prayer contains, at this point, a most unusual thing: a clause which commits the pray-er to actions which back up the petition just offered. “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Please note: this isn’t saying that we do this in order to earn God’s forgiveness.

The problem of debt was very serious in Jesus’ time. When the revolutionaries took over the Temple at the start of the Jewish war against the Romans, thirty years after Jesus’ day, the first thing they did was to burn the records of debt. The early church certainly believed that Jesus was talking about actual debt. The Lord’s Prayer makes sense, not just in terms of individual human beings quieting their own troubled consciences, vital though that is, but also in terms of the new day when justice and peace will embrace, economically and socially as well as personally and existentially.

So this clause in the prayer is anchored, like all the others, in the career and announcement of Jesus.

As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

We, as the people who pray this prayer for the world, are called to be the people who live this way ourselves. Jesus sends the disciples to announce “the forgiveness of sines” to the whole cosmos. The church is to tell, and to live, the Jubilee-message, the forgiveness-of-sins message.

As followers of Jesus, we breathe in true divine forgiveness day by day, as the cool, clear air which our spiritual lungs need instead of the grimy, germ-laden air that is pumped at us from all sides. And, once we start inhaling God’s fresh air, there is a good chance that we will start to breathe it out, too. As we learn what it is like to be forgiven, we being to discover that it is possible, and indeed joyful, to forgive others.