And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ... For if you forgive other people for their failures, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people for their failures, your Father will not forgive your failures. ~ JESUS (Matthew 6:12, 14-15)

SUMMARY: Read this and skip the rest (if you want)

Jesus' focus on forgiveness is at the centre of his ministry, his sermon, and his prayer.
Forgiveness is a letting go of judgement, a dropping of the stones.
"Debts" is a good metaphor for sin, since it is relational. We get into debt to someone. And we owe all people unconditional and perfect love.
This is the only part of the prayer that Jesus returns to at the end to offer commentary. Forgiveness is that important.
The normal Christian life is one where we are always asking for and offering forgiveness to our fellow frail human beings.
To be a judgemental Christian is an oxymoron.
Jesus' emphasis on ongoing forgiveness shows God is not surprised or shocked by our failure, but has made preparations to help us recover.
Jesus sees all people as the paradox of being beautiful image bearers of God and simultaneously "evil" or off course from our true calling. All meaningful human interaction should wrestle with this nuanced view of true humanity.

CORE

(The heart of the message)

Forgiveness is the language of resurrection. After the death of trust, of relationship, of naivete, of idealism, forgiveness offers the fresh start we all need.

We who follow Jesus are the forgiveness people. We know we need it, and we are quick to offer it. Forgiveness is cherished by all Jesus followers because we know it makes all relationships with imperfect people possible. Humans cannot coexist without it. Forgiveness is the oil in the engine of the Church. (Or, as I once heard someone mistakenly say, "Forgiveness is the glue that holds the gears together." Hah. Mixed metaphors are funny.)

CONTEXT

(What’s going on before and after this passage)

At the centre of the Bible is Jesus.

At the centre of Jesus' teaching is the Sermon on the Mount.

At the centre of the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord's Prayer.

And at the centre of the Lord's Prayer is our identity as a forgiven and forgiving people.

We have just finished asking God to give us our daily bread. Now we ask God to forgive our sin. For God to "give" and "forgive" - these are humanity's two great needs.

Note this petition for the forgiveness of sins is tied to the one before it and after it by the word "And". We all need God's daily sustenance, forgiveness, and guidance.

And so we arrive at the only idea expressed in the Lord's Prayer that Jesus thinks important enough to elaborate on after the prayer. In fact, Jesus' commentary after the prayer begins with the word "For" or "Because" (Greek, gar) which suggests that the entire reason for praying this prayer in the first place is a daily cleansing away of all built-up resentments, failures, and accompanying shame.

In this study we are standing on holy ground.

"Forgiveness is almost a single-word summary of both the Christian gospel and of the Christian ethic, of God's gift to us and of our responsibility to others. ~ Frederick Dale Bruner (The Christbook)

In his first synagogue sermon (Luke 4:16-21), Jesus announces that "the Year of the Lord's Favour" (also known as the Year of Jubilee) was arriving through him. And a key feature of the Year of Jubilee was the cancellation of all debt (Leviticus 25). This part of the Lord's Prayer is not meant to make us feel sad and sullen and guilty - "I have to be reminded I'm a sinner every day? Sheesh." - but to remind us that we are free from all moral mortgages and ready to party.

Also regarding context, we cannot fully process Jesus' radical teaching on forgiveness without reading most of Matthew chapter 18, especially verses 15-25. We won't quote it all here, but this might be a good time to pause and read it for yourself.

Remember too the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. The son received great grace up front, squandered it and went into debt, then ran home rather than away from home, and received more mercy and grace.

Apparently this topic of our need for forgiveness is not meant to make us feel burdened but free from all burdens.

"The Christian doctrine of sin is hardly as gloomy as many are apt to believe. To the contrary, it is an extraordinarily gentle teaching with the happiest of endings." ~ M. Scott Peck (What Return Can I Make?)

"When the world sees what the church is doing, it ought to ask questions to which the proper answer would be a story about a father running down the road to embrace his disreputable son. ... You may say, the church seems to have drifted quite a long way from the mark. Yes, I guess we have; but it is never too late to lift up our eyes and recapture the vision. ... We must learn to pray for all the older brothers, in church and world, who find at the moment that they simply can't join the party." ~ N.T. Wright (The Lord and His Prayer)

Last thought regarding context: this teaching of Jesus about receiving and offering the mercy of moral debt-cancelation is one of the most irreligious aspects of the teaching and ministry of Jesus. Many ancient religions (like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism) teach a universe governed by the moral law of karma. According to karma, our actions create consequences that we must experience - good or bad - either in this life or a future one. This is a universal law and it cannot be altered. Forgiveness as debt cancelation breaks the law!

