1. HOW we come to be in debt to God, how this debt is contracted, and what is the ground of the action. That I may keep to the comparison, not forcing it, but fairly following it, you shall see that we fairly run in debt to God, as the children of men run in delft to one another.
(1) We are in debt to God, as a servant is indebted to his master, when he has neglected his business, and wasted or embezzled his goods.
(2).We are indebted to God, as a tenant is indebted to his landlord, when he is behind of his rent, or has committed waste upon the premises.
(3) We are indebted to God, as a borrower is indebted to the lender.
(4) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a trespasser to him upon whom he has trespassed.
(5) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a covenant breaker, who entered into articles, and gave bond for performance, but has not made good his agreement, and so has forfeited the penalty of the bond, which is recoverable as far as the damage goes, by the non-performance of the articles.
(6) Our debt to God is, as the debt of a malefactor, to the law and to the government, when he is found guilty of treason or felony, and consequently the law is to have its course against him. As the corruption of our nature makes us odious to God’s holiness, so our many actual transgressions make us obnoxious to His justice; and thus we are debtors to Him.
(7) To make the matter yet worse, there is a debt we owe to God, which is as a debt of an heir-at-law upon his ancestor’s account, of a son who is liable for his father’s debts, as far as what he has by descent will go, and as far as he has any assets in his hand.
(8) There are debts of ours, likewise, which are as the debt of a surety upon account of the principal. I mean the guilt we have contracted by our partaking of other men’s sins.
2. Having opened to you the several ways how we come into this debt to God, let us next inquire what kind of debt sin is.
(1) It is an old debt, it is an early, nay, it is an hereditary, encumbrance upon our nature. The foundation of this debt was laid in Adam’s sin, we are in debt for the forbidden fruit he ate, so high does the account begin, and so far back does it look.
(2) It is a just debt, and the demand of it highly equitable.
(3) It is a great debt, more than we imagine.
(4) It is a growing debt; a debt we are still adding to, as a tenant who is behind of his rent, every rent-stage makes the debt more; till we return by repentance, we are still running further upon the score; still taking up upon trust, and treasuring up unto ourselves guilt and wrath against the day of wrath.
3. Having seen what kind of debt sin is, let us next see what kind of debtors sinners commonly are; and we shall find them like other unfortunate debtors, that are going down in the world, and have no way to help themselves.
(1) Bad debtors are oftentimes very careless and unconcerned about their debts; when they are so embarrassed and plunged that they cannot bear the thought of it, they contrive how to banish the thought of it, and live merry and secure; to laugh away, and drink away, and revel away the care and sorrow of it. Thus sinners deal with their convictions, they divert them with the business of the world, or drown them in the pleasures of sense.
(2) Bad debtors are commonly very wasteful, and when they find they are in debt more than they can pay, care not how much further they run into debt. How extravagant are sinners in spending upon their lusts!
(3) Bad debtors are commonly very shy of their creditors, and very loth to come to an account. Thus sinners care not how little they come into the presence of God, but rather say to the Almighty, “Depart from us.”
(4) Bad debtors are sometimes timorous; and though they strive to cast off all care about their debts, yet, when they are threatened, their hearts fail them, they are subject to frights, and are ready to think every one they meet is a bailiff. Thus sinners carry about with them a misgiving conscience, which often reproaches them, and fills them with secret terrors, and a bitterness which their own heart only knows.
(5) Bad debtors are apt to be dilatory and deceitful, to promise payment this time and the other, but still to break their word, and beg a further delay. It is so with sinners; they do not say they will never repent, and return to God, but not yet.
4. To affect you the more with the misery of an impenitent, unpardoned state, having showed you what your debt is, I shall next lay before you the danger we are in by reason of this debt. Many who owe a great deal of money, yet are furnished with considerations sufficient to make them easy, but they are such as our case will not admit.
(1) An exact account is kept of all our debts.
(2) We are utterly insolvent, and have not wherewithal to pay our debts.
(3) We have no friend on earth who can or will pass his word for us, or be our bail.
(4) We are often put in mind of our debts by the providence of God, and by our own consciences.
(5) Death will shortly arrest us for these debts, to bring us to an account.
(6) A day of reckoning will come, and the day is fixed.
(7) Hell is the prison into which those debtors will at length be cast, who took no care to make their peace, and there are the tormentors to which they will be delivered.
II. The sins we are to repent of, being our debts to God, THE MERCY WE ARE TO PRAY FOR IS THE FORGIVENESS OF THESE DEBTS.
1. Let us inquire what is included in this mercy of the forgiveness of sin as a debt, and what steps God graciously takes therein toward us, when we repent, and return, and believe the gospel. He acts as a merciful and compassionate creditor toward a poor debtor who lies at his mercy.
(1) He stays process, and suffers not the law to have its course. Judgment is given against us; but execution is not taken out upon the judgment.
(2) He cancels the bond, vacates the judgment, and disannuls the handwriting that was against us.
(3) He gives an acquittance, and delivers it by His Spirit into the believer’s hand, speaking peace to him, filling him with comfort, arising from a sense of His justification, and the blessed tokens and pledges of it.
(4). He condescends to deal with us again, and to admit us into covenant and communion with Himself.
2. Having seen how much is included in God’s forgiving us our debts, because it is so great a favour, that we may be tempted to think it too much for such worthless unworthy creatures as we are to expect, let us next inquire what ground we have to hope for it? How is it that a God infinitely just and holy should be thus readily reconciled to a guilty and polluted sinner upon his repenting?
(1) We may ground our expectations upon the goodness of His nature.
(2) We are to ground our expectations upon the mediation of our Lord Jesus.
3. What is expected and required from you, that you may obtain this favour, and that your debts may be forgiven? Christ, as a surety for us, has made satisfaction; but what must we do that we may have an interest in that satisfaction?
(1) We must confess the debt, with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart.
(2) We must acknowledge a judgment of all we have to our Lord Jesus, who has been thus kind to satisfy for our debt. This is one proper act of faith.
(3) We must give to Christ the honour of our pardon, by relying entirely on His righteousness as our plea for it; acknowledging that other foundation of hope can no man lay, and other fountain of joy can no man open.
