Chapter 6 – The Fifth Petition – “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Let it be duly noted that “Hallowed be Your Name” is not followed by “And Your kingdom come,” nor is that followed by “And Your will be done,” for though intimately related those three petitions are quite distinct. But “Give us this day our daily bread” is followed by “AND forgive us,” denoting that there is a close connection between them. Thereby we are taught, first, that without pardon, all the good things of this life will benefit us nothing. A man in the condemned cell is fed and clothed, but what is the daintiest diet and the costliest apparel worth while he remains under sentence of death! “Our daily bread does but fatten us as lambs for the slaughter if our sins be not pardoned” (Matthew Henry). Second, to inform us that our sins are so many and so grievous that we deserve not one mouthful of food. Each day the Christian is guilty of offences which forfeit even the common blessings of life, so that he should ever acknowledge, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies” (Genesis 32:10). Third, to remind us that our sins are the great obstacle to the favors we might receive from God: Isaiah 59:2, Jeremiah 5:25. Our sins choke the channel of blessing, and therefore as often as we pray, “give us,” we must add, “And forgive us.” Fourth, to encourage faith to go on from strength to strength: if we trust God’s providence to provide for our bodies, should we not trust Him for the salvation of our souls?!

“Forgive us our debts.” Our sins (Luke 11:4) are here viewed under the notion of “debts”—undischarged obligations, failure to render our dues. We owe unto God sincere and perfect worship, earnest and perpetual obedience. “We are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (Romans 8:12): this states the negative side—positively we are debtors to God to live unto Him. By the law of creation we were made not to gratify the flesh, but to glorify God: “When you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). Failure to discharge our debt of the duties of worship and obedience has entailed guilt, bringing us in debt to Divine justice. Now when we pray, “Forgive us our debts,” we do not ask to be discharged from the duties we owe God, but to be acquitted from our guilt, to have the punishment due us remitted.

“There was a certain Creditor which had two debtors” (Luke 7:41). Here God is set forth under the figure of “Creditor” partly in view of His being our Creator, and partly as being our Lawgiver and Judge. God has not only endowed us with talents obliging us to serve and glorify our Benefactor, but He has placed us under law so that we are condemned for our defaults, and as Judge He will yet call upon each of us to render a full account of his stewardship (Romans 14:12). There is to be a Day of Reckoning (Luke 19:15, etc.), and those who did not repent of and bewail their debts and take refuge in Christ will be eternally punished in the conscious realization of that solemn Assize.

Not only does this metaphor of Creditor and debtors apply to our ruin, but, thank God, it holds good equally of the remedy or recovery. As insolvent debtors we are completely undone, and must forever lie under the righteous judgment of God, unless full compensation be made to Him. But that compensation we are powerless to pay Him, for morally and spiritually speaking we are undischarged bankrupts. Deliverance, then, must come from outside ourselves. Here is where the Gospel speaks relief to the sin-burdened soul: another, even the Lord Jesus, took upon Him the office of Sponsor, and rendered full satisfaction to Divine justice on behalf of His people, making complete compensation to God for them. Hence, in this connection, Christ is called “the Surety of a better testament” (Hebrews 7:22). As He affirmed, “I restored that which I took not away” (Psalm 69:4), and so God declares, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24).

“And forgive us our debts.” Strange to say, some experience a difficulty here: seeing that God has already forgiven the Christian “all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13), is it not needless, they ask, for him to beg God for forgiveness? This difficulty is self-created through failure to distinguish between the purchase of our pardon by Christ and its actual application to us. True, full atonement for all our sins was made by Him, and at the Cross our guilt was cancelled. True, all our “old sins” are purged at our conversion (2 Peter 1:9), nevertheless, there is a very real sense in which our present and future sins are not remitted until we repent and confess them to God, and therefore it is both necessary and meet that we should seek their pardon: 1 John 1:9. Even after David was assured “the LORD also has put away your sins” (2 Samuel 12:13), he begged God’s forgiveness (Psalm 51:1).

What do we ask for in this petition? First, that God will not lay to our charge the sins we daily commit: Psalm 143:2. Second, that God would accept the satisfaction for our sins and look upon us as righteous in Him. “But if we be real Christians, He has already done so.” True, yet He requires us to sue out our pardon, just as He said to Christ, “Ask of Me, and I shall give You the heathen for Your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). God is ready to forgive, but He requires us to call upon Him. Why? That His saving mercy may be acknowledged, and that our faith may be exercised. Third, for the continuance of pardon. Though we be justified, yet “forgive us” we must ask: as in our daily bread, though we have a goodly store on hand, yet we beg for the continuance of it. Fourth, for the manifestation or assurance of it: that sins may be blotted out of our conscience, as well as from God’s book of remembrance—the effects of forgiveness are peace and access to God (Romans 5:1, 2).

Forgiveness is not demanded as a due, but requested as a mercy. “To the very end of life, the best Christian must come for forgiveness just as he did at first, not as a claimant of a right but as a supplicant of a favor” (John Brown). Nor is this in any ways inconsistent with nor a reflection upon our complete justification (Acts 13:39). It is certain that the believer, “shall not come into condemnation” (John 5:24), yet instead of that leading to the conclusion, “therefore I need not pray for the remission of my sins,” it supplies the strongest possible encouragement to present such a petition—just as the Divine assurance that a genuine Christian shall persevere to the end, instead of laying a foundation for carelessness, is a most powerful motive to watchfulness and faithfulness. This petition implies a felt sense of sin, a penitent acknowledgment thereof, a seeking of God’s mercy for Christ’s sake, the realization He can righteously pardon us. Its presentation should ever be preceded by self-examination and humiliation.

This petition is confirmed by an argument: “as we forgive our debtors.” It may be resolved thus: first, a reason from a like disposition in us: whatever good there be in us must first be in God, for He is the sum of all excellence. If, then, a kindly disposition has been planted in our hearts, the same must be found in Him. Second, from the lesser to the greater: if we who have but a drop of mercy can forgive the offences done unto us, surely God—the ocean of mercy—will forgive us. Third, from the condition of those who may expect pardon: they are such as out of a sense of God’s mercy to them are disposed to show mercy to others, hence they are morally qualified for more, seeing they do not abuse it. They who would rightly pray to God for pardon must pardon those who wrong them. Joseph (Genesis 50:17) and Stephen (Acts 7:60) are conspicuous examples. We need to pray much for God to remove all bitterness and malice from our hearts against those who wrong us. But to forgive our debtors does not exclude our rebuking them, and, where public interests are involved, suing them: it would be my duty to hand over a burglar to a policeman, or to go to law against one who was able but who refused to pay me.