Grace, mercy, and peace (as the shalom of reconciliation and restoration) are the most spiritually subversive concepts ever conceived. Viva la revolution!

CONSIDER

(Observations about the passage)

Forgive/Have Forgiven. This Greek word for forgiveness (aphiémi) literally means to send away or leave behind. It has already been used in Matthew's Gospel to describe the disciples "leaving behind" their boats and nets to follow Jesus (Matthew 4:20, 22) and in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has told us to "leave behind" our sacrificial offerings at the Temple to go be reconciled with sisters and brothers (Matthew 5:24). Forgiveness is a letting go of something we feel is ours to possess and want to hold onto. When we forgive, we leave behind our pursuit of justice in favour of mercy. When we forgive, we drop the stones.

Us/Our/We. Again all pronouns are plural. There is never a hint that the spirituality of Jesus is meant to be an individual matter only. We are in this together. We succeed and fail together. And we forgive together.

"It is a basic Christian doctrine that we are all sinners. By 'all' we do not mean everyone other than ourselves; we mean everyone, but primarily ourselves. The major prerequisite for membership in the true Christian Club is the self-acknowledgement of sin." ~ M. Scott Peck (What Return Can I Make?)

Debts/Debtors. We know that "debts" is a symbol for "sins" since in Luke's version Jesus uses both words interchangeably (Luke 11:4). But why use indebtedness as a metaphor for moral failure? The idea reminds us that sin is never just a personal matter but always a relational issue. We never just fail some abstract moral standard (which would not create moral debt); we fail persons. Whenever we act selfishly, we rob someone of the version of ourselves we were meant to give them. Jesus has already made it clear that we owe God and one another perfect love. (Some commentators say the wording of indebtedness is about us owing God "obedience", which although true is not the best understanding, since other people are said to be in our debt and they don't owe us obedience. There is some higher reality that we all owe: perfect love.) Anything less than a perfectly loving life is living at a deficit of our righteous calling, purpose, and potential. Serving one another in humble love is not some magnanimous gift we deserve a pat on the back for. Love is why we live, so love is what we owe God, ourselves, and everyone around us (Romans 13:8). Love is the "being basic" level of living a human life, not the "hey look at me I'm being amazing" level. Sin is relational robbery, depriving others of the love we were meant to exude. So every day, we pray to release others from the prison of our judgement because of their imperfect love and we remind ourselves that God has released us. Forgiveness, then, is a process of liberation, for the forgiving person and the forgiven person. Forgiveness frees us from being shaped by other people's sins, either by playing the victim or playing the judge. Forgiveness is our road to becoming our true selves, our best selves. And we are reminded yet again that, while Jesus always sets his moral standard high ("Be perfect!"), he also knows our weakness and anticipates our need to make mercy-in-response-to-failure ("Be merciful!") a centrepiece of the Church community.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another. ~ The apostle Paul (Romans 13:8)

As / Also. We only ask to receive forgiveness that is similar to the forgiveness we have already offered others. To ask for forgiveness while refusing to offer it to others is pure hypocrisy, and we all know how Jesus feels about religious hypocrisy. The "as we also forgive" means "Forgive us the same way we forgive others". This line seems to be in the opposite order of what Jesus says in Matthew 18:33, where the Master says: "Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I also had mercy on you?" So which comes first: the chicken of God forgiving us or the egg of us forgiving others? As far as salvation goes, God forgives first and his forgiveness changes our hearts. We are given the new heart of the New Covenant. From then on, we are expected to "Pay it Forward" as far as forgiveness goes. So every day, New Covenant Christians pray for God's forgiveness as we are already offering forgiveness to others on a daily basis. If we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others and we refuse to forgive others, we are actually praying down a curse upon our heads. This prayer backfires and we are actually praying: "Father forgive as we forgive - which is not at all or very sparingly."