(4) We must study what we shall render to Him who has loved us, who has so loved us.
(5) We must engage ourselves for the future, that we will render to God the things that are His, and be careful not to run in debt again.
(6) Our forgiving others is made the indispensable condition of our being forgiven of God. Concluding exhortations:
1. Do not delay to come to an account with your own consciences, but search diligently and impartially, that you may see how matters stand between you and God.
2. Be thoroughly convinced of your misery and danger by reason of sin; see process ready to be taken out against you, and consider what is to be done.
3. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him; make your peace with God, and do it with all speed. You need not send to desire conditions of peace; they are offered to you, if you will but accept of them; and they are not only easy but very advantageous.
4. In order to the making of your peace with God, make sure your interest in Jesus Christ, and make use of Him daily for that purpose: retain Him of counsel for you in this great cause on which your all depends, and let Him be not only your plea but your pleader, for that is His office.
5. Renew your repentance every day for your sins of daily infirmity, and be earnest with God in prayer for the pardon of them. Lastly, let those to whom much is forgiven, love much. (Matthew Henry.)
The forgiveness of sins
I. Notice the connection and dependence. Having prayed for our daily bread, we are next taught to pray for pardon. And this method is, indeed, most wise and most rational. For--
1. The guilt of sin many times withholds from us those earthly comforts we stand in need of.
2. Without pardon of sin, all our temporal enjoyments are but snares and curses unto us.
II. The words themselves.
1. The petition.
(1) What our evangelist calls sins, St. Matthew calls debts. We stand indebted to God, both as we are His creatures, and as we are offenders. By the one, we owe Him the debt of obedience; and, by the other, the debt of punishment.
(2) Now here to excite thee to a fervency in praying for the forgiveness of thy debts, consider--
(a) The infinite multitudes of thy debts.
(b) That God, who is thy creditor, is strict and impartial.
(c) That the least of all those thy debts makes thee liable to be cast into the prison of hell, and to be adjudged to eternal death and punishments.
(d) Consider, thou canst never pay God, nor discharge the least of thy debts for ever.
(3) And, now that I have showed you our misery by reason of our debts, and you have seen the black side of the cloud which interposeth between God and us, so give me leave to represent to you our hopes and consolation, in God’s free grace and the Divine mercy in dissolving this black cloud, that it may never more appear. And here let us--
(a) Consider what the pardon of sin is.
(b) The pardoning grace of God, in respect of us, is altogether free and undeserved.
(c) The pardoning grace of God is not free, in respect of Christ; but it cost Him the price of blood. Let us consider unto whom this petition for pardon is directed. And that is, as all the rest are, to our Father, whose laws we have violated, whose justice we have offended, whose displeasure we have incurred, and to whose vengeance we have made ourselves liable and obnoxious, to Him we sue for pardon and remission. Hence we may collect this note: That it is the high prerogative of God alone to forgive sins.
If, then, it be the prerogative of God alone to pardon sin, hence we may, for our abundant comfort, be informed--
(a) That our pardon is free and gratuitous.
(b) It is God that pardons, therefore our pardon is full and complete.
(c) Is it God that pardons? Then, for thy comfort, know that He can as easily forgive great and many sins, as few and small.
(4) NOW, in this petition we pray not only for the pardon of sin, but likewise for all things that are antecedently necessary to obtain it. As--
(a) We pray that God would discover to us the horrid odious nature of sin.
(b) We pray that God would humble us under the sight and sense of our manifold transgressions; that, as our sins have made us vile in God’s eyes, so they may make us vile in Our own, to loath ourselves in dust and ashes for them.
(c) We pray that God would give us His Spirit, to enable us to confess our sins cordially, and sincerely to pour forth our hearts before Him, and to acknowledge our manifold provocations with shame and godly sorrow, upon which God promised to grant us pardon and forgiveness.
(d) We beg a more clear understanding of the sacrifice and atonement made by Jesus Christ, through which alone all pardon is purchased and procured; to know both what it is and why ordained; and, likewise, the knowledge of God’s rich and free mercy; and the conjunction of this sacrifice and mercy together, in the great mystery of the freeness of Divine grace, and the satisfaction of Jesus concurring to the remission of our sins and the salvation of our souls.
(e) We pray that we may have a high esteem of Christ, and may hunger and thirst more after Him and His righteousness, through whom alone pardon of our sins is to be obtained.
(f) We pray that we may be brought over to close with the Lord Jesus Christ by a lively faith; that His righteousness thereby may be made ours, and we, by that righteousness, may obtain pardon of our sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
2. The condition or plea annexed to this petition.
(1) The act: forgive.
(2) The object: debtors.
(3) The limitation of this object: our debtors.
(4) The proportion or resemblance, in particle “as.” Our forgiving of others must have these qualifications--
(a) It must be unfeigned and cordial from thy very heart and soul; for so thou wouldst have God forgive thee.
(b) Thou art obliged likewise to forgive freely, without any recompense or satisfaction from others.
(c) We must forgive others fully and completely; for God doth so. (Bp. Hopkins.)
The forgiveness of sins
I. SINS ARE TRESPASSES AGAINST GOD.
1. Against the perfections of God.
2. Against the authority of God.
3. Against the express commandments of God.
4. Against the counsels and exhortations of God.
5. Against His warnings and threatenings.
6. Against His grace revealed to us in the gospel.
7. Against His patience.
II. GOD IS WILLING TO FORGIVE US THOSE TRESPASSES, though very great, and daily repeated. This we may conclude--
1. From God’s natural goodness and love to mankind.
2. From the declarations He has made of Himself, His mercifulness, and unwillingness that any should perish.
3. From His express promises.
4. From examples of His wonderful mercy recorded in the Scripture, for the encouragement of all truly humble penitents, though their guilt may be exceeding great, and they may have been sinners above others.
5. from the covenant made with Christ the Redeemer, that He should see the fruit of the travail of His soul, and justify many by bearing their iniquities. And as Christ the Redeemer was faithful to Him that appointed Him, and bare our sins, according to the counsel and command of the Father; so the Father will be Truthful to Him: and whosoever believeth on Him shall be justified from all things, and shall never come into condemnation, never perish, but have everlasting life.
