Forgiveness | Rediscovering the Lord's Prayer | Episode 8

Someone once noted that forgiveness is both humanity's deepest need and highest achievement. Pastor Jim Thomas explores the profound vertical and horizontal dynamics of the fifth petition in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Learn how resting in God's certain grace empowers us at the daily crossroads of life to choose the path of reconciliation and lay down the exhausting weight of unforgiveness.

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I once heard someone say, forgiveness is man's deepest need and highest achievement. In our last episode of Timeless Truth, we focused on the prayer or the petition, the request, if you will, for our present need, summarized by Jesus in the phrase, our daily bread. Today I'd like to focus on the next petition Jesus taught us to make, that of our need for forgiveness, forgiveness of our sins, and for forgiveness to give to others or to show to others. But before we take a look at that, let's pray the whole prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. And amen. Love that prayer. Um always moves me right into the presence of the Lord and uh gives me the kind of perspective I need, thinking about Him first, and uh then all of my needs seem to take their proper place, don't they? So here in this line, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Um here in this line of this most famous of all prayers, the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, and it's part of what I would call his, what I would call his core teaching on forgiveness ultimately. He makes really two inextricably tied points. One, all sinners turned disciples of Jesus have a need for forgiveness. And two, all sinners turned disciples of Jesus also should forgive others. These two needs are like two sides of the same coin, and we won't have one without the other. We won't truly understand our need for the first if we refuse to see our need to do the second. The Greek word translated trespasses, debts or sins here in Matthew is ophylema, and probably it's best understood as sins, which can also be seen as debts owed to God for trespassing or breaking God's laws. This would include both sins of commission and sins of omission, things that we've done that are against God's standards, but also things we've left undone, that we know as well. They are part of God's standards for us and for a flourishing life. And I might point out this is the only conditional line in the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us as we forgive others. Willeman and Hauerwas are helpful here. They say before there is any talk in the prayer about our forgiving anyone else, we are made to ask for forgiveness ourselves. Before there is any consideration of the wrongs that we have suffered, we are made to ponder the great wrong that God has suffered through us. Again, that from William Willeman and Stanley Hauerwas. It's a book called Lord Teach Us, the Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life. But think about this. In other words, we're asking God to show the exact same level of grace to us that we have been willing to show to anyone whom we believe has sinned against us. And I don't know about you, but as for me, this is a very sobering thing to think about. How much has God forgiven me? Every sin. How often has God forgiven me? Every time I confess my sin. God is faithful and just to forgive me my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. What we call asking God's forgiveness very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses, so said C.S. Lewis. He went on to say, what we have got to take to him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. As regards my own sins, Lewis said, it is a safe bet, though not a certainty, that the excuses are not really so good as I think. As regards other men's sins against me, it's a safe bet, though not a certainty, that the excuses are better than I think. That from Lewis's essay called The Weight of Glory. So two things are being said in this line of the Lord's Prayer, and both are essential if we desire to have real absolution and a clear conscience about the sins that we ourselves have first committed. We begin by acknowledging our sins, our real debts, our trespasses, what Lewis calls the inexcusable part. The road to true freedom from sin begins here. Sometimes the burden of guilt and shame seems like more than we can bear, but a humble and honest confession is essential to being released from the bondage and burden of our sin and receiving God's forgiveness. No excuses. We must come clean and plainly confess our sins to God. And forgiveness begins when we recognize and admit our sin problem. We have broken God's standards. We've offended the honor of God's name and our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds. The great news of the Christian faith is that the worst of our past, the darkest, most embarrassing, shameful things we've ever done can all be forgiven right now because God, in the finished work of Christ on the cross, has already, once and for all, paid the price for our sins. Wow. And then secondly, having confessed our trespasses before God, Jesus connects this with our forgiveness of others. He felt so strongly about it, he said it twice. You've got it there in the verse we read, but also in verses 14 and 15. For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. You see, the word if is used there again. This is a conditional statement. And the idea is that people who have really received God's grace and forgiveness, if they really understand that, then they must, they are compelled to forgive others. See, one of our struggles is caused by the fact that we tend to magnify the sins of others and minimize our own sins. We have a subtle and stealth inner monologue that is essentially a rationalization of our own sin or worse, an exoneration based on some kind of self-justification. But if we really want to nurture a healthy