The Lord's Prayer--Fifth Petition

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

This petition is the heart and soul of the Lord’s Prayer. Every other petition stands in second place to this humble request for mercy. Without the forgiveness of our sins, how could we dare address the holy Judge of the universe as "our Father"? Without the forgiveness of sins, how could we sincerely pray for help in honoring His name, that we want His Church to grow, that we want Him to take possession of our lives? Without the forgiveness of our sins, there can be no approaching God, no appreciation for who He is or what wonderful changes He can bring about in our hearts.

There are people who feel no need to request forgiveness; they don’t believe that they do anything wrong. People like this fail to realize that Jesus taught His own disciples to pray forgive us our trespasses; even those handpicked by Jesus to build His Church failed to measure up and needed forgiveness daily. If Jesus’ own disciples needed to ask God for mercy, then certainly you and I need to do so as well.

An elderly pastor was visiting with a young man who claimed that he had never committed a sin. The pastor opened his Bible to 1st John 1:8 and read, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The elderly churchman then added, "My young man, your first sin consists in this, that you are too proud to believe what the Lord says right here."

When you start believing that you are a pretty good person and that God must be impressed with how you are living your life, it’s time to re-examine God’s Ten Commandments. A person who never looks in a mirror might believe that they are clean, when in fact their face is smeared with dirt. In the same way, people who think that they are clean of sin would be shocked at what they see if they carefully looked into the mirror of God’s Law. We read of one example in Mark chapter 10: a man…fell on his knees before [Jesus]. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. You know the commandments: `Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' " "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. This man thought that he was living a God-pleasing life; he was blind to the fact that he was failing to be a good steward of the riches God had given him, by hoarding for himself instead of helping the needy. He was not living the perfect life that he thought he was.

It is easy to forget what God expects of us. We forget that He said, Be holy, because I am holy (1 Peter 5:16). We forget that anger is just as much a sin as murder, lust is just as much a sin as adultery, greed is just as much a sin as stealing, pride is just as much a sin as devotion to a false god. We forget that dark emotions and twisted thoughts are just as evil as hurtful words and abusive behavior. Jesus said, from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all other sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you (Matthew 15:19-20). God expects us to be pure, both inside and out.

We also sin by letting opportunities to serve God slip away. James warns, Anyone…who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins (James 4:17). Back when I worked in education, one of my jobs was to write lesson plans which included ways to measure the student’s progress. I was taught the ‘Dead Man Rule’—if a dead man can do it, you aren’t really teaching anything. For instance, I could write a lesson plan to achieve the following goal: "Tommy will not interrupt the teacher." This goal fails the Dead Man Rule. Why? Because a dead man can meet the criteria: a dead man will not interrupt the teacher. True education happens when we teach Tommy to do something constructive instead, like taking notes while the teacher is talking.

Encouraging passivity is not teaching, nor is sin avoided just by resisting temptation. A person could be highly regarded by the community for never cursing, never stealing, never lying, never cheating, never getting drunk—but what does it all add up to? It adds up to zero—and God is not satisfied with a zero life. In Matthew chapter 4 Jesus says, Worship the Lord your God, and serve him. In Deuteronomy chapter 6 we are commanded, commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again. Just before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave the following directive: go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). In Ephesians chapter four Paul urges, share with those in need. When we sit back and fail to do the good things God expects of us, we are guilty of sinning.

The worst thing about sin—any sin—is that you can never pay the penalty for it. Even if, starting today, you could obey God’s rules perfectly for the rest of your life, you would only be doing what is expected of you; there is no way you can go ‘above and beyond’ what God expects in order to pay off the backlog of sins you have accumulated from the day of your birth to today. Suppose you were to drive through a red light and got a ticket; if you were careful to never run another stoplight, would your newfound devotion to the law erase that violation? Of course not. In the same way, carefully keeping God’s Law in the future can never cancel past violations.

To make matters worse, no one can relieve you from the guilt of your sins; Psalm 49 says, no one can redeem the life of another by paying a ransom to God. Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave. No matter how much someone might love you and want to help you, your load of sin is yours alone to bear.

Nor can you be rid of your sins by shifting the blame to someone else. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve tried to play the ‘blame game.’ Adam said, The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Eve said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Both Adam and Eve claimed that there were extenuating circumstances that lead to their sins—but God was not impressed by their attempts to duck responsibility for their decisions. Both were driven out of paradise (Genesis chapter three). It doesn’t matter who or what has tempted you—the decision to sin remains yours alone, and God holds you alone as accountable.

Sin puts us in a terrible dark box from which no human being can escape. Our only hope for rescue from dying trapped in darkness comes from God Himself. God caused His Son to be born into our world, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in a human womb. He was conceived in the image of His Father, born holy and righteous. He lived a perfect life, avoiding everything that God forbids and doing everything that God commands. Peter says, He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone (1 Peter 2:22).

Jesus never sinned, yet look at what happened to Him. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 the Bible says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, chose to become the One held responsible for all our sin, so that God the Father would punish Him for the evil which we were guilty of. He diverted all the wrath of God that we deserved to Himself, and in exchange gave us the gift of the righteous relationship He had with His Father, a righteous relationship that allows us to pray our Father who art in heaven.

Because of His human nature as the Son of Man, Jesus could suffer and die, thus paying the price demanded by our sins; because of His divine nature as the Son of God, the atonement offered by Jesus has infinite value, more than enough to settle the account for every sin ever committed. All of your sins, no matter how big they are or how often you have repeated them, have been taken away by the washing of forgiveness in Jesus’ holy blood, shed on the cross. 1 John 1:7 says, the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin. The fact that God the Father raised His Son from the dead is proof that His atoning work is done, that every last one of your sins has been paid for. All we need do is go to Jesus, honestly owning up to the evil that overshadows us: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). And so, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we can pray these words with confidence that they will be granted: forgive us our trespasses.

But there are a few more words included in this petition: as we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgiveness does not come to us and end there, it is to flow through us to touch and heal others. Love brings people together in relationships; forgiveness is the lubricant that makes long-term relationships possible. Without forgiveness, we sinners would have no relationship with God; without forgiveness, we sinners can have no healthy relationships with each other. Forgiveness is the defining element of Christianity—the cross upon which Christ died is the very image of forgiveness. To refuse to forgive is to refuse being a Christian, and so Jesus said if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:14-15). Some people say that this is a hard thing to ask of us, especially when someone has hurt us badly and feels no regret over causing us pain. But remember Jesus’ first words as He was nailed to the cross: Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34). Jesus asked God’s mercy on men who were not at all sorry to put Him to the most painful death imaginable; as His followers, we are called to forgive in the same way. Impossible? Not according to Jesus: What is impossible with men is possible with God (Luke 18:27).

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. By praying these words, we show God that we are truly sorry for our sins, and that we trust in His promise of mercy through the blood of His Son Jesus. By praying these words, we also dedicate ourselves to being channels for Jesus’ love, showing others the merciful love that He has shown to us. By praying these words, we ask that our sick fascination with sin be removed and replaced with the love of Christ, a love that cannot help but fill us with His righteousness and spill over into the lives of those around us.