III. QUALIFICATION OR DISPOSITIONS which must be found in all such as receive the forgiveness of sin.
1. In order to the forgiveness of sin, there must be repentance towards God, a confession of sin, and forsaking it; otherwise we have no ground (from anything that is written in the Scripture) to hope for mercy.
2. God requires, in order to a reconciliation, that we must believe in His Son whom He hath sent.
3. Our Saviour here mentions our forgiving those that trespass against us, as a qualification or disposition necessary to be found in us who hope to receive the forgiving grace of God to ourselves for our trespasses against Him: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Practical reflections:
1. Let us seriously consider and admire the condescension and goodness of God, in proposing to be reconciled to us, when He can gain nothing by such a reconciliation, but all the advantage is ours.
2. Let us pray for the forgiveness of our daily trespasses.
3. If we would receive the remission of sin, let us pray, and labour, that we may have those dispositions which are found in all such as receive a pardon from God.
(1) Let us labour to obtain, and pray earnestly to God for true repentance, a deep humiliation and godly sorrow for sin.
(2) Let us pray for that great and absolutely necessary qualification for pardoning grace, faith in Christ Jesus; true, sincere, evangelical, justifying faith, by which we may be united to Christ, and made partakers of Him and His righteousness.
(3) Let us forgive those that trespass against us; not seeking revenge; entertaining in our hearts no malice against them; doing them no harm, nor wishing them any; praying for them, and willing to serve them, and to do them good. Now, to close all--
(4) Let us bless God for Jesus Christ, through whose blood we receive the forgiveness of sins; convinced and assured, that without an interest in Him, the wrath of God abideth on us, and will to eternity. (John Whitty.)
Unwillingness to acknowledge guilt
If left to our own proud blindness, how loth are we to acknowledge our guiltiness before God, and to sue in His courts for the boon of pardon, in the deep sense of our spiritual poverty and moral unworthiness. There was, in the early ages of the Christian era, a lying magician and philosopher, Apollonius of Tyanea, whom some of the ancients tried to set up as a rival, in wisdom and might and miracles, with our blessed Saviour. One of the speeches attributed to this Apollonius by his biographer is, “O ye gods, give me my dues.” Instead of holding himself indebted to heaven, he regarded heaven as debtor to him, for what he supposed his blamelessness and eminent virtue. There bleated out the proud and impious folly of the unrenewed heart. But, as Coleridge beautifully said, in the later and more Christian years of his life, the men who talk of earning heaven by their own merits, might better begin by earning earth. Who of us really has deserved what he in daily enjoying of good, even chequered as that good may be, in this sublunary state, with mingling sorrow and joy? But, surely, in our more sober and meditative hours, even the unregenerate feel, more or less distinctly, their own guiltiness. This it is that makes solitude dreadful, and diversion so necessary, in order to kill time and drown thought. This it is that clothes death with terrors, and renders the image of a God--holy and the hater of sin--so irksome and formidable an idea to us. But how do men strive to lessen this irksome, yet inevitable, consciousness, by vain pleas and extenuations and criminations of their fellows, as these last have been their tempters, abettors, and accomplices. How do they seek to obliterate the record against them by flattering, and at times by bribing heaven. But can our richest gifts buy the All-rich, and our most lavish flatteries cheat the All-wise God? How can such a God be appeased, so that He shall efface the record of our moral indebtedness? We must recognize and confess our sin. And the devout mind, after every preceding petition in the Lord’s prayer, prepares to drop in the utterance of the petition now before us, as into the dust of lowliest self-abasement. Is He our Father? this fatherhood has been spurned by His ingrate children. Is He in heaven, our native home and our proper end? We have lived as if we had sprung from earth and were ripening only for hell. His name, dread and pure, is it worthy, always stud by all, to be hallowed? How have our daring levity and defiance profaned it; and trailed its sacred honours, as in the mire of our scorn and our filth; and hung what is the dread blazonry of heaven over deeds and tempers sprung of the pit. Is His kingdom to be hailed and extended? How have we played, toward its glories and authority, the part of the rebel and the traitor. Is His will deserving of all obedience and study and conformity? How have we preferred to it our own will, and the will of the murderer and deceiver, Satan. Gives He still, kind and long-suffering, our daily bread? How have we “crammed and blasphemed our Feeder” I To subdue this sin, will it be sufficient to secure forgiveness for the past? Not--unless we staunch the fountain of evil, and provide against its out-gushings for the future. To this later work the succeeding petitions of the prayer refer. When Jesus came down to meet our debt, and to justify us by His righteousness and death, He also made provision and purchase of the Holy Spirit to renew and to sanctify. (W. R. Williams, D. D.)
The test of our spiritual state
God calls us to a daily and domestic scrutiny. We do not show a forgiving and generous spirit, in order that thus we may earn heaven; but we are warned that the indulgence of a contrary spirit necessarily forfeits heaven. We test our spiritual condition, not by asking how our feelings are towards the dead--to our best friends--or towards angels. The Pharisees could praise dead saints, and canonise prophets, when once safe and mute in their graves. But we ask, What are my feelings towards the living prophets and witnesses of heaven--to my living neighbour, and rival, and enemy? When our Saviour healed the sick man of his long and sore infirmity, and bade him take up his bed and walk; the poor man’s lifting of his couch and flinging its light weight on his rejoicing shoulders, was not the means of his cure, or the condition of his healing. It was the evidence, tangible and visible to himself and others, in the streets along which he passed, and in the home he re-entered, that he had encountered a great Prophet, and had received a miraculous healing. And so, when the leper, purged of his leprosy, was bidden to go and show himself to the priest, as he bared the skin now clear and white to the glance of the Levite, he was not fulfilling a condition of the cure, but receiving an authentication, a public and unimpeachable and official endorsement of it. And even thus is it, in this prayer. It is not our placability that purchases for us remission. Had the imperturbable countenance which Talleyrand was accustomed to wear, even when insulted, been the index of as imperturbable a soul, free from all malicious remembrances, it would not in itself have merited eternal blessedness. But God would furnish, as it were, in the forgiving spirit of His people, a portable crucible, so to speak, in which to try and purge daily the fine gold of our own heavenly hopes. To arm us against the selfishness which Be clings to us, this petition, like all those preceding it, is not for the solitary suppliant. He asks not for himself, though like the prophet’s penitents he “mourns apart”; but he implores in unison and sympathy with the absent. He says not, Forgive me, but forgive us. And then going beyond all the other petitions, he makes reference not to the absent only, but to the alienated--the injurious--the hostile. (W. R.Williams, D. D.)
