There are not a lot of examples in the gospels of people asking Jesus to teach them something. But in Luke 11, Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. Perhaps more amazingly is that Jesus teaches them to pray in just fifty-odd words (about 290 characters by my count – just a little more than a tweet!)
In the next 8 blogs, we’ll look at the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. We’ll do this slowly and allow the truths of Jesus’ teaching to shape and encourage our prayer lives.
Forgive us our debts
14th June 2021
Jesus’ instruction to ask that God would forgive our debts is probably not surprising to us but yet it is significant. In the face of the criticism that He has laid at the feet of the self-righteous Pharisees, He teaches us to come before our Father in repentance for the forgiveness of our sins. The very one who secures our forgiveness, the one in whose name our sins are forgiven, teaches us to ask our Father for forgiveness.
And it shows us that our Father cares for every part of our lives. He does not only care about us as spiritual beings but as physical beings too. That’s why, last week, we saw that Jesus teaches us to ask God to provide for our physical needs. Our physical needs, like food, are not beyond God’s care for us – He knows what we need. But God is not only concerned with our physical needs either – He knows infinitely better than we do that we have a great spiritual need.
More than a one-time prayer
By teaching us to pray, 'forgive us our debts', Jesus is inviting us to ask for forgiveness daily – to come back again and again and ask for forgiveness. Just as we rely on God for His daily material provision, we rely on His mercies being new every morning.
But is this necessary? Hasn’t the Christian already been forgiven? Hasn’t the Christian already been justified? Then why do we keep asking for forgiveness? Wasn’t my one-time prayer of salvation enough?
Well, yes and no! It is true that when we repent and become a follower of Jesus, we are completely justified in that moment of initial saving faith. Our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to God. There is no more that needs to be done, no more confession or penance is required for our salvation.
But we know that even though we are forgiven, we continue to sin – hopefully not wilfully or without care – but we sin nonetheless. And we know that God hates sin whether it is in the form of sinful words deeds, or thoughts. Or whether it is in failing to do what God has called us to do.
Even as Christians our sin affects our relationship with God, especially when it is unconfessed. Paul describes it as grieving the holy spirit in Ephesians 4:30. Therefore Jesus teaches us to confess our sin and ask for God’s forgiveness. In regularly doing so, we remind ourselves of the grace that God has shown us, we remember our fallenness, and we rest daily on the finished work of Christ on the cross for our forgiveness and salvation.
A debt that is due
Jesus’ use of language is also striking in this prayer. Forgive us our debts. Jesus clearly shows that we have a debt to God and He shows us God’s desire to forgive that debt.
Al Mohler, in his book The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down, explains that “in the ancient world debt was punishable by prison sentence. In the Roman Empire, prisons were not generally filled with criminals; they were populated with debtors. Most convicted criminals were executed or were forced to serve some other form of punishment for their crimes, but those who could not make good on their payments were incarcerated until they could pay what they owed.”
As a result, debt was a matter of life and death. And so when Jesus uses the word ‘debt’ to describe our sin, he was showing the severity of the punishment that awaited a debtor. And, in turn, He displays the extravagant mercy of the God who would grant forgiveness to the debtor.
And so we can sing with great thankfulness,
Now my debt is paid
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled
Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh, is free indeed.
How does this affect us as we pray this week?
Praise
Praise God for His daily mercy and grace. Praise Him for His patience towards us and for His commitment to forgive us. Give thanks for Jesus who is faithful and just to forgive when we confess our sin. Give thanks that Jesus’ sacrifice that has been sufficient for our salvation.
Repent
Do as Jesus says – and take time to repent and ask God for forgiveness of your sin debt.
Ask
Pray for our brothers and sisters – ask that they would regularly confess their sin and know how blessed we are to walk in the mercy and grace of God in steadily realigning ourselves with the gospel in prayer.
Yield
Appreciating our own need for God’s extravagant grace, ask God to help you share that grace with others who do not yet know Him.
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