Forgive Us Our Debts

By David Faust

David was both a highly respected king and a profoundly repentant sinner. He told the Lord, “Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins” (Psalm 19:12-13, New International Version).  

If we take those requests to heart, they provoke honest self-evaluation. Do we seek God’s forgiveness—both for sins we have willfully committed and for hidden faults that are hard for us to see? And do we extend forgiveness to others, whether they intentionally did something wrong or they sinned without even realizing it? 

Grievances Get Us Nowhere 

By praying, “forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12), we participate in a grand redemption story woven throughout the Bible. 

• God had our forgiveness in mind even before he created the world (Ephesians 1:3-7).  
• David praised the Lord because he “forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3)
• The prophets predicted the Messiah would make “intercession for the transgressors” and God would “tread our sins underfoot and hurl all out iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Isaiah 53:12; Micah 7:18-19).
• On the cross, Jesus asked the Father to forgive his killers, “for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
• After Jesus’ resurrection, he summarized the gospel as a message of “repentance for forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47).
• Peter urged people to “repent and be baptized . . . for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38).
• John wrote, “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).
• The final book of the Bible praises the glorified Christ, “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Revelation 1:5).

We shouldn’t take these biblical promises for granted. What if our debts (or “trespasses”) couldn’t be forgiven? What if we bore them forever—always guilty and burdened, never relieved and released?  

And what about the second part of Matthew 6:12, which says, “as we also have forgiven our debtors”?  If someone hurts you, do you want to get even? Do you find the rule, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” more appealing than turning the other cheek? Immediately after the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus added this challenging condition: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (vv. 14-15).  

Let Go of Grudges 

Unresolved resentment leads to bitterness and misery. Living with unforgiven sin is like driving a car with the emergency brake engaged, or hiking up a mountain with a ball and chain attached to your leg. George Herbert said, “He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass.”  

Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling—an act of the will, not an emotion. Jesus said, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25). By showing mercy to others, we discover what Lewis Smedes wisely observed: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”  

Next Week: Lead Us Not into Temptation 

David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91^st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Married for Good.