The forgiving grace
We want from God a full and free forgiveness, that has mingled with it no grudges and no coolnesses; a forgiveness that blots out our transgressions, that takes away all our iniquity, and receives us graciously and loves us freely; and that mercy which we want from Him we must be ready to show to others. We stultify ourselves by asking our Heavenly Father to extend to us a measure of forgiveness that we are not willing to extend to our brother. Such a prayer is mockery, and we know that it is when we offer it. What is more, we cannot receive the fulness of the Divine forgiveness until we are ready ourselves freely to forgive--even to give ourselves for--those who have wronged us. The trouble is not with the phraseology of the prayer, but with the facts of the case. You say that the desert is a desert because no rain falls upon it; but that is only half the truth. No rain falls upon it because it is a desert. The heated air rushing up from its arid surface disperses the vapours that would descend in rain. Some moisture there must be on the earth, else there cannot be rain from heaven. So in your heart this forgiving disposition must be, else you cannot rejoice in the fulness of God’s forgiving grace. The pardon may wait in the sky above you, but it cannot descend to you until that mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
Enmity is incompatible with profitable prayer
You have seen enmities and jealousies and grudges growing up between neighbours and brethren in the Church; and in every such case you have noticed that the spiritual life of these quarrelling Christians grew feeble and fruitless; that there was no fervour in their prayers, no joy in their praises, no sign of heavenly influence in all their holy convocations. And then you have seen a better mind take possession of them; mutual confessions and reconciliations followed; those who had been long estranged came together and forgave each other, and renewed the old bonds of charity and brotherhood. And then, how quickly, to the assemblies so long frigid and forlorn, the warmth of holy love and the consciousness of the Divine presence returned; how the pulse of the Church was quickened; and the new life from above issued in abundant fruits I Every great religious awakening is preceded by such works of reconciliation; and no wise servant of Christ expects any real spiritual growth or progress among those who are divided by petty feuds and contentions. It is not till we are ready to forgive that we find any profit in our prayers. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
An unforgiving spirit
What would you think of one who prayed, “O Lord, forgive me the many sins which I have committed against Thee; but I will not forgive my fellow-creature who has offended me”? An unforgiving spirit will stand in the way of any one being pardoned who indulges it. While the good remember kindnesses, and forget injuries, the bad practise the opposite. There are too many who, even when they claim to have forgiven others with their lips, cherish in their hearts the spirit of the old Highland chief, in the days when clan met clan in deadly feud. A man of God, who visited him on his death bed, and urged him to make peace with his enemies, in order that he might receive the forgiveness of God, at last so far prevailed, that the word passed his reluctant lips. Then, as if the death-chamber had been a stage, and the old chieftain an actor, who, having played his part, throws off the mask which he has for the time assumed, he turned his cold gray eye on one of his stalwart sons, and said, “I leave you a father’s bitterest curse if you ever forgive them!” (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Judgment without mercy
Between a mother and her daughter there had sprung up a serious quarrel. One house could not hold them. At length filial affection triumphed over pride, and the daughter repaired to her early home. No welcome met her at the door. She humbled herself to her mother--on bended knees imploring her forgiveness. She appealed to the bosom that had nursed her; but might as well have knocked on a coffin; there was no response. Nor--though imploring her by the mercies of God, and entreating her to forgive as she desired to be forgiven--could I, called in as a peacemaker, bend that stubborn will. By and by to this lonely house came another visitor. Death, who would not be denied admittance, arrived, summoning her to a bar where they shall have judgment without mercy who have shown no mercy. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)
Forgetting and forgiving
Prince Bismarck was once asked by Count Enzenberg to write something in his album. The page on which he had to write contained the autographs of Guizot and Thiers. The former had written, “I have learnt in my long life two rules of prudence. The first is, to forgive much; the second is, never to forget.” Under this Thiers had said, “A little forgetting would not detract from the sincerity of the forgiveness.” Prince Bismarck added, “As for me, I have learnt to forget much, and to ask to be forgiven much.”
We must forgive, if we would be forgiven
During the Middle Ages, when the great lords were always at war with each other, one of them resolved to take signal vengeance upon a neighbour who had offended him. On the very evening when he had formed this bloody purpose, he heard that his enemy would pass near his castle, with only a few attendants, and this seemed an excellent opportunity for gratifying his revenge. He mentioned the plan in the presence of his chaplain, who tried in vain to persuade him to give it up. The clergyman said much about the sinfulness of revenge; but it was like talking to the wind. Seeing that his words had no effect, he added, “Well, my lord, since I cannot persuade you to give up this plan of yours, will you at least consent to come with me to the chapel, that we may pray together before you set off?” The duke agreed; and the two kneeled down before the altar. “And now,” said the chaplain, “please repeat with me the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ taught to His disciples.” “I will do it,” answered the duke. The prayer was said without hesitation until they reached the petition, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Here the duke was silent. “Will you be so good as to continue to repeat the words after me?” asked the chaplain. “I cannot,” replied the duke. “Well, God cannot forgive you, for He has said so. You must, therefore, give up your revenge, or give up the use of this prayer. To ask God to pardon you as you pardon others, is to ask Him to take vengeance on you for all your sins.” The iron will of the duke was broken, and he hastily exclaimed, “I will finish my prayer. My God, my Father, pardon me!” For the first time in his life he understood the Lord’s prayer.
And forgive us
At this point of the Lord’s prayer we get the first use of the conjunction, and there is a great deal of beauty in that word, “and forgive us.” What was the former petition, and what is the use of the conjunction? “Give us our daily bread.” This verbal link is itself a beautiful representation of the mysterious bond that actually unites body and soul. A man who simply had bread would be a poor creature indeed, who simply had the comforts of this life. It is quite right that you should pray to have bread; but the prayer must be conjoined to a prayer for some spiritual blessing. (S. Coley.)