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” ~ The prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. ~ The prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Failures. Jesus uses a different word for sin in his commentary at the end of the prayer. The Greek word (paraptóma) is often translated "trespasses", but it is more about falling while walking than about crossing a boundary. It literally means to fall to the side, to trip up, to side-step, to slip off the path. In the Bible, these falls are usually failures in righteousness. They are moral failures. Sometimes we speak of someone "falling from grace", but this is impossible. We can fall from the path of righteousness, but grace is always there to catch us. We never fall from grace; we always fall into grace.

"Forgiveness is the way kingdom living works." ~ Scot McKnight (Sermon the Mount)

EXAMPLE PRAYER: Dear Father, I know I have fallen from the straight and narrow way of Jesus in large and small ways and I ask you to forgive me. If I have forgotten ways I may have hurt or disrespected others, please show me. [Pause and take time to think about ways you have been less than "perfect" in love and mercy over the past 24 hours since you last prayed. As God brings instances to mind, simply say "I'm sorry, thank you for forgiving me".] And Father, I forgive all debts of the people around me over the past day. If I have been sitting in the seat of judgement over someone, please show me so I can embrace mercy over justice. [Then pause and let the Holy Spirit show you ways you may have been holding onto judgement over mercy. As God brings instances to mind, simply say "I forgive them. It is finished. I'm letting them go and I wish them well".] Note: This daily practice is powerfully cleansing. And it may lead to the conviction that there is someone you need to talk to in order to practice what you pray.

COMMENTARY

(Thoughts about meaning and application)

Jesus adds a "PS" at the end of the Lord's Prayer. Our need to give and receive forgiveness is the only aspect of the prayer that Jesus returns to in order to make a comment. We are talking about the centrepiece of Christ's teaching and of Christian theology.

First, let us name the fact that Jesus has no utopian vision of his future church. The Lord's Prayer - the daily prayer of all Jesus-followers - does not say "Thank you that I have been once-and-for-all forgiven for every sin" (which is true from a salvific point of view, discussed below). Instead, we are instructed to actually pray for forgiveness every day. If this is true, then it is equally true that people sin against us daily too. People hurt us, frustrate us, and disappoint us every single day. How are a bunch of daily sinners like all of us supposed to get along in church unity, in ministry partnership, in family closeness, in marital oneness, and in faithful friendship? Without the art of daily forgiveness, we are all doomed.

The verb tense referring to our forgiveness of others could be translated "as we forgive" (continuing) or "as we have forgiven" (completed), with this latter translation being more likely. Either way, both understandings point to this same central truth: we Christians are meant to be an ongoingly forgiving people. One translation that is ruled out is future tense. We are not bargaining (e.g., "Please forgive me and then I will forgive others"). No, we are committed to the lifestyle of ongoing forgiveness of others, and it is from within that framework that we pray for our own forgiveness.

Forgiving others continually is meant to be the normal Christian life. If we don't like this, we better not sign up for following Jesus. In fact, the emphasis of this prayer and Jesus' teaching as a whole is not: "Pray for forgiveness first; go forgive others second". But "Forgive others always, especially before you find yourself asking God for forgiveness."

This is not a one-time statement of Jesus. He repeats the same sentiment in Mark's Gospel:

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. ~ JESUS (Mark 11:25)

Likewise, earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that if we are ready to worship God and offer a sacrifice at the Temple (for forgiveness), we should first leave the sacrifice behind and go be reconciled with our sister or brother (Matthew 5:21-26).

The normal Christian life is one where we are always asking for and offering forgiveness to our fellow frail human beings. So when we approach God in daily prayer, there is no sense of which comes first - the chicken of God's forgiveness of us or the egg of our forgiveness of others. Both are ongoing daily realities.

We know God's forgiveness ultimately and always comes first. In Matthew chapter 18, soon after our theme verse for this site (Matthew 18:20), Jesus tells the story of the unmerciful servant. This servant receives forgiveness from his master first, but the master's mercy fails to change the servant's heart, which becomes evident because he refuses to offer forgiveness to others. So the master revokes his forgiveness toward the servant! Yikes. It seems that an unforgiving Christian eventually becomes an unforgiven Christian.

In the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, when the servant fails to forgive others, the master revokes his forgiveness of the servant.

