And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12).
Here, Jesus teaches us to pray to God for forgiveness and adds an important lesson: we are forgiven by God when we forgive others. Jesus stressed all this important lesson when He said “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). Again, when Jesus gave the parable of the servant who had mercy withdrawn from him because he refused to forgive his fellow servant, Jesus added that “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Matthew 18:35). Jesus was particular about drawing our attention to the truth that we determine whether we receive forgiveness or not from God by how we choose to treat those who offend or wrong us. By Him teaching us to pray thus, we are reminded of our need to ask God for His forgiveness as well as an indispensable key we need in order to receive God’s forgiveness – we forgiving others.
We find the Holy Spirit reminding us of the reality of this truth after the death and resurrection of Jesus: “For the one who has shown no mercy will be judged without mercy”(James 2:13). This is just a direct quote of what Jesus taught: “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7) – for the apostles only preached Jesus Christ; they did not go about contradicting Him (Acts 5:42). To refuse to forgive others is to choose to show no mercy, and for those who choose to show no mercy God declares that His judgement will be merciless towards them. It’s mercy that triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). Even so, when God withdraws His mercy from us, our sins remain and we become unclean and defiled (cf. 2 Corinthians 7:1). And nothing unclean will enter His kingdom (Revelation 21:27).
Thus, we can see that the notion of God’s love and forgiveness being so great and not like man’s to such an extent that God will still forgive us even when we don’t forgive is in stark contrast to what His word says and contrary to the character of God revealed to us in the Scriptures. To say so is to say that God’s love is so big such that disobeying Him and thereby continuing in sin counts for nothing before Him because of His great love. However, the Lord has warned that the disobedient and unmerciful, even among His people, become object of His wrath and will not inherit the kingdom of God (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Samuel 15:23, Galatians 5:19-21). We do not come to God by how we think He ought to be. We know Him by the revelation of Himself given to us in His word.
For the unbeliever, it is not merely their refusal to forgive, which make them stand condemned before God. Their unforgiveness is a natural consequence of their unregenerate spirit and sinful nature. But for the believer, the Bible says God’s very love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) so that we are able and have been commanded to forgive just as God has forgiven us in Christ (Colossians 3:13). If we could not forgive just as God Himself forgives us, then God would have been unjust to expect us to do what we could not. But as the Bible teaches, righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne (Psalm 89:14 ). Therefore, to refuse to forgive, as a child of God, is a deliberate choice of your will to hold unto offence rather than obey God’s word and exercise His love in your heart to forgive. This is a place we should never want to be because unforgiveness will cost you your place in the kingdom of heaven.
Not only are we to forgive others to be forgiven but Jesus also taught us to ask for God’s forgiveness for our own sins. So John in His epistle again reminded us of what Jesus taught: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Therefore there is no reason for anyone to yield to the suggestion that confessing our sins to God is no more needed under the New Covenant. The Greek rendering of this text literally say that provided you confess your sin to God He will forgive you. In other words, in order to be forgiven, you must confess your sins to God. We therefore invalidate this verse and fight against the very thing it is meant to teach us when we grossly misread it in the following manner: “before we confess our sins, God is faithful to have already forgiven us”. The Scriptures only mean what they say, not what we think they should say or what we want them to say. So we are given this admonition, “Every word of God is flawless… Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar (Proverbs 30:5-6).
1 John 1:7 also says, “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin”. And when you read just two verses below in the same chapter, the Scriptures teach us how the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sins: “if we confess our sins to God (1 John 1:9)”. God is light and His word is light (1 John 1:5, John 1:1; Psalm 119:105 ). To walk in the light is simply to walk in the light of His Word. This is to walk in obedience to God. Even so, if we indeed walk in the light, we shall not neglect to confess our sins to God as He instructs us. The very refusal to confess our sins to God is our direct refusal to walk in the light, and embrace darkness and sin thereby. How can we choose to neglect the way God shows us to receive His forgiveness and expect to receive it in the way we choose? How could we be so deceived to love to hold on to our sins to our own doom rather than simply confessing them to God and receiving His forgiveness?! As the Bible teaches, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces (repentance) them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
We all stumble in many ways (James 3:2). Therefore, to pray just as Jesus taught us – “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12) – and to forgive just us God has forgiven us is not an option or an Old Testament Law but indispensable truths we need to abide by to keep walking in the light under the New Covenant.
Kwadwo Omari, PhD
March 11, 2019.