There are two things which this text cannot mean.
1. It cannot mean that sinful man is to set an example by which the Divine administration is to be conducted.
2. It cannot mean that God’s forgiveness of man is a mere equivalent for something that man himself has done. In suggesting an interpretation of this prayer, let it be observed that this is not the first petition in the prayer. Who are the men who can say, “Forgive us,” etc.? They are the men who have said--
1. “Our Father.”
2. “Thy kingdom come.”
3. “Thy will be done on earth. (Dr. Parker.)
Of the fifth petition in the Lord’s prayer
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mat_6:12). Before I speak strictly to the words I shall take notice--
1. That in this prayer there is but one petition for the body--“Give us our daily bread”; but two petitions for the soul--“Forgive us our trespasses,” “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Hence observe, that we are to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies; more careful for grace than for daily bread; more desirous to have our souls saved than our bodies fed. In the law, the weight of the sanctuary was twice as big as the common weight, to typify that spiritual things must be of far greater weight with us than earthly. The excellency of the soul may challenge our chief care about it. It it be well with the soul, it shall be well with the body; if the soul be gracious, the body shall be glorious, for it shall shine like Christ’s body. Therefore it is wisdom to look chiefly to the soul, because in saving the soul, we secure the happiness of the body.
2. From the connection in the text, as soon as Christ had said, give us “daily bread,” He adds, “And forgive us.” Christ joins this petition of forgiveness of sin immediately to the other of daily bread, to show us, that though we have daily bread, yet all is nothing without forgiveness. If our sins he not pardoned we can take but little comfort in our food. As it is with a man that is condemned, though you bring him meat in prison, yet he takes little comfort in it without a pardon; so, though we have daily bread, yet it will do us no good unless sin be forgiven. Daily bread may satisfy the appetite, but forgiveness of sin satisfies the conscience.
Use 1. It condemns the folly of most people. If they have daily bread, the delicious things of this life, they look no further, they are not solicitous for the pardon of sin; if they have that which feeds them, they look not after that which should crown them.
Use 2. Let us pray that God would not give us our portion in this life, that He would not put us off with daily bread, but that He would give forgiveness. This is the sauce that would make our bread relish the sweeter. Daily bread may make us live comfortably, but forgiveness of sin will make us die comfortably. In what sense is sin the worst debt?
1. Because we have nothing to pay; if we could pay the debt, what need we pray, “Forgive us”?
2. Sin is the worst debt, because it is against an infinite majesty. Sin wrongs God, and so it it an infinite offence.
3. Sin is the worst debt, because it is not a single, but a multiplied debt--forgive us “our debts;” we have debt upon debt. We may as well reckon all the drops in the sea, as reckon all our spiritual debts; we cannot tell how much we owe. A man may know his other debts, but we cannot number our spiritual debts.
4. Sin is the worst debt; because it is an inexcusable debt in two respects.
(1) There is no denying the debt; other debts men may deny. God writes down our debts in His book of remembrance, and God’s book and the book of conscience do exactly agree, so that this debt cannot be denied.
(2) There is no shifting of the debt; other debts may be shifted off. We may get friends to pay them, but neither man nor angel can pay this debt for us; if all the angels in heaven should go to make a purse, they cannot pay one of our debts. In other debts men may get a protection, so that none can touch their persons, or sue them for the debt; but who shall give us protection from God’s justice?
(a) Other debts, if the debtor dies in prison, cannot be recovered, death frees them from debt; but if we die in debt to God, He knows how to recover it; as long as we have souls to strain, God will not lose His debt. Not the death of the debtor, but the death of the surety, pays a sinner’s debt.
(b) In other debts men may flee from their creditor, leave their country, and go into foreign parts, and the creditor cannot find them; but we cannot flee from God.
5. Sin is the worst debt, because it carries men, in ease of non-payment, to a worse prison than any upon earth.
Wherein have we the properties of bad debtors?
1. A bad debtor doth not love to be called to an account. There is a day coming when God will call His debtors to account.
2. A bad debtor is unwilling to confess his debt, he will put it off, or make less of it; so we are more willing to excuse sin than confess it.
3. A bad debtor is apt to hate his creditor; debtors wish their creditors dead; so wicked men naturally hate God, because they think He is a just judge, and will call them to account. The debtor cloth not love to see his creditor. We would think it strange if writs or warrants were out against a man, or a judgment granted to seize his body and estate, yet he is secure and regardless, as if he were unconcerned. God hath a writ out against a sinner, nay, many writs, for swearing, drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, yet the sinner eats and drinks, and is quiet, as if he were not in debt; what opium hath Satan given men?
If sin be a debt--
1. Let us be humbled. The name of debt, saith St. Ambrose, is grievous.
2. Let us confess our debt.
3. Labour to get your spiritual debts paid, that is, by our surety Christ. “And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to Luk_11:4).
What forgiveness of sin is?
1. By opening some scripture.phrases--
(1) To forgive sin, is to take away iniquity--“Why dost Thou not take away my iniquity?” (Job_7:21.)
(2) To forgive sin, is to cover sin “Thou hast covered all their sin.” This was typified by the mercy-seat covering the ark, to show God’s devoting of sin through Christ.
(3) To forgive sin, is to blot it out--“I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions.”
(4) To forgive sin, is for God to scatter our sins as a cloud--“I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions.”
(5) To forgive sin, is for God to cast our sins into the depths of the sea; which implies God’s burying them out of sight, that they shall not rise up in judgment against us. God will throw them in, not as cork that riseth again, but as lead that sinks to the bottom.
2. The nature of forgiveness will appear by laying down some Divine aphorisms or positions. Every sin is mortal, and needs forgiveness; I say, mortal, that is, deserves death. It is God only that forgives sin. To pardon sin is one of the royal prerogatives. That God only can forgive sin, I prove thus:--No man can take away sin unless he is able to infuse grace; for, as Aquinas saith, with forgiveness is always infusion of grace; but no man can infuse grace, therefore no man can forgive sin. He only can forgive sin who can remit the penalty, but it is only God’s prerogative royal to forgive sin. But the Scripture speaks of the power committed to ministers to forgive sin “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” Ministers cannot remit sin authoritatively and effectually, but only declaratively. They have a special office and authority to apply the promises of pardon to broken hearts. As it was with the priest in the law, God did cleanse the leper, the priest only did pronounce him clean, so it is God who, by His prerogative, doth forgive sin; the minister only pronounceth forgiveness to the sinner, being penitent. Power to forgive sin authoritatively in one’s own name was never granted to mortal man. Forgiveness of sin is purely an act of God’s free grace. Forgiveness is through the blood of Christ. Free grace is the inward cause moving. Christ’s blood is the outward cause meriting pardon--“In whom we have redemption through His blood.”
