Living the Lord’s Prayer, Part-5, Mathew 6:6-13
“Forgive us our Debts”
Introduction
“When you have been sitting in a well-lighted room and are suddenly called into the outer darkness, how black it seems. And thus when a man has dwelt in communion with God, sin becomes exceedingly sinful, and the darkness in which the world lies appears like tenfold night.” (Spurgeon)
The longer I walk with Christ the uglier my sin seems to me. The closer into communion with God I am the more desperately thankful to God I am for having forgiven this broken, brazen, bold, sinner’s heart. It is only when we have been in the light that darkness is well defined. Interestingly darkness is not a true state.
Darkness is not positively definable on its own terms. In other words, darkness doesn’t exist. It is merely the absence of light. There is a cave that I love to visit in Northern California. Moaning Caverns is just a short drive from where I was raised in Modesto, California. It is an easy day trip that we made many times as a family growing up and even visited on school field trips routinely.
You can either descend through a hole in the top of the cavern on a repel rope or take the safe (sane) route down a very large spiral staircase. I have always chosen the staircase. Upon reaching the bottom of the deep and twisting cavern, the tour guide will turn off the artificial lighting and ask everyone to keep silent. In the deepest of darkness the sound of an underground river can be heard faintly in the distance moving through the rock underfoot.
It is the darkest of darkness, there deep in the heart of the earth. The depth of our sin and brokenness is only revealed by the glorious light of the holiness of God! As one ascends from the darkness of the cavern the wondrous light of a Northern California Sierra Nevada mountainous sky floods the eye. Often the intensity of the light is so dazzling that your eyes need time to adjust and the smell of the pine is so beautiful that the sensory feast is overwhelming.
As we consider the darkness of our sin and fallen state in the light of the glory of the love of God as demonstrated in Jesus Christ, I am likewise overwhelmed by the loveliness, exquisiteness, and the magnificence of forgiveness!
Transition
In the Lord’s Prayer we are admonished to pray this way, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:12, 14-15 NIV)
Next week we will deal with more with the directly related but intermediary clause in verse 13 “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” This morning we will look at God’s forgiveness of us and His invitation for us to participate in His plan of redemption for the world.
Exposition
The beauty of His holy light has shown in Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sin, reconciliation that was poured out at the Cross. That beauty of that light is measured best measured by the darkness of sin. The full magnitude of that light is best enjoyed when it is shared with others.
Forgiveness from God to man brings reconciliation in the eternal state. Forgiveness from man to man brings the eternal state into the temporal state.
In other words, when we forgive others of their indebtedness to us we are most like God in having forgiven us. However, when we do not forgive others we assume the role of God, which is the worst form of idolatry.
Un-forgiveness as Idolatry:
There is one judge in the universe. “Those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth.” (1 Samuel 2:10 NIV) In the New Testament the same truth is echoed: “To the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men…” (Hebrews 12:23 NIV)
God alone is the judge of heaven and earth. The Webster’s Dictionary of 1828 defines idolatry this way: “Idol. 1. An image, form or representation, usually of a man or other animal, consecrated as an object of worship; a pagan deity. Idols are usually statues or images, carved out of wood or stone, or formed of metals, particularly silver or gold. The gods of the nations are idols. Psa 96. 2. An image. Nor ever idol seemed so much alive.
3. A person loved and honored to adoration. The prince was the idol of the people. 4. Anything on which we set our affections; that to which we indulge an excessive and sinful attachment. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 1 John 5. An idol is anything which usurps the place of God in the hearts of his rational creatures.”
When we choose not to forgive someone else we keep them in our debt. Forgiveness, my friends, is a choice. It is not predicated upon our emotional state. It is not contingent upon our state of mind. It is not about a scale by which we judge what is a greater or a lesser sin.
Forgiveness is the pathway to freedom. When we do not forgive, we scoff and mock the forgiveness which God has given us. We devalue the life of Christ that has been imparted to us for the forgiveness of our sins.
Are our sins so much less monumental than those of others? Why is the modern church known more the judgment which lurks in the shadows of its steeples than for the radical grace and forgiveness which resounds with each clash of its bell?!
Why are our lives so much less like the life of Christ than they should be and so much more like the world than they should be! Why do we trap others in their sins against us while God, the only righteous judge, has released us from ours?
We are called to reflect the love of Christ not the pettiness and meager counterfeit selfish love of this world! But you say, “Preacher, you don’t understand, I have every right to hold them accountable for their sin. I have every justification to judge. They were wrong! They are my enemy.”
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8 NIV)
He forgave us at just the right time. When it is going to be the right time to forgive them? Some say you forgive for yourself. This is true. Bitterness is an infection which destroys from within. It is also for them. Reconciliation, healing, is only possible when forgiveness is a part of the equation.
Our Own Indebtedness: None of us are without the need for the forgiveness of God. We are all born into this world and quickly are infected by the virus of sin.
“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:1-11 NIV)
Even the very religious have sin. Brokenness is an inherited state from Adam. While there are those who would rather dismiss the very notion of sin in order to sooth their conscious, the love of God in Christ is the pathway to healing.
“We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:4-8 NIV)
During the century of westward migration in America, the trading post was a familiar landmark in every frontier town. To the trading post came the hunters, trappers, miners, and homesteaders with such things as furs and gold, and these they traded for things they needed more—food, tools, weapons, clothing. In a very real way, the church is a kind of trading post. Here some things may be put down and left, and others may be picked up and taken. We may bring our cares and fears, our sins and guilt, and we may take forgiveness, joy and peace.
Conclusion
“The most marvelous ingredient in the forgiveness of God is that he also forgets the one thing a human being can never do. Forgetting with God is a divine attribute; God’s forgiveness forgets.” (Oswald Chambers)
Forgiveness I complete. On the Cross Jesus said, it is finished. The forgiveness of God is absolute. “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36 NIV)
“Our personal loving Father, sovereign and divine, who forgives us our debts and enable us to forgive others; forgive us our sins and empower us to participate in your plan of redemption and reconciliation by sharing that unmerited forgiveness with others!” Amen.