The thought of Christ-followers not being a quick-to-forgive people is anathema to Jesus. Being a "judgemental Christian" is an oxymoron, like "plastic glasses", "deafening silence", "jumbo shrimp", "awfully good", "same difference", "small crowd", "objective opinion", "pretty ugly", "slumber party", "random order", "only choice", "civil war", "military intelligence", or "country music". (Sorry, I couldn't help myself.)

This emphasis of Jesus raises key questions for Christians around the inextricable link between divine and human forgiveness:

Do we earn God's forgiveness by forgiving others first?
If I hold a grudge, do I lose my salvation?
Hasn't God already forgiven all my sins?
Doesn't asking for forgiveness daily contradict Romans 8:1, that that there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ?
What if sinners don't repent/apologize - do we still forgive them?
And if I'm always forgiving everybody, couldn't they take advantage of me? I mean, isn't the whole "seventy times seven" thing rather irresponsible?

Some thoughts to keep in mind on the topic of ongoing forgiveness:

Just because this teaching might seem challenging doesn't mean we should explain it away or water it down. Living in a constant flow of daily forgiveness is important. This is the only way we can carry out Christ's commands to love other fragile, frail, and fallen humans, be they our neighbours, our friends, our enemies, or ourselves. And it will be the only way any of them can love us in any continued fashion.
It's not all about "me" or "you", it is about "us". Remember the plural pronouns of this prayer. Jesus is teaching about how the Church, together, stays healthy (or grows sick), stays close to God (or drifts away), and stays gracious (or grows judgmental). This means the Lord's Prayer should not just convict me to be more forgiving, but also open our eyes to see harmful trends in the Church as a whole that emphasize justice over mercy.

The people we need to forgive freely may be those who have sinned against us personally, individually, but because the pronouns are plural, they may also be sinners that we believe have hurt the reputation or communion of the Church as a whole. We may not personally know a specific person who has sinned, so we might not think that our judgey attitude is doing any spiritual damage. But it is. That politician we don't like, that religious leader who has fallen, or that intellectual critic who mocks our faith. We are called to fill our hearts with forgiveness for them all.

Speaking of forgiving others, there are two dimensions to the forgiveness we offer: internal and transactional, that is, the forgiveness we hold in our heart and the forgiveness we communicate to another. Sometimes we won't be able to tell someone we forgive them because we are separated by death or distance. In these cases we can still cultivate a heart of forgiveness.

This forgiveness addressed in the Lord's Prayer is not salvific (having to do with salvation), but relational. It is about unhindered intimacy. In theological terms, this prayer is about sanctification, not justification. We are not praying to God as our Judge, but as "Our Father". So yes, we can take Jesus at his word here and in Matthew 18 - if we refuse to forgive others, we are resisting God's forgiveness in our own lives. Our relationship with God will be hindered by blockages that will build up as long as we hold on to bitterness, resentment, and judgement toward others who sin. God forgives us first; if we are unchanged by his grace, abuse his mercy, hoard his forgiveness, and refuse to release others from the debts they owe us, God will withdraw his forgiveness from us. This is not about earning God's forgiveness, but about aligning our heart's with God's character. Notice in the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, the master's punishment for the slave's lack of forgiveness is temporary, until he paid back what he owed (Matthew 18:34). In this life, God will consign unforgiving, judgemental, hypocritical Christians to a prison of their own making. Again, this is not about losing salvation, but it is about consequences in this life for our hypocrisy. None of us qualify to sit in the seat of judgement without mercy over others.
Forgiving someone does not mean we refuse to address what is wrong. In fact, we only "forgive" things that are wrong. Forgiveness is not denial, but it's opposite. Forgiveness is not the same as saying "That's fine" or "It doesn't matter" or "No big deal". Forgiveness acknowledges the wrongdoing, and makes it important enough to name and release from our punishment.
Forgiveness is a necessary ingredient in any relationship involving humans. But it is not the only ingredient. Things like trust, love, and vulnerability are also elements of intimacy. So, when we forgive someone who has wronged us, we may reconcile with them as a sister or brother in Christ or as a fellow fragile human being, but this does not mean we will automatically restore the relationship back to the same level of trust and intimacy that it enjoyed before they sinned against us.

