Jesus continued to teach the Lord’s Prayer saying from Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4:
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
Forgiveness is a sign of restoration. It means wiping the slate clean unconditionally. It obliterates past events of injury so they cannot be used as points of reference any longer. It is a restoration with true and pure love and intent without animosity.
This statement of prayer is therefore a conditional prayer or clause, Matthew 6:12; 14-15. It is an acknowledgment that only God forgives sin, Matthew 9:6. The prayer then sets a condition for God’s forgiveness of sin. It is one of reciprocity or quid pro quo ‘something for something’. It is a sealed deal with God through the blood of Jesus that cannot be cheated on.
Jesus in reacting to the question of forgiveness said in Matthew 18:22, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. In truth we must be truly wicked and strange to remember all sins of a neighbor against us. In short, Jesus tells us to forgive absolutely without any further or future reference to forgiven sins of another. To Jesus, forgiveness is greater than an offering. In Mark 11:25 Jesus says when you bring an offering but realize that a neighbor has offended you, leave the offering and go and reconcile with your brother before you engage in the offering.
Jesus wants rather the offended to go and reconcile with the offender not the reverse. This is why God who is the offended availed Jesus to us the offenders to reconcile with him through Jesus’ blood which is God’s most precious gift. Our best gift is our pure hearts. The Lord will not reject a contrite and a broken heart or spirit, Psalms 51:17. In trading our best gift for reconciliation, we honour God. Anything short of this is unacceptable to God.
Jesus also sets this condition in Matthew 6:14-15. Also, Colossians 3:13 says forbear one another and, if one has complaint against another forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Jesus in emphasizing the principles of forgiveness said in Luke 6:33 that if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. There is no forgiveness from God without our forgiveness to man. In other words forgiveness to man is forgiveness from God.
Forgiveness is not to clear the guilty but to yield to righteousness in obedience. Pride often obstructs us from forgiving one another as Jesus has commanded and wished for in the Lord’s Prayer. If God forgave us and in humility Jesus died for us to save our sins, we must be able to shelve our pride and do the same as fallible people. We must forgive even if it costs our lives for this is what Jesus did, Matthew 26:28.
Jesus asked us to forgive because it is the root cause of some of our sicknesses and consequently one of the sources of our release, Mark 2:5. We can stop blaming others for our predicaments by having introspection and forgiving others of their offenses against us. In doing so, we release our spirits from the bondage of pain and injury into the realms of joy and freedom. This is what Jesus wants from us in our prayers. God did it for us unconditionally and so must we do for others.
God acknowledges forgiveness, John 20:23. Jesus said, “if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” God will forgive anyone who forgives, 2 Corinthians 2:10. We must accept that we have offended God in failing to do what he requires of us in the Lord’s Prayer. If we truthfully confess and ask for forgiveness, God is faithful and just to forgive us because forgiveness is predicated on confession, 1 John 1:9.
Prayer
Lord, we repent of our sins of not forgiving yet we ask for your forgiveness daily. Touch our hearts to vacate our pride, to be humble and to forgive with love for your name sake, Amen!!!
