Fellowship “Forgive Us Our Debts, As We Also Have Forgiven Our Debtors”
Fellowship
“Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors”
How strange that the Lord’s Prayer should move from asking for bread to asking for the forgiveness of our sins! But there is in Scripture a remarkable connection between food, sin, and forgiveness; in fact, sinning is sometimes compared to eating. Proverbs 19:28 says that “the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil,” and Proverbs 30:20 tells us that the adulterous woman “eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’ ”
Sin came into the human race when our first parents took forbidden food and ate it (Genesis 3). When Joseph dealt with his brothers’ sins, he first fed them and then told them he forgave them (Genesis 43–45). Jesus took the same approach with Peter, feeding him breakfast before restoring him to fellowship (John 21). The Lord’s Supper focuses on the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died so that our sins might be forgiven (John 1:29). Simon the Pharisee learned about debts and forgiveness during a Sabbath meal with Jesus (Luke 7:36–50). In the parable of the prodigal son, the forgiving father gave a feast to celebrate the return of his wayward son (Luke 15:11–31). In our Lord’s invitation in Revelation 3:20, if we open the door to him, he promises to come into our lives and eat with us. In the ancient Near East, to eat together was a sign of peace and friendship. It was a means of strengthening fellowship.
Asking for daily bread reminds us of God’s goodness to us, and Romans 2:4 teaches us that God’s kindness is intended to bring sinners to repentance. It worked for the prodigal son. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!’ ” (Luke 15:17). It was his father’s goodness more than his own badness that motivated the boy to return home, and blessed is that wayward sinner who follows his example! If we have eyes to see, daily bread and God’s forgiveness go together.
Food is a tangible thing and a very necessary thing, while forgiveness seems intangible and abstract; but both belong to God’s world and both are essential to our well-being. Food is necessary for sustaining human life, and forgiveness is essential for sustaining our relationships with God and with people. Bread feeds us physically, and forgiveness feeds us emotionally and spiritually. Food nourishes us for a time and then we have to eat again. An unforgiving spirit eats away at us like a cancer until we get it out of our system. Resentful people who are angry at others will often either eat too much or not be able to eat at all. When we carry grudges against others, we only hurt ourselves, and to continue in this misery instead of seeking God’s forgiveness is folly. Resentment has been described as the act of swallowing poison and hoping it will kill your enemy.
Medical researchers have shown that people who won’t forgive others often experience an increased heart rate and high blood pressure, and their bodies become more susceptible to fatigue, colds, and infections. One study indicated that resentful people took 25 percent more medication than people who practiced forgiveness. So, for more reasons than one, we must pray this prayer and follow Paul’s counsel in Ephesians 4:32—“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ forgave you.”
The Bible gives us many pictures of sin because the Lord wants us to know that sin is more than a word in a book; it’s a horrible force that deceives and destroys. God compares sin to defilement, for David prayed, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps. 51:2). What dirt is to the body, sin is to the soul. Sin is also pictured as darkness. The apostle John warns us that we cannot have fellowship with the Lord or his people if we “walk in darkness” and disobey him (1 John 1:5–7). Sin is a form of bondage: “The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast” (Prov. 5:22). Sin is a burden: “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear” (Ps. 38:4). Jesus compared sin to sickness and presented himself as the only physician who could heal sinners (Luke 5:29–31). He also pictured sin as “lostness,” for sinners are like lost sheep that can’t find their way home (Luke 15:1–7). “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). “Our own way” is the beginning of trouble.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus describes our sins as a debt, and most of his listeners knew that the Aramaic word for sin also meant “debt.” In our own day, the word sin is barely in the vocabulary, and it is rarely associated with debt. Thomas Jefferson warned America that public debt was “the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” An old adage says, “When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep is your downfall.” For personal debtors, an unmanageable debt could mean the end of their freedom. “They who go a-borrowing, go a-sorrowing,” says an old English proverb, and when that was written, there were no credit cards.
A debt is a legal obligation, and every sinner is obligated to the Lord to obey his law and do his will. The English words owe and ought are cousins. The Old Testament trespass offering (or guilt offering) required the offender not only to bring a proper sacrifice to the Lord but also to make restitution to anybody who had been wronged (see Lev. 5:14–6:17 and 7:1–10). When it comes to our obligations to God, we are so spiritually bankrupt we can’t begin to pay for forgiveness or even make adequate restitution for the damage we have done and the pain we have caused. Like the prodigal son, we have to admit our poverty and humbly go to the Father and ask for his forgiveness.