So how do we go about actually forgiving someone beyond praying? Since we're on the topic, here are a few helpful steps to keep in mind:

Step 1: HEART FORGIVENESS. In prayer, release them from their debt to you. Fill your heart with forgiveness before you approach them. In cases where we are separated by death or distance that is insurmountable, this will be our only step. Remember that at times Jesus offered forgiveness freely to people who had not yet expressed repentance (Matthew 9:2; Luke 23:34; John 8:11). This is likely the inspiration for the apostle Paul's idea that God's kindness is what should inspire people toward repentance (Romans 2:4). So, whether or not we get the chance to express it in person, we start by releasing others in our hearts from the debt of love they owe us.

Step 2: PLANK-EYE PROCESS. Jesus teaches later in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1-5) that we do need to help each other with our sins, but first we need to see our own sins as larger and more blinding. That way we will approach others in need of help as a fellow struggler, not as their moral judge.

Step 3: REBUKE/CONFRONT/SHOW. After we have humbled ourselves by dealing with our own plank, we can now see more clearly to help others with their splinters. A humble desire to serve others in love - not our felt need to express anger, outrage, or judgement - is our motivation. This is the process that Jesus mentions in Matthew 18:15-20 and Luke 17:3-4. We go personally and privately to them in order to help them see their sin and repent. (Hopefully they do repent, but if not we don't give up.) If we are not a part of this church process, our job is to pray, not post online or offer unsolicited public opinions. (Note: Doing this well may, in some cases, require the help of some creative solutions - like the process of preparing our hearts through healing therapy, or the support of other Christian sisters and brothers in the act of confrontation, or even the use of proxies, that is, someone willing to step in and represent the injured party, caring enough to confront the sinner on their behalf. God has given us limitless creativity and we should use this creativity to help us work toward the goal of forgiveness. But one use of our God-given creativity we should reject is using it to help us make excuses why following Jesus' teaching on forgiveness does not apply to us and our particular situation. The details of how we all follow Jesus may differ, but all Christ-followers should at least do our best to actually follow Jesus.)

Step 4: EXPRESS FORGIVENESS. Tell them they are forgiven and show them by welcoming them into community (e.g., Jesus not just forgiving but fellowshipping with Zacchaeus for all to see in Luke 19:1-10). Even when someone we have confronted about their sin remains stubbornly unrepentant, we do not give up on them. We may stop fellowshipping with them for a season so as to help them see the seriousness of their sin (1 Corinthians 5:1-13), but even then we keep a loving eye on them and do what is necessary to not let them become overwhelmed with their own sorrow. That would be just what the Devil would love to see happen in the name of justice over mercy (2 Corinthians 2:6-11). Our goal is always restoration rather than condemnation (Galatians 6:1-2).

Step 5: RINSE AND REPEAT. How many times? Seventy times seven and counting. Forgiveness is both a one time choice and a lifelong process, a wedding and a marriage, a singular commitment and an ongoing work of grace and grit.

"The way I understand what Jesus is teaching us is this: if I am not willing to forgive others then I am not asking God to forgive me, no matter what words I use. I am asking God to excuse me, but not asking God to forgive me." ~ Darrell Johnson (Fifty-Seven Words that Change the World)

"Some wonder if God will forgive us when we commit the same sins over and over. He will. Remember, 'Forgive us' is part of Jesus' model prayer. We pray this way daily. If we can ask for bread daily, we can ask for forgiveness daily. The question 'Will God forgive again?' is sensible, but it underestimates the gospel. God's grace is greater than our sin. The gospel goes to sinners, to the poor in spirit. We rest in God's love, not our performance. The Lord is pleased when we obey, yet he loves and forgives, whether we obey or not." ~ Daniel M. Doriani (Reformed Expository Commentary on Matthew)

We don't just pray, we go. We talk one on one and in person.

CONFESSION

(Personal reflection)

I confess that I am often the worst combination of the Prodigal Son and his older brother. I sin in the most hurtful ways and I sit in judgement of other sinners. I am the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18 who is forgiven but fails to forgive, or the person who thinks I might, maybe, possibly have a splinter in my eye while I'm positive everyone else around me have tree trunks. I am, at times, the worst of hypocrites and the chief of sinners.

