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.
The Forgiven Forgive
21st June 2021
We might be tempted to think that we can pick and choose - I’ll take the ‘forgive me, Lord’ part of the Lord’s prayer but drop the ‘as I have forgiven others’ part. Of course, Jesus doesn’t allow us to do this. Jesus teaches us in one breath to ask that God would, ‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’
The first part of this prayer is certainly the part that we run towards while we tend to shrink away from the latter. We can be quick to accept the undeserved, unmerited, gracious, lavish forgiveness that God shows to us in Christ while trying to justify to ourselves why someone who has wronged us does not deserve forgiveness from us.
Jim Packer writes, only the forgiving are forgiven. The force of this in the New Testament is profound. Immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus goes on to say,
“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)
Similarly, the apostle Paul writes,
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)
“bear with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:13)
Paul helps us to see the order that this comes in - God has forgiven us so we forgive others. After all if we were to forgive in order that we can be forgiven, then that would be a work – our salvation would no longer be by grace alone but by the work of forgiveness that we must do to be saved. That is not what is being taught. Rather, just as the Lord has forgiven us, we too must forgive.
Graham Ryken points out that,
“The Greek term for 'forgiveness' (aphiemi) comes from a word that means 'to let go'. Forgiveness is a release, a letting go of self-destructive feelings like anger, bitterness, and revenge.”
Forgiveness doesn’t seek to get its own back by letting others know just how much you’ve been hurt by someone.
Forgiveness doesn’t seek to vindictively damage the reputation or relationships of the other person.
Forgiveness doesn’t seek to keep dragging things up again and again but seeks to let go.
Living as forgiven people who love the gospel means that we live gospel lives. And this is one of those areas where the rubber hits the road. Just as God initiated forgiveness towards us, we can demonstrate the grace of God in our lives by initiating forgiveness towards someone who has wronged us. We can display the gospel in our actions by not seeking to make the other person feel bad, or expect them to make it up to you, but rather by unconditionally offering forgiveness.
Why should I make the first move? If they want to apologise, they know where I am! That’s the words so often spoken through the hurt and pain of a dispute. Why should we make the first move? Because Christ made the first move towards us.
But I don’t always forgive well
You are not alone! As sinful human beings, none of us forgive as we ought – only one forgives perfectly and that is our great God. But does our struggle to forgive mean that we won’t be forgiven? Does our inability to forgive completely or forgive well mean we are not saved?
No, I don’t think it means that. Certainly, Jesus’ teaching is clear, if we refuse in our hearts to forgive someone, if we believe that it is better to hold a grudge, if we wilfully choose to hold their wrong against them, we cannot expect God to forgive us.
But that is not the heart of a forgiven person. That is not the heart of a new creation person who has been saved in Christ. Those who have been forgiven seek to forgive. We never do that perfectly. Sometimes we struggle to bring ourselves to forgive; sometimes our old-self rises to the fore and anger and bitterness take over; sometimes the hurts of the past cause us distress; and sometimes we just don’t react as we ought.
And in these times, we turn in repentance to God, not only asking for forgiveness for our own failure to forgive but asking that God would give us the ability to forgive well. We turn to God and rely on His help in our battle against the old-self. We come before our merciful Father and ask Him to cause the fruits of the Spirit to grow within us that we might be able to forgive.
How does this affect us as we pray this week?
Praise
Praise God for the grace that He has shown us in forgiving us of our sins. Praise God for the unconditional mercy that He shows us and the wonderful model of forgiveness that our God is. Praise Him that we are completely forgiven – nothing is held against us – everything has been completely forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ.
Repent
Repent of the times when we have struggled to forgive or are struggling to forgive. Ask that God would forgive us when we fail to follow His forgiving ways.
Ask
Pray that God would enable us to be able to forgive well and to show mercy to others. Pray for our brothers and sisters at Calderwood to be able to seek out opportunities to demonstrate forgiveness, grace and mercy.
Yield
Seek to live, with the help of the Holy Spirit, a life centred on the gospel. A life that seeks to show the gospel to all those we have contact with by being merciful, loving, and forgiving.
Next - 'Keep us from temptation'