Introduction

It is important to note that the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are hooks upon which a great deal of material hangs. They are summary statements conveying the most critical and fundamental issues of prayer. We have here guidance for prayer par excellence. Each petition is like the tip of an iceberg that has a huge mass of material just out of sight. This is definitely true regarding the fifth petition, which gives this duty: "Pray for Forgiveness as You Forgive" (Mat. 6.12, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors).

Immediately, we observe that there is more here than the plea for forgiveness. Of course, that alone is no small thing, but there is much more than that which initially strikes us. This word not only teaches us how to converse with God in the light of forgiving grace, it also guides us into the kind of praying that drives godly living.

There are two main points that stand out in the fifth petition of the Lord’s Family Prayer: it is a request for forgiveness and it is a commitment to forgive (the latter has a sharp stinger that may inflict a piercing pain, but it is not poison, it is medicine).

1A.This is a request for forgiveness

Making this request, we confess our sin, admit our helplessness, and rest in God’s grace. Let us consider each of these things in order.

1B.We confess our sin

The idea of confession of sin is unmistakably in the words, "forgive us." We come as a family to our Father and we say, "Father in heaven…forgive," or "our Father in heaven we ask you to forgive us as we daily (v. 11) do our work and make our pilgrimage." The daily aspect of the fourth petition projects over all the petitions.

Notably, sin is talked about in the language of debt (forgive us our debts). We know that sin in directly in view from Luke’s record of the Lord’s Family Prayer (11.4). Luke intertwines three things, forgiveness, sin, and indebtedness showing clearly that it is important to think of sin as a debt.

What we are to do is confess that we owe to God perfect obedience but we stand inexcusable with debt unpaid. Debt is the non-payment of money (or goods or services); to be indebted is to have bills unpaid. Thus, we acknowledge that we have not paid God what He is due in obedient service to Him as our Creator. We ought to reflect His beauty and perfection (the beauty of His perfection and the perfection of His beauty) in our lives as His images. However, we do not do so; we are guilty and we confess our guilt.

2B. Admit our helplessness

In this language of debt, we admit that we have nothing to pay. We must ask for forgiveness (for pardon of the debt) because we cannot pay it. The loss of the past is out of reach and we cannot pay the daily accumulation of debt that continues to grow.

We frankly admit that our sin-debt is out of hand and out of control. Jesus makes this point emphatically in the parable of the king’s debtor (Mat. 18.21-35). The debt that we owe to our sovereign king is comparable to twenty years of wages that are due now (overdue, due yesterday, due in full!). Our debt is due now in full but we cannot pay twenty years of wages now for we have neither the funds nor the time; this is the day of reckoning. What more dramatic way could there be to convey our helplessness before the king of glory due to our sins? In the language of debt, we not only confess our sin but we confess its magnitude and our utter helplessness to pay the debt.

We have one course of action, to admit that our indebtedness is aggravated beyond measure. We deserve to hear the words, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mat. 25.41). Wonderfully, however, the request for forgiveness leads us to the foundation of our hope. In this prayer, we rest in God’s grace and mercy.

3B. Rest in God’s grace

Going boldly to the throne of God in heaven shows that we rest on our mediator, the Lord Jesus, for grace and mercy "to help in time of need" (Heb. 4.16). We rest our weary heads on the shoulder of our Father who is the only one who can remedy this great problem of our sin debt. He alone can forgive sin and we know that He is our Father and that as such He has it in His heart to forgive. I am still looking for the verse about forgiving yourself. It is definitely not in the pattern for prayer that the Lord gives us in the Sermon on the Mount.

Our hope is in God, in His mercy, in His grace through our Lord Jesus Christ and His accomplished work (Jn. 19.30; Heb. 9.12; Acts 20.28). Because of the death of death in the death of Christ, we trust that God has goodwill toward us, forgiving goodwill. Though we do not deserve it and could never earn it or pay the debt, we are confident that Jesus paid the debt in full in our behalf by actually enduring the punishment of our sins in His own body on the cross (1 Pet. 2.24).

Thus, the fifth petition teaches us that the Christian life is seasoned always (daily, day in and day out) by repentance. The Christian lives a repentant life. Christians, as we say often, are sinner-saints or saintly-sinners but they are such in repentance facing their sin in the light of the perfect holiness of God and His Law. Undaunted, the Christian looks at the Law squarely and fearlessly because He clings to the rich mercy of God in Christ.

So, pray in this spirit confessing sin, admitting helplessness and resting in divine mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. (We rest in His person and accomplished work; it is a matter of the history of redemption to view the Sermon on the Mount in terms of where we are on this side of the resurrection and we know that Jesus sketched an outline that we now fill in as we read the Sermon).

2A.This is also a commitment to forgive

The plea is "forgive us" but it is always a seasoned plea; our relationship to other people should condition our prayers always, especially our prayers for our own forgiveness. Specifically, we ask for forgiveness in a commitment to forgive others who sin against us as a condition. Therefore, I want emphasize these things in our commitment: others, who sin, against us, as a condition. Read the sentence with emphasis on these words, we ask for forgiveness in a commitment to forgive others who sin against us as a condition.