conscience, this actually works against us. You see, the more we understand how great a forgiveness we need and have received, the more eager, the more generous we will find ourselves to be as regards the sins of others toward us. I love the way that Brendan Manning puts this in ruthless trust, his book. He says, to knife through our pretense, our cowardice, our evasions, to see the truth about ourselves and the true state of our souls before God, this requires enormous courage and ruthless trust in the merciful love of the redeeming God. Put simply, sin must be acknowledged and confessed before there can be forgiveness and real transformation. Again, that's Brennan Manning from Ruthless Trust. This and the other quotes for today's episode of Timeless Truth will be in the show notes. If you don't have access to those on the platform you're listening or watching on, uh jump on over to our website, the villagechapel.com, and you'll be able to find the resources for the podcast there in the uh the show notes. So I ask you, have you first confessed your sins to God and humbly received his amazing grace and forgiveness? Then secondly, is there anyone you've not forgiven? I realize an offense may have been serious, and in some cases, it may have caused you a great deal of pain and suffering, leaving you angry, frustrated, um, looking even for revenge sometimes. But in asking God to forgive you your sins as you forgive others, if you want to receive his generous mercy and grace, how would it be possible for you to do that without you extending forgiveness as well? I'm honestly concerned about myself and about you, about all of us, um, harboring unforgiveness. And the reason is I don't think our souls were designed to harbor unforgiveness. Um, no matter how hard you try to deny it or push it back out of your memory, it's still there, it's still nagging us. It's like a uh a cancer spreading throughout our souls. Unforgiveness does that to us. I like the way that uh Martin Lloyd Jones said this. Unforgiving people have not been forgiven themselves. Those who are forgiven are so broken by it that they cannot but forgive others. They are children of God and they act like God. And God forgives. That's from Martin Lloyd Jones' uh uh book called Life in Christ studies in 1 John. Really, really uh recommend that and love that that commentary, that series of sermons rather by Martin Lloyd Jones, great preacher, on uh on 1 John. Through the finished work of Jesus, just a couple more thoughts and I'll let you go. Uh God has shown his eagerness to forgive every sin you have ever committed or will commit. He is eager. He was willing to die and pay the price for your sins and my sins. And God's eagerness is contagious to us. We begin to bear the family image. And he compels us and motivates us to forgive others. Our Father in heaven wants all of his children to have hearts that look just like his. Hearts overflowing with grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness. And this actually nurtures good health for our own human souls because we're simply not wired to hold on to unforgiveness. It turns to bitterness, to anger, to grievance, and it will burn us up like a like a combustion car engine with no oil in it. All the gears just freeze up because there's no oil. And Lamotte, that clever writer, once said, not forgiving someone's like drinking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. Doesn't make any sense, does it? Unforgiveness is the choice to divine someone else by their sins against you. You would not want anyone to do that to you, would you? Unforgiveness is one of the surest ways to turn your soul to stone. Instead, why not be like Jesus and forgive? Why not take the risk of extending an olive branch to that person you've had difficulty forgiving? You can't control the response of the other person, but at least you can free yourself from allowing unforgiveness to grow in you like tooth decay in your soul. John Stott is insightful here. He said, once our eyes have been opened to the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offenses of others, it proves that we've probably minimized our own. I think he's right. What should be our response to all of this? Well, if you have a sense that you need to get right with God and you want to approach the Lord in prayer to confess your sins, I love this prayer we so often use at the village chapel to confess our sins to the Lord. It's from the Book of Common Prayer, and it'll be in the show notes as well. It's passionate and it expresses a heart of contrition before the Lord. We say, Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We've not loved you with our whole heart, we've not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ. Have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Amen and amen. Love that prayer. Throughout our lives, we will repeatedly come to the crossroads of forgiveness and unforgiveness. The question is, which road will we choose? Perhaps you need to make a call today, or send an email, or write a handwritten note or something, and begin to walk down the road to reconciliation. Again, you can't control the other person, but you can control yourself. And may the Lord be with all of us as we continue to walk in the timeless truth of 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen.

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Amen.

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The Lord bless you. Read ahead. Continue to pray the Lord's Prayer each and every day.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Timeless Truth. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Wherever you are in your walk of faith, we're glad you joined us today. And we hope this conversation encouraged, challenged, or inspired you. At The Village Chapel, we believe God's word is unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach, and transforming in its power. To find more resources or support our ministry, visit the Villagechapel.com.