Someone has wisely said, “We may forget our decisions, but our decisions will never forget us.” The prophet Nathan told King David a story about a stolen pet ewe lamb, and the king became so angry he cried out, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (2 Sam. 12:5–6). Restoring four beasts for one was demanded by the law (Exod. 22:1). The thief could say “I’m sorry,” but that wouldn’t make things right with the person he had robbed. Offenders are debtors, bankrupt debtors, and all they can do is throw themselves on the mercy of God.
Sin is a costly debt that keeps accumulating painful interest, but God forgives the sins of repentant sinners who trust Jesus Christ! This is the miracle message of the gospel.
“Those who conceal their sins do not prosper, but those who confess and renounce them find mercy” (Prov. 28:13). Our first parents tried to conceal their sin, but the Lord sought them out and dealt with them (Gen. 3:8–13), because when we acknowledge our sins, we have taken the first step toward forgiveness. Adam blamed his wife, Eve blamed the serpent, and the Lord judged all three. The law of Moses hadn’t been put in force yet, but the God of truth was still in charge. “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). God must first reveal the truth before he can graciously forgive the sinner. Trying to conceal our sins from the all-knowing Lord seems like an easy way to escape judgment, when in reality it only makes matters worse.
The Bible reveals three aspects of forgiveness, and the first is the final forgiveness sinners receive when they trust Jesus Christ. “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:13–14). Here is the commercial metaphor again: “canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness.” It pictures sin as a debt that somebody has to pay. The good news is that Jesus paid the debt for all our sins when he died on the cross and rose again. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph. 1:7). “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
The verb canceled literally means “wiped out” and pictures an ancient banker wiping off the amount of the debt written on the sheet of papyrus. Twice David used this image in Psalm 51: “blot out my transgressions” (v. 1) and “blot out all my iniquity” (v. 9). Peter used this concept in one of his early sermons: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). David used another picture when he wrote Psalm 103: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (v. 12). The Jews would immediately think of the annual Day of Atonement when the high priest laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confessed Israel’s sins, and then the goat was taken away into the wilderness, never to be seen again (Lev. 16:20–22). You can measure the distance from the north pole to the south pole but not from east to west. It’s a beautiful image of our sins being taken away forever!
The Greek word translated “forgive” also means “to send away.” John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching and shouted, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The blood of animal sacrifices only covered the sins of the Israelites, but the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross removes the sins of the whole world! “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Once we have trusted Jesus as our Savior, we are forgiven and declared righteous in him, and God the Father proclaims, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).
But what if we sin after we have been saved?
Final forgiveness is just that—it’s final, and it secures our eternal destiny. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
However, every believer knows that the enemies that once enslaved us still tempt us—the world (1 John 2:15–17), the flesh (Gal. 5:16–26), and the devil (1 Peter 5:8–9; and see Eph. 2:1–3). Too often we succumb to temptation and we sin. Our disobedience does not mean we’re no longer accepted by God; it does mean that we’re not acceptable to our Father. We haven’t lost our membership in the family, but we have damaged our fellowship with the Father and with other children of God.
Picture a family that has just moved into a new house and the landscaping has not yet been completed. There is mud in abundance around the house, and the children are warned to stay out of it. But the temptation is too great, and it isn’t long before they and their clothing are stained with mud. They go to the back door and ring the bell and their mother answers. Were the children acceptable? Of course not! Were they accepted and allowed to come in? Absolutely—they belonged to the family! Mother cleaned them up, scolded and perhaps disciplined them, gave them a snack, and put them to bed for their naps. As the children grew older, they worked harder at keeping clean.
Being saved or lost is a matter of life or death (John 5:24; Rom. 6:23). Being an obedient or disobedient child of God is a matter of light or darkness. The apostle John put it this way:
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
1 John 1:5–10
John is writing about fellowship forgiveness. The Greek word koinonia—translated as “fellowship”—has made its way into our English vocabulary because of “koinonia groups,” believers in local churches who meet to pray and encourage one another. The word means “to have in common.” When some believers hear the word fellowship, they think only of sitting down for coffee and cake, and certainly God’s people may have spiritual fellowship as they enjoy food. But true koinonia goes much deeper. Those outside the Christian fellowship are in darkness, but believers are in the light. Believers have been cleansed from sin and walk in truth, while unbelievers are defiled by sin and deceive themselves. Read 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 for a vivid description of the contrasts between those within the koinonia and those outside. It’s important!