1B. Others

The relationship is between them and us. We cannot go to God for forgiveness without being mindful of others. The vertical relationship we have with God can never stand separate from the horizontal relationship we have with our neighbor. This is an amazing fact all its own showing the practical and down to earth nature of the teachings of Christ that is incomparably excellent. This is part of how Scripture proves that it is the word of God as the Confession states:

…the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God (Westminster Confession I, V.).

It is remarkable that Christ presents a lofty godliness in an earthy way. For example, consider The Good Samaritan and good works in the eyes of others to see how we cannot separate the horizontal dimension from the vertical (relationship with others cannot be separated from relationship with God).

2B. Who sin

Of course, the relationship to others in this passage has to do with the reality of sin in the human family. The "others" that we are to be mindful of when we go to prayer for forgiveness are sinners just as we are sinners (we are sinners just as they are sinners). We are aware of their sins and should be when we approach God about our sins seeking forgiveness. It is important to note that we are not asking God to forgive them (that is another point under praying for the coming of the kingdom). Instead, this pertains to our commitment to forgive them. That brings us to perhaps the most biting aspect presupposed in this commitment: they sin against us.

3B.Against us

The thought is very pointed and sharp: when we go to God in prayer for forgiveness, we are to remember other people and their sins, specifically their sins against us. Granted, when people hurt our feelings, we may have difficulty forgetting them and their sins against us. Memories are all too vivid, but this passage teaches us to remember their sins in an entirely different way, which brings up our next point.

4B.As a condition

We are to seek forgiveness in a qualified and conditioned way. We are to request forgiveness to the degree and proportion that we forgive others who sin directly against us. We are to set that condition: Father, forgive me in my need and helplessness according to the pattern of my forgiving of those who sin directly and painfully against me. This is a most powerful point and a powerful dimension of prayer!

What an amazing qualification. Be careful with this prayer because in taking it up you may find yourself praying (with high and mighty piety) against yourself! For Jesus tells us in effect, "Do not ask for forgiveness… but ask for forgiveness according to the generosity of your forgiving spirit toward others." This not a matter of seeking their forgiveness before God, but of seeking our forgiveness before God in direct proportion to how we grant forgiveness to them, even if they hurt us deeply by sinning against us.

This has to be part of the restraint of anger that goes with the sixth commandment (cf. Mat. 5.21-26). It is a prayerful, even a praying, part of our striving against personal revenge in thought, word or deed (cf. Mat. 5.38-42). Praying like this means that we cannot rejoice in the hardships and negative consequences that they experience. We seek their good, we stand ready to help, and we promote their happiness in every way possible. Nevertheless, they continue to sin against us; they inflict us with pain.

Does this teaching mean that we continue to forgive? How many times do we forgive anyway? Yes, we are to continue to forgive, even seventy times seventy as a figure of speech that means, "just keep keeping on." The parable of the king’s debtor must quell any hesitation on our part. Upon reflection, we have to see how vital this matter is to the Lord. It is vital that we give the forgiveness and mercy that we request. It makes the Lord quite angry when He sees people who, on one hand, seek forgiveness from God, but who, on the other hand, refuse to grant the same to those who seek forgiveness from them.

It might help our thinking on this to ponder some examples. Joseph, you will recall, told his evil brothers who afflicted him with immeasurable pain, "I will do you no harm." Stephen said of those who stoned him to death, "Father, forgive them." Calvin said of Luther who reviled him, "Though he calls me a devil a thousand times, yet I will love and honor him as a precious servant of Christ." When we are in need of forgiveness, we should carry these are attitudes and thoughts with us to the throne of grace.

We must  stand back in awe regarding the supreme excellence of the teaching of our Lord. His demands are so good, so practical, so real, and so marvelous. He gives a sketch of prayer that is miles away from Phariseeism and other-worldliness. This is no "pie in the sky" religion. A Christian cannot seek the goodness of heaven without promoting goodness on earth. A Christian is a sinner who continually seeks forgiveness confessing his sins, admitting his helplessness, and resting in God’s grace. Finally, a Christian requests forgiveness by making a commitment to forgive others who sin against him, and he does this as a condition of his own forgiveness.

Conclusions

1) This is a wake up call

The recognition of our sins and our need of forgiveness causes us to seek forgiveness from our heavenly Father. The fifth petition teaches us that going to God in this way is loaded with baggage we might not expect to be there. When we pray for forgiveness in the right way, we must stipulate a condition. We are to ask for forgiveness according to how we forgive others. If we forgive little, then we seek to be forgiven little; if we forgive much, then we seek to be forgiven much. That is a wake up call to meaningful and sanctifying prayer! Truly, though there may be a sharp stinger in this petition, it does not inject poison but medicine for spiritual health along the path of kingdom righteousness.

2) This is a summons to thanksgiving and praise

We praise the Lord Jesus for the excellence of His teaching. We also marvel at the fact of forgiveness, in this narrow way, to be sure. It is a narrow way but how marvelous and how wonderful. On one hand, we must wake up and stay alert in prayer regarding our need of forgiveness. On the other hand, we must stand up in awe and kneel down in humility to give Him all praise and glory both now and forever.