Do I Want God To Forgive Me As I Forgive Others? Series

DOES THIS SCARE ME? Do I want God to forgive me as I forgive others?

- Matthew 6:12b, 14-15.

- I said last week as we unpacked the first half of v. 12 that we often don’t put a lot of thought into what that actually means. In that case it had to do with making confession of our sins a regular part of our prayer life with our Father and all the good that can do for our spiritual growth.

- The second half of that verse brings up a different but related subject. And the same thing is at play here: we often don’t think about what it’s really saying.

- So this morning I want to start with what it’s really saying, then talk about the biggest reason why we don’t live that out, then close by painting a picture of four ways that incorporating this into our spiritual walk will change us and others.

- I want to say up front that this verse (and vv. 14-15 that continue the thought) are really challenging verses. They are definitely ones where we are tempted to pretend like we didn’t hear any of that.

- Verse 12b calls us to forgive our debtors. What does that mean?

- A good place to start is to return to a point we made last week about the first half of v. 12. “Forgive us our debts” is asking God to forgive us of the sins we’ve lately committed. It’s an acknowledgement that we have sinned against God and need to ask for His forgiveness so that we can continue in the sanctification process of becoming like Christ.

- The second half is also about forgiving sin. It, though, is about us forgiving those who have sinned against us.

- Let’s start with the fact that this is not a suggestion for followers of Christ. This is what we have been called to. We will get the “why” in a moment, but we need to squarely face this difficult truth. Forgiving is a command.

- Second, the word “as” is important in v. 12.

- It ties together the first and second halves. What is the tie between the two?

- It is that we are only asking God to forgive us in light of the fact that we have been forgiven. Wow - that's a tough truth. You can go even further - we are asking God to forgive to the extent we have forgiven others. Wow - that's a tougher truth.

- In case we might doubt that, Jesus emphasizes it in the verses immediately after the Lord’s Prayer. Look at vv. 14-15.

- Jesus is explicit here. God will only forgive us to the extent that we are willing to forgive others. This might be the scariest verse in the New Testament. I know it’s one that many Christians refuse to face dead-on because of its challenging implications.

- Given that difficult but clear teaching, you’d think that Christians would be great at forgiving, but often we aren’t. Why aren’t we? There are multiple reasons but the biggest reason is what I want to talk about next.

A BIG PART OF OUR WEAK FORGIVING: Many of us don’t know who we really are.

- Show the “Woody meets the Roundup Gang” scene from Toy Story 2.

- The line I’m interested in from that scene is where the Prospector says, “You don’t know who you are, do you?” Woody doesn’t have a good grasp of who he actually is.

- That line is useful for us this morning as well. Many Christians don’t know who they really are. What do I mean by that?

- Simply put, many people come to be Christians without a clear understanding of how bad a sinner they are.

- Part of the reason is that many gospel presentations don’t really talk much about sin but instead focus entirely on stating that you should believe in Jesus (which is, of course, also important but not the whole story).

- Part of the reason is that many people just like Jesus and focus on saying that they believe in Him.

- Part of the reason is that we all naturally tend to justify or undersell the bad things we’ve done.

- Part of the reason is that we have moral standards that are significantly lower than God’s.

- Paul, though, in Romans 1-8 shares the best presentation of the gospel ever written. It begins with a couple chapters on how bad of sinners we are. Rather than glossing over our sinfulness, Paul rightly makes it the starting point.

- Why is that important? Because we need to grasp who we really are in order to be able to understand who Jesus really is. We are not good people who need to join a church. We are not mostly moral folks who just need a small boost to be better. According to the Bible, we are dead spiritually. We are reprobate sinners in desperate need of help. We are a mess.