Because sin robs us of fellowship with the Lord and his people, you would think this request would be first instead of fifth; for if we have sinned, we are out of fellowship with God and he will not hear and answer. “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18). More than once as I’ve been praying privately, the Lord has reminded me of an unconfessed sin, and I’ve had to deal with it then and there. Answered prayer begins with accepted and acceptable people praying. We feel unworthy to approach the throne, but we are not unwelcomed!
This truth is illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple. The first thing the Israelites saw at the sanctuary was the brazen altar where the sacrifices were slain. At the far end of the sanctuary, inside the tent and in front of the veil, stood the golden altar where the incense was burned twice daily, representing prayer to the Lord. Between these two altars was a large laver (basin) where the priests frequently washed their hands and feet, because they dared not try to serve the Lord while defiled (Exod. 30:1–10, 17–21).
When the mother in my earlier illustration saw her mud-stained children, she accepted them and then made them acceptable. She took off their filthy clothing, bathed them, dressed them with clean clothing, kissed them, probably gave them a snack, and put them to bed. At the brazen altar, the blood of the sacrifice atoned for sin; but at the laver, the defilement of sin was washed away and fellowship was restored. Final forgiveness and fellowship forgiveness go together. When we come to the throne of grace, we may have to interrupt our prayers for others in order to pray for ourselves, and the Father understands.
God’s people are not only forgiven; they are also forgiving. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Note those plurals, because forgiveness involves the church family; and family forgiveness is as important to building a healthy and happy church as it is to building a healthy and happy home.
The phrase “our debtors” surely reminded Jesus’s Jewish listeners of the Year of Jubilee that Israel was supposed to observe every fiftieth year (Lev. 25:8–55). Why? Because during that special year, all debts were forgiven. Any land that had been sold during the previous forty-nine years was to be returned to the original owners, and people who had relocated went back to their original homes. The poor people who had been forced to sell themselves as servants were forgiven their debts and allowed to return home. The words quoted on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia were heard: “proclaim liberty throughout the land” (Lev. 25:10). The Year of Jubilee marked a new beginning for the people of Israel every fifty years.
The Gospel writers record three instances of how Jesus dealt forcefully with the sin of an unforgiving spirit. In Matthew 18:21–35 Jesus tells about a servant who, even after his master forgave him a huge debt, refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him a very small amount. Paul may have had this parable in mind when he wrote, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).
In Luke 7:36–50, Jesus taught a self-righteous and judgmental Pharisee the meaning of true repentance and forgiveness. While the man saw no sin in himself, he was quick to see a great deal of sin in the woman weeping at the feet of Jesus. When Jesus examined the books, however, Simon was in great debt himself. There are sins of the spirit as well as sins of the flesh (2 Cor. 7:1), and there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission (Luke 7:44–46)—and Simon was guilty!
A third passage is the familiar parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). Too often we close our sermons on this text with the homecoming of the younger son, but Jesus went on to talk about the self-righteous older son who would not forgive his brother. As a result, the older son was out of fellowship with his father and his brother and refused to enjoy the feast. The publicans and sinners were represented by the prodigal (Luke 15:1–2) and the self-righteous, unforgiving Pharisees by the older brother, and both were sinners ! However, the older brother showed no signs of repentance and could not be forgiven. When he closed the door of his heart on his younger brother, he also closed it on his father.
This matter of family forgiveness was so important that Jesus added a postscript to the Lord’s Prayer: “For if you forgive others 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” (Matt. 6:14–15; and see Matt. 18:35 and Mark 11:22–25). It’s important to understand that forgiving others isn’t a reason for God to forgive us or a device we use to earn his forgiveness. After all, forgiveness is a matter of grace and mercy, not law and good works, and there’s no reason for God to forgive us except his great love. If I don’t forgive others, I make myself a judge like Simon the Pharisee and the elder brother, instead of being a humble sinner like the prostitute or the prodigal.
King David was a wealthy man and could have sacrificed hundreds of animals to the Lord, but that wasn’t what the Lord wanted. “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). If my heart is broken over my own sins, it will be broken over the sins of others and I will want the Lord to forgive them as well. Dr. Howard Hendricks said, “Love is the circulatory system of the body of Christ, the church,” and Peter wrote, referring to Proverbs 10:12, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Love doesn’t condone sin but it doesn’t advertise it. Love is a wonderful covering.
