Fridays with the Heidelberg

Lord’s Day 51

Q.  WHAT DOES THE FIFTH REQUEST MEAN?

A.   “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” means, Because of Christ’s blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do or the evil that constantly clings to us.  Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of Your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors.

Paid Volunteer…Definite Maybe…Pretty Ugly…Original Copy…

Today’s reading adds one more to this oxymoronic list;

unforgiving Christian.

In His model of prayer, Jesus instructed the disciples to pray “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”.  Elsewhere He taught;

 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

(Matthew 6:14-15 ESV)

Question.  How does God’s forgiveness of us as Christians relate to our forgiveness of others? 

Clearly we have been forgiven of much as believers.  “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2), “No one is righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10)  “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:8-9 ESV)

So then, a fruit of repentance is forgiveness.  An evidence of God’s forgiveness in our lives is a willingness to forgive others.