Do You Know The Freedom Of Forgiveness?

I am from an era when the Lord’s Prayer was recited daily in school. Many of our vintage can recite it from memory. It is wrote and it is burned in. And, that is the danger.. Words we said so often, with so little reflection, so little understanding that we are in danger of blabbering “vain repetitions as the heathen do”. See Matt. 6:7 right before the Lord’s Prayer.

Yet This chapter from the sermon on the mount contains a model prayer that is so profound, so countercultural, so effective with connecting us to the heart of God, that we dare not misunderstand it. After all, we are speaking about prayer, about having a conversation with God. Look at Matt. 6:12, 14, 15.

Jesus said these words about forgiveness for us.. Verse 12 is the famous: And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors… Verses 14 and 15 are the not so famous: For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

A good way to understand what Jesus is speaking about is a real life example. Jim Elliot was the famous American missionary to the Waodani Indians of Ecuador. In the midst of his dangerous work with warring peoples, Elliot expressed his belief that work dedicated to Jesus was more important than his own life (see Luke 9:24). “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

As many of you know, Jim died in 1956 while reaching out to this violent indigenous people. The movie, End of the Spear is based on the story of the pilot, Nate Saint, and Rachel Saint, Nate’s sister, who continued the mission efforts to the Waodani, which eventually came to fruition. The pilot Nate’s older son, Steve Saint, spent his childhood with the Woadani. Steve was baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ by Mincayni, who was the very man who killed his father but later converted to Christ.

Can you imagine forgiving the man who killed your father? Do you really know that type of forgiveness?? The forgiveness spoken about in the Lord’s prayer?

To know forgiveness is to know the heart of God

Matt 6:12, 14-15 (NKJV) And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors… 14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

v. 12 And forgive us our debts – Here the Greek word debts is “Ophileima” guilty, failing in duty, indebted, sin.

Sin is represented here as a debt. Each of our sin debts amount to a great pile of debt. This is like an odious mound of maggot infested cat food the size of a landfill. Then, we ask God to forgive us of this smelly Everest size debt.

Forgive us – We ask for clemency, because we have nothing to pay with. If our sin debts aren’t forgiven, they will stand charged against us forever. We are bankrupt, and unable to pay a cent. Forgiveness, therefore, must come from the free mercy of God in Christ.

As we forgive our debtors – Whoa. Are we God? Can any of us ever forgive as God forgives?? We must at once see that this prayer is “aspirational”. We aspire to forgive like God. It is something we aspire to as sons and daughters of God. May we one day forgive as God forgives.

As Alexander Pope wrote years ago: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” This is like “Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Not since the fall of man has this prayer been answered except in the life of Christ. No, since Jesus, this prayer hasn’t been answered. Not in 2000 years! It is what we aspire to! It calls us to a heart of forgiveness as modelled by God himself.

But, the text goes on. Look at vv. 14, 15  For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I now want to show you how merciful God really is. This is a frightening verse if taken literally. There are 3 common interpretations to this verse.

1. It’s good – we are reminded of the importance of forgiving others, as we want to be forgiven. It’s good for us, and keeps our conscience clear.

2. We should – we see forgiveness as an obligation, modeled by Christ himself on the cross. We should follow our leader, and be like Him.

3. He won’t – We see forgiveness as a door, which opens God’s forgiving us. God will not forgive us unless we forgive others.

You can believe any one of these 3, but you should understand these words before forming an opinion. You’ll notice I used the NKJV for this quote. The reason is that the NIV uses the word “sins” in both Matt 6:12 and Matt 6:14, 15. Yet they are not the same word. The NKJV, NASB, ESV use debts in Matt 6:12, and trespasses 6:14, 15..

There is an important reason for this distinction, as they are very different words in scale and scope. But, we must see the difference in the words of Matt. 6:12 “forgive us our debts” – Ophileima. This refers to the vast unpaid debt of sin, forgiven on the cross of Calvary. Not just all of my sins, but the sin of the world…

In Matt 6:14, 15 “forgive men their trespasses” – the word trespasses is paraptoma. A paraptoma, or trespass is a side-slip”. It is stepping of the path, often by mistake. These are the daily mis-steps, wrongs. While they are individually sins, they are small in size and number.

Jesus is modeling that while we aspire to forgive as God forgave and forgives, in actual daily practice, if we would just learn to forgive the mis-steps and side-slips of others, our fellowship with Him would be preserved. Verses 14 and 15 do not refer to losing your salvation, not to losing your relationship as a child of God. They refer to disrupting our fellowship with God through bitterness and unforgiveness of others side-slips. All of this can harden our heart to bitterness and unforgiveness.

Whew! I’m glad we got that out of the way. Yet many of us have been deeply hurt by others. Wounds that don’t seem to scab over. Pain that doesn’t seem to leave. How do we embrace forgiveness as a lifestyle? More on the “How To’s” next week!

For now check out the forgiveness process developed by Shepherd’s Heart Ministry by clicking below to help you in your quest to forgive. Forgiveness process used by permission.   forgiveness process