The Debt Has Been Paid
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), what did Jesus mean by telling us to forgive our debts as we forgive the debts of others? He is not talking about money that is borrowed from a friend or a mortgage payment, but rather the sin that one commits against another. Sin sets up a debt or an obligation to God. If we belong to Christ, we have already been forgiven of past, present, and future sins, but it is incumbent upon us to acknowledge our sin and turn from it. I John 1:9, written to believers, tells us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But wait a minute. Didn’t I just acknowledge the fact that our sins are already forgiven if we are believers in Jesus Christ? Yes, that is true. However, unconfessed sin puts up a barrier between us and the Lord. We are still saved because Christ is the holder of our salvation, but to sin and then act like it was nothing is to insult the One who bled and died so that we could be forgiven. At some point in our earthly life, we will suffer repercussions from unconfessed sin. A true believer who sins will not be comfortable or content until he or she has confessed. The Holy Spirit will make sure of that.
If God, whose standard is perfection, can forgive us, then He requires that we forgive others. Forgive, forget, and move on. Sometimes this is very difficult when one has been hurt very badly by the actions of another, especially if it was someone close to us. Most of us have been hurt at one time or another to one degree or another. Do we forgive completely, or do we say, “I can forgive, but I am not going to forget!”? In this case, has one really forgiven another? Is that what God does? Of course not. We can forget that God chooses to forget our sins of which we confess and turn from, but sometimes we don’t forget those sins. That old devil keeps reminding us of the time that we did such and such to so and so, but then we need to dismiss him and his accusations. We are also prone to believe that we have forgiven another, but when another occasion occurs in which he or she hurt or disappointed us, we reflect back on that original event and wonder if we can forgive them again. However, as Jesus told Peter in Matthew 18:21-22, there is no limit to forgiveness. What if the Lord had a limit to His forgiveness of us? That’s a scary thought.
To carry around unforgiveness or to harbor resentment against another person hurts the one who fails to forgive. It is like that old saying about drinking poison hoping it will hurt the other person. It could be that the main reason folks have a hard time forgiving another is because they don’t really understand what it means to be forgiven. I will admit that being forgiven of all my sins because of God’s grace is difficult to rationalize in my mind. However, in order to be accepted by God, our sins must be forgiven. God loves us enough that He chooses to forgive us even as we don’t deserve forgiveness. His grace is greater than any sin that we commit, but if we love Him like we say we do, we will not desire to sin. If we aim to be like Christ, we must forgive. If we find it difficult, we must allow Christ to forgive through us. Only then can we experience freedom from the bondage of unforgiveness.