Click here to return to Blog Post Intro
A Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer by W. Phillip Keller
It is significant that newer translations of the New Testament put this passage into the past tense rather than the present. In other words, what Christ said, was this:
- “Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors.”; or
- “Forgive us the wrong we have done, as we have forgiven those who have wronged us.”
We must ask ourselves some hard questions:
- Have we forgiven others who have wronged us?
- Do we have a clear conscience in our relationships with others?
- Is the atmosphere between me and my fellow man open and unclouded by hostilities?
- Do I allow resentments to rankle beneath the surface of my life?
- Do the wrongs I have endured from others eat away inside me like a consuming cancer?
These are very probing questions. They get below the surface of the superficial attitudes with which so many attempt to accommodate themselves to the teachings of Christ.
Our Lord was always emphasizing the fact that our inner attitudes were more important than our outward actions.
If we cannot honestly say that we have forgiven others or are unwilling to forgive them, we should find out why. And having seen the cause, do something at once to put matters right.
Why do most of us have trouble forgiving those who have wronged us?
Why do we harbor hate and grudges?
All of this leads to enormous tension, stress, and darkness within.
Beneath all of our difficulties in forgiving others lies the formidable foundational fact of human pride. We insist on our rights; we defend ourselves; we lay claim to our privileges; we hold fast to our positions.
Calvary stands eternally as God’s demonstration to us of total selflessness. It towers above time as the supreme act of self-denial in a world that is largely selfish and self-indulgent.
This is why Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus:
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great minister of the Westminster Chapel of London, wrote, “Whenever I see myself before God and realize something of what my blessed Lord has done for me at Calvary, I am ready to forgive anybody anything. I cannot withhold it. I do not even want to withhold it.”
A second view we can get of Calvary is a very practical one. While our Savior lay stretched prone upon the cross, with the spikes being pounded through His palms and ankles, He cried out a most incredible petition:
Nothing else can so completely shatter self and crush ego, leaving us undone, as a real look at our Lord at Calvary.
Our Master put it like this:
Forgiveness is the secret to contented relationships and goodwill between human beings.
It is in the bright light of understanding something of God’s kindness that we in turn are able to extend genuine forgiveness and kindness to others. Then, wonder of wonders, we begin to discover that we, too, can accept and forgive others with all their faults.
May we learn to forgive, just as we’ve been forgiven, as we shoot for the stars!