But if Christ laid down His blood as the price of our pardon, then how can we say, God freely forgives sin? If it be by purchase, how is it by grace?
1. It was God’s free grace that found out a way of redemption through a mediator.
2. It was free grace moved God to accept of the price paid for our sins; that God should accept a surety; that one should sin, and another suffer; this was free grace. In forgiveness of sin, God remits the guilt and penalty. What is that remorse and sorrow which goes before forgiveness of sin? It is a holy sorrow, it is a grieving for sin, as it is sin, and as it is a dishonoring of God, and a defiling of the soul. The greatest sins come within the compass of forgiveness. Zaccheus, an extortioner; Mary Magdalene, an unchaste woman, out of whom seven devils were east; Manasseh, who made the streets run with blood; yet these had pardon. Some of the Jews who had a hand in crucifying Christ were forgiven. God blots out not only the cloud, but “the thick cloud”; enormities as well as infirmities. When God pardons a sinner, He forgives all sins--“I will pardon all their iniquities”: “having forgiven you all trespasses.” The mercy-seat covered the whole ark; the mercy-seat was a type of forgiveness, to show that God covers all our transgressions. They whose sins are forgiven must not omit praying for forgiveness--“Forgive us our trespasses.”
Believers who are pardoned must be continual suitors for pardon. Sin, like Samson’s hair, though it be cut, will grow again. We sin daily, and must as well ask for daily pardon as for daily bread.
1. From this word, “forgive,” we learn that if the debt of sin be no other way discharged but by being forgiven, then we cannot satisfy for it. Sin being forgiven, clearly implies we cannot satisfy for it.
2. From this word “us,” “Forgive us,” we learn that pardon is chiefly to be sought for ourselves. What I will another’s pardon do us good? Every one is to endeavour to have his own name in the pardon. In this sense, selfishness is lawful, every one must be for himself, and get a pardon for his own sins--“Forgive us.”
3. From this word “our,” “Our sins,” we learn how just God is in punishing us. The text says, “Our sins”; we are not punished for other men’s sins, but our own. Sin is our own act, a web of our own spinning; how righteous therefore is God in punishing us? When we are punished, we but taste the fruit of our own grafting.
4. From this word “sins,” see from hence the multitude of sins we stand guilt), of. We pray not forgive us our sin, as if it were only a single debt, but sins, in the plural. So vast is the catalogue of our sins, that David cries out, “Who can understand his errors?” Our sins are like the drops of the sea, like the atoms in the sun, they exceed all arithmetic. If pardon of sin be so absolutely necessary, without it no salvation, what is the reason that so few in the world seek after it?
If they want health, they repair to the physician; if they want riches, they take a voyage to the Indies; but if they want forgiveness of sin, they seem to be unconcerned, and do not seek after it; whence is this?
1. Inadvertency, or want of consideration; they do not look into their spiritual estate, or cast up their accounts to see how matters stand between God and their souls--“My people do not consider.”
2. Men do not seek after forgiveness of sin, for want of conviction.
3. Men do not seek earnestly after forgiveness, because they are seeking other things; they seek the world immoderately. When Saul was seeking after the asses, he did not think of a kingdom. The world is a golden snare. You would judge that prisoner very unwise, that should spend all his time with the cook to get his dinner ready, and should never mind getting a pardon.
4. Men seek not after the forgiveness of sin, through a bold presumption of mercy; they conceit God to be made up all of mercy, and that He will indulge them, though they take little or no pains to sue out their pardon.
5. Men seek not earnestly after forgiveness, out of hope of impunity.
6. Men do not seek earnestly after forgiveness through mistake; they think getting a pardon is easy, it is but repeating at the last hour a sigh, or a “Lord have mercy,” and a pardon will drop into their mouths. But, is it so easy to repent, and have a pardon? Tell me, O sinner, is regeneration easy? Are there no pangs in the new birth? Is mortification easy?
7. Men do not look after forgiveness through despair. My sins are huge mountains, and, can they ever be cast into the sea? Despair cuts the sinews of endeavour; who will use means that despairs of success?
Having answered this question, I shall now come to press the exhortation upon every one of us, to seek earnestly after the forgiveness of our sins.
1. Our very life lies upon the getting of a pardon; it is called “the justification of life.”
2. There is that in sin may make us desire forgiveness. Sill is the only thing that disquiets the soul.
(1) Sin is a burden, it burdens the creation; it burdens the conscience. And should not we labour to have this burden removed by pardoning mercy?
(2) Sin is a debt--“Forgive us our debts”; and every debt we owe God hath written down in His book--“Behold it is written before Me,” and one day God’s debt-book will be opened--“The books were opened.” There is no way to look God in the face with comfort but by having our debt either paid or pardoned.
3. There is nothing but forgiveness can give ease to a troubled conscience. There is a great difference between the having the fancy pleased, and having the conscience eased. Worldly things may please the fancy, but not ease the conscience; nothing but pardon can relieve a troubled soul. Suppose a man hath a thorn in his foot which puts him to pain; let him anoint it, or wrap it up, and keep it warm; yet, till the thorn be plucked out, it aches and swells, and he hath no ease; so when the thorn of sin is gotten into a man’s conscience, there is no ease till the thorn be pulled out; when God removes iniquity, now the thorn is plucked out.
4. Forgiveness of sin is feasible; it may be obtained. Impossibility destroys endeavour; but, “There is hope in Israel concerning this.” The devils are past hope; a sentence of death is upon them, which is irrevocable; but there is hope for us of obtaining a pardon--“There is forgiveness with Thee.”