Some good news in the middle of all this: since my "coming-to-myself-thou-art-the-man-rooster-crow moment", I have found it easier to forgive anyone who has wronged me, because, no doubt, of my more acute awareness of how much forgiveness I need from God and others. In the words of singer/songwriter and friend Kevin Pauls, I know I need "mountains of mercy and oceans of grace".

I know I need the life-giving restorative power of mercy like I need oxygen, every moment of every day. Without it I know my sin would drive me down the path of Judas rather than Peter. (More about that topic in this post here.)

One of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around when I was in the middle of my greatest sin was how much I surprised myself, I shocked myself, and so it would seem, I didn't even know myself. I thought I was never going to be "that guy", and here I was being "that guy". I was not just disappointed in myself, I was disoriented in who "myself" even is.

Since my "coming out" event, I have experienced two broad categories of responses to my severe sin:

Shock, then sorrow, then grace, and a commitment to come alongside me to help me heal, become whole, and do better.
Shock, then more shock, then outrage, then shocked outrage, then disdain, judgement, contempt, and condemnation, often accompanied by dehumanizing language about me being a "monster" or equivalent.

Most days, I was doing a better job at being a member of group #2 in my mind than any external voices ever were. No one hated me more than me. But with the help of dear saints in group #1 (and loads of psychotherapy, spiritual direction, and personal reflection), I was reminded that my sin was never a surprise to Jesus and he had been right there, loving me unconditionally, before, during, and after that period of my life.

Look at what God tells Moses about the Israelites right before he leads them into the Promised Land (in Deuteronomy 31:16-21):

When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. ... For I know their inclination. ~ Yahweh (Deuteronomy 31:20-21)

Wow. Their failure - and mine, and yours - was not a surprise for God. He went into this relationship with them, and with us, knowing our best and our worst and signing up for the whole thing. This is no excuse for coasting morally and abusing God’s grace. There are consequences for our failures. Believe me. But it is a reminder that God’s love precedes, surrounds, and endures all sin.

"Speaking very precisely, God is never disappointed in us. He’s never disappointed. That’s because his expectations weren’t that high to begin with. We’re the ones with an artificially-inflated idea of our innate goodness, and groundless certainty about the things we’d never do. But God knows what combination of temptations would be able to overthrow us. He knows us, even if we don’t know ourselves."

~ Frederica Mathewes-Green (Blog)

Frederica Mathewes-Green (Eastern Orthodox theologian, author, and consultant on Veggie Tales). What a great "God loves you" face!

What a paradox! Those of us who have what appears at first to be a lower view of human identity often end up with a higher view of God's grace in response to our failure. Those Christians who align their thinking with Jesus about human sinfulness are more ready to practice grace, mercy, and peace when disaster strikes. Jesus says we humans are a paradoxical mix of infinitely valuable children of God who are designed to live lives of world-changing, life-giving love, and yet at the same time we are all filled with a multitude of weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can fall prey to any sin with the right combination of temptations. For Jesus, the short form way of labeling this universal human reality is calling us all "evil" as he does later in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:11). Yes, Jesus says we are all evil.

This all sounds so condemnatory, calling us "evil". But in the context of Jesus' teaching, he is not using the word to belittle us, but to let us know that he is not surprised with our waywardness. It is us "evil" disciples who Jesus is investing his time into while teaching the Sermon on the Mount. It is us "evil" disciples to whom Jesus entrusts his Gospel message and the future of his beloved Church. It is us "evil" disciples that Jesus promises to give his Holy Spirit and to never leave us. Golly. I've never felt so special about being "evil"!

By contrast, some Christians with a more roses-and-rainbows view of human identity cannot recover from their own shock-and-awe show in response to massive human failure. They react to moral failure as something sub-human, rather than having a more biblical, nuanced view of what it means to actually be human, this side of heaven. And in the end, they become trapped by their own outrage and simply cannot move on.

Rightly understood, the doctrine of "Total Depravity" is helpful here. It does not mean that we are as bad as possible, like some sub-human totally depraved monsters, but that every part of our lives, in total, is touched by our own sin and selfishness in some way. Put simply, the "total" in "total depravity" means "every part" not "as much as possible". And it means that, when someone sins, our response is to lean in to help, rather than lean away to judge.

(For more