God forgives us for the sake of his Son, and we must forgive others for the same reason (Eph. 4:32). If we don’t, our unforgiving attitude may lead us into further sin! “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted” (Gal. 6:1). We must never use the fall of another believer to exalt ourselves and make ourselves look better, saying, “I would never do a thing like that!” Peter spoke like that and went out and sinned. The word restore was a medical term that meant “to set a broken bone.” Would you want your physician to set your broken leg using a pipe wrench and a sledgehammer? We must not be gentle with sin, but we must be gentle with sinners. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12).
Knowing what would happen to Peter on the night of our Lord’s arrest, Jesus prayed for him and Peter was eventually restored. Today in heaven, our Lord is interceding for his people, and when we pray for those who have failed, it’s good to remember that Jesus prays for them also. The last time we all failed the Lord, he prayed for us and also burdened some of his people to intercede for us in love. If someone has sinned against us, our Lord’s counsel in Matthew 18:15–20 gives us the recipe for restoration of fellowship. The Holy Spirit can use our loving humility and honesty to bring about reconciliation and defeat the devil’s plans. If family forgiveness were more of a priority in our churches, perhaps there would be fewer church fights and splits.
Forgiveness restores our fellowship with the Lord and with his people. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God is faithful to his people and to his promise to forgive, and he is just toward his Son who died for our sins. “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed are those whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1–2).
At first David tried to cover up his adultery by being deceitful, and when that didn’t work, he had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed on the battlefield (2 Sam. 11:6–27). The last sentence in that chapter is ominous: “But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” We cannot please ourselves with sin and please God at the same time, because “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Our fellowship is also with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us (2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1). God is light, and we cannot walk with him if we’re in the darkness of disobedience.
One of the tragic consequences of broken fellowship is our inability to pray and receive answers. “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Ps. 66:18 NASB). The word translated “regard” means “to know it is there and approve of it.” Unconfessed sin is a barrier to answered prayer. “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (1 Peter 3:12). Marital disagreements can hinder husbands and wives from seeing their prayers answered (1 Peter 3:7), and neglecting God’s Word will also hinder a person’s prayer life (Prov. 28:9). “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7 NASB).
But there are also tragic consequences to forgiven sin. When God forgives us, he pulls the nails out of the board but he does not remove the holes. God’s children must reap what they sow. When David told Nathan, “He must pay for that lamb four times over” (2 Sam. 12:5–6), he actually passed judgment on himself. Four of his sons died: Bathsheba’s baby, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. Stealing Uriah’s “little ewe lamb” was a costly experience for David.
However, God didn’t abandon David. He stayed with him during all the trials his sons brought to the family, and he never revoked his covenant with David or any of the promises he had made. God had allowed David to amass great wealth to be used in building the temple. He also gave David the blueprints for the temple (1 Chron. 28:11–19) and another son—Solomon— who completed the work. When we don’t permit God to rule, he will overrule us and accomplish his great purposes anyway, but there will be a greater price for us to pay.
Losing the blessings of fellowship with God and his people is not worth enjoying “the fleeting pleasures of sin” (Heb. 11:25). Knowing that the Spirit of God is working in us and through us, that we are peacemakers and not troublemakers, that God is speaking to us from his Word, and that we are helping to advance the work of God and magnify the glory of God are reasons for great joy, no matter what our circumstances might be. Believers who refuse to confess their sins or to forgive the sins of others only rob themselves of the blessings God has prepared for them.
There is a beautiful promise in Joel 2:25 that helps to heal the wounds of believers who have disobeyed the Lord, suffered for it, and then confessed their sins and been restored: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” In Joel’s day, the land had suffered a devastating invasion of locusts, God’s judgment on his sinning people. Through the prophet the Lord pleaded with the people to repent and return to him, promising that he would forgive them and even compensate for all that they had lost. God can cleanse and God can restore.
On Sunday evening, May 30, 1886, Charles Spurgeon preached from that text and said to his congregation in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London:
Lost years can never be restored literally. Time once past is gone forever. . . . You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours. . . . “All things are possible to him that believeth.”25
Do we deserve this kind of blessing? Of course not! It’s pure grace from start to finish. Our God is “the God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10) and “he gives us more grace” (James 4:6).