5. Consideration, to persuade to it: Forgiveness of sin is a choice eminent blessing; to have the book cancelled, and God appeased, is worth obtaining; which may whet our endeavour after it. That it is a rare transcendent blessing, appears by three demonstrations.
(1) If we consider how this blessing is purchased, namely, by the Lord Jesus. There are three things in reference to Christ, which set forth the choiceness and preciousness of forgiveness.
(a) No mere created power in heaven or earth could expiate one sin, or procure a pardon; only Jesus Christ--“He is the propitiation for our sins.” No merit can buy out a pardon.
(b) Christ Himself could not procure a pardon, but by dying; every pardon is the price of blood.
(c) Christ, by dying, had not purchased forgiveness for us if He had not died an execrable death; He endured the curse.
(2) Forgiveness of sin is a choice blessing, if we consider what glorious attributes God puts forth in the pardoning of sin.
(a) God puts forth infinite power; when Moses was pleading with God for the pardon of Israel’s sin, He speaks thus, “Let the power of my Lord be great.” God’s forgiving of sin is a work of as great power as to make heaven and earth, nay, a greater; for, when God made the world, He met with no opposition; but when He comes to pardon, Satan opposeth, and the heart opposeth.
(b) God, in forgiving sins, puts forth infinite mercy--Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy mercy.”
(3) Forgiveness of sin is a choice blessing, as it lays a foundation for other mercies. It is a leading, mercy.
(a) It makes, way for temporal good things. It bring, s health. When Christ said to the palsied man, “Thy sins are forgiven,” this made way for a bodily cure--“Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house.” The pardon of his sin made way for the healing of his palsy.
(b) It makes way for spiritual good things. Forgiveness of sin never comes alone, but hath other spiritual blessings attending it. Whom God pardons, He sanctifies, adopts, crowns. It is a voluminous mercy; it draws the silver link of grace, and the golden link of glory after it.
6. Consideration: That which may make us seek after forgiveness of sin is, God’s inclinableness to pardon--“Thou art a God ready to pardon.” We are apt to entertain wrong conceits of God, that He is inexorable, and will not forgive--“I knew that Thou art an hard man.” But God is a sin-pardoning God.
7. Consideration: Not to seek earnestly for pardon is the unspeakable misery of such as want forgiveness; it must needs be ill with that malefactor that wants his pardon.
(1) The unpardoned sinner that lives and dies so, is under the greatest loss and privation.
(2) The unpardoned sinner hath nothing to do with any promise.
(3) An unpardoned sinner is continually in danger of the outcry of an accusing conscience. An accusing conscience is a little hell.
(4) All the curses of God stand in full force against an unpardoned sinner. His very blessings are cursed--“I will curse your blessings.”
(5) The unpardoned sinner is in an ill case at death. Luther professed there were three things which he durst not think of without Christ; of his sins, of death, of the day of judgment. Death to a Christless soul is the “King of terrors.” But I am discouraged from going to God for pardon, for I am unworthy of forgiveness; what am I, that God should do such a favour for me? God forgives, not because we are worthy, but because He is gracious--“The Lord, the Lord merciful and gracious.” “Free grace doth not findus worthy, but makes us worthy.” Therefore, notwithstanding unworthiness, seek to God, that your sins may be pardoned. But I have been a great sinner, and sure God will not pardon me. David brings it as an argument for pardon; “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” When God forgives great sins, now He doth a work like Himself. The desperateness of the wound doth the more set forth the virtue of Christ’s blood in curing it. The vast ocean hath bounds set to it, but God’s pardoning mercy is boundless. God can as well forgive great sins as less; as the sea can as well cover great rocks as little sands. God counts it His glory to display free grace in its orient colours--“Where sin aboundeth grace did much more abound.” When sin becomes exceeding sinful, free grace becomes exceeding glorious. God’s pardoning love can conquer the sinner, and triumph over the sin. Let us labour to have the evidence of pardon, to know that our sins are forgiven. A man may have his sins forgiven, and not know it; he may have a pardon in the court of heaven, when he hath it not in the court of conscience. The evidence of pardon may not appear for a time, and this may be--
1. From the imbecility and weakness of faith.
2. A man may be pardoned and not know it, from the strength of temptation. But why doth God sometimes conceal the evidence of pardon?
Though God doth pardon, yet He may withhold the sense of it a while--
1. Because hereby He would lay us lower in contrition.
2. Though God hath forgiven sin, yet He may deny the manifestation of it for a time, to make us prize pardon, and make it sweeter to us when it comes.
How then shall we know by the word whether our guilt is done away, and our sins pardoned?
1. The pardoned sinner is a great weeper. Have we been dissolved into tears for sin? God seals His pardons upon melting hearts.
2. We may know our sins are forgiven by having the grace of faith infused--“To Him give all the prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” In saving faith there are two things, renunciation, and recumbency.
3. The pardoned soul is a God-admirer--“Who is a God like Thee, that pardoneth iniquity?”
4. Wherever God pardons sin, He subdues it--“He will have compassion on us, He will subdue our iniquities.” Where men’s persons are justified, their lusts are mortified.
5. He whose sins are forgiven is full of love to God. He whose heart is like marble, locked up in impenitency, that doth not melt in love, gives evidence his pardon is yet to seal.
6. Where the sin is pardoned, the nature is purified. Many tell us, they hope they are pardoned, but were never sanctified; yea, but they believe in Christ; but what faith is it? A swearing faith, a whoring faith; the faith of devils is as good.
7. Such as are in the number of God’s people, forgiveness of sin belongs to them--“Comfort ye My people, tell them their iniquity is pardoned.” He whose sins are forgiven, is willing to forgive others who have offended him--“Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgivenyou.” A king may pardon a traitor, but will not make him one of his privy council; but whom God pardons, He receives into favour. Forgiveness of sin makes our services acceptable; God takes all we do in good part. A guilty person, nothing he doth pleaseth God. Forgiveness of sin is the sauce which sweetens all the comforts of this life. As guilt embitters our comforts, it puts wormwood into our cup; so pardon of sin sweetens all; it is like sugar to wine. Health and pardon, estate and pardon, relish well. Pardon of sin gives a sanctified title! and a delicious taste to every comfort.
If sin be forgiven, God will never upbraid us with our former sins. Where God pardons sins, He bestows righteousness. With remission of sin goes imputation of righteousness--“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” A pardoned soul needs not fear death. He may look on death with joy who can look on forgiveness with faith. To a pardoned soul death hath lost his sting. Death, to a pardoned sinner, is like the arresting a man after the debt is paid; death may arrest, but Christ will show the debt-book crossed in His blood. Now follow the duties of such as have their sins forgiven. Mercy calls for duty. Be much in praise and doxology.
1. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Hath God crowned you with pardoning mercy? set the crown of your praise upon the head of free grace.
2. Let God’s pardoning love inflame your hearts with love to God.
3. Let the sense of God’s love in forgiving make you more cautious and fearful of sin for the future. O Christians, do you not remember what it cost you before to get your pardon I
4. If God hath given you good hope that you are pardoned, walk cheerfully--“We joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we havereceived the atonement.” Who should rejoice, if not he that hath his pardon?
5. Hath God pardoned you? Do all the service you can for God--“Always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Let your head study for God, let your hands work for Him, let your tongue be the organ of His praise. The pardoned soul thinks he can never love God enough or serve Him enough. The last thing is to lay down some rules or directions, how we may obtain forgiveness of sin.
We must take heed of mistakes about pardon of sin.
1. That our sins are pardoned, when they are not. Whence is this mistake? From two grounds.
(1) Because God is merciful.
(2) Because Christ died for their sins, therefore they are forgiven.
2. That pardon is easy to be had; it is but a sigh, or, “Lord have mercy.” “As we forgive our debtors;” or, “As we forgive them that trespass against Mat_6:12). I proceed to the second part of the petition, “As we forgive them that trespass against us.” “As we forgive.” This word, “as,” is not a note of equality, but similitude; not that we equal God in forgiving, but imitate Him.
How can I forgive others, when it is only God forgives sin? In every breach of the second table there are two things; an offence against God, and a trespass against man. So far as it is an offence against God, He only can forgive; but so far as it is a trespass against man, so we may forgive. Let it persuade us all, as ever we hope for salvation, to pass by petty injuries and discourtesies, and labour to be of forgiving spirits, “forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.”
1. Herein we resemble God. He is “ready to forgive,” He befriends His enemies, He opens His hands to relieve them who open their mouths against Him.
2. To forgive is one of the highest evidences of grace. When grace comes into the heart, it makes a man, as Caleb, of another spirit. It makes a great metamorphosis; it sweetens the heart, and fills it with love and candour. When a scion is grafted into a stock it partakes of the mature and sap of the tree, and brings forth the same fruit; take a crab, graft it into a pepin, it brings forth the same fruit as the pepin; so he who was once of a sour crabby disposition, given to revenge, when he is once ingrafted into Christ, he partakes of the sap of this heavenly olive, and bears sweet and generous fruit; he is full of love to His enemies, and requites good for evil. As the sun draws up many thick noxious vapours from the earth, and returns them in sweet showers; so a gracious heart returns the unkindnesses of others with the sweet influences of love and mercifulness--“They rewarded me evil for good; but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting.” This is a good certificate to show for heaven.
3. The blessed example of our Lord Jesus; He was of a forgiving spirit.
4. The danger of an implacable, unforgiving spirit; it hinders the efficacy of ordinances; it is like an obstruction in the body, which keeps it from thriving. A revengeful spirit poisons our sacrifice, our prayers are turned, into sin; will God receive prayer mingled with this strange fire?
5. God hath tied His mercy to this condition; if we do not forgive, neither will He forgive us--“If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses.” A man may as well go to hell for not forgiving, as for not believing.
6. The examples of the saints who have been of forgiving spirits.
7. Forgiving and requiting good for evil is the best way to conquer and melt the heart of an enemy. Our sins are innumerable and heinous; is God willing to forgive us so many offences, and cannot we forgive a few? No man can do so much wrong to us all our life, as we do to God in one day.
But how must we forgive? As God forgives us.
1. Cordially. God doth not only make a show of forgiveness, and keep our sins by Him, but doth really forgive; He passeth an act of oblivion.
2. God forgives fully; He forgives all our sins. Hypocrites pass by some offences, but retain others. Would we have God deal so with us to remit only some trespasses, and call us to account for the rest.
3. God forgives often; we run afresh upon the score, but God multiplies pardon. (T. Watson.)
Our Father’s forgiveness
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” Mat_6:12). “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us” (Luk_11:4). Ponder, first, the prayer for forgiveness--Forgive us our debts. This word” debts” first claims our attention. There are two senses in which man may be said to be a debtor to the Heavenly Father. First: Man is a debtor in the sense of dutifulness: a dutifulness unconditional, complete, unbroken, ceaseless, absolute; and this because God is Father, and he God’s son. Of course, from a debt like this no son, so long as he remains loyal, can ever expect or even wish to be released. To owe the Father in heaven immortal obedience, thanks, trust, love, is man’s blessedness and glory. But there is a second and terrible sense in which man may be said to be a debtor to his Heavenly Father: he owes Him arrears, or the debt of default in dutifulship. And this second debt is beyond the possibility of payment. And now, if Gabriel with all his spotless innocence and celestial strength is unable to outrun his duty or do work of supererogation, what shall be said of poor, fallen, miserable man? A child of dust, conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity, by nature, in the very fact of birth, a child of wrath, talking of making amends to God for past failure!
“O Judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!”
As well might the thief claim the watch he has stolen as the reward due to his knavery, or the assassin the love and esteem of the dead man’s friends as the reward due to his deed of blood. But will God answer the prayer?
Can He, will He, forgive our debts? Most certainly He can and He will; and this precisely for the reason that He is what He is, our Heavenly Father. Were He something else, were He simply a Creator, or a Monarch, or a Judge, He might coldly say, “No! My Government must be maintained. Justice must be satisfied. The law must take its course. Or, if I forgive, it can only be in view of a consideration, the payment of an equivalent.” But precisely because God is something more than this, precisely because He is Father as well as Creator and Monarch and Judge, He says nothing of the kind. Overcoming us by a love so infinite that it must vent itself in a cross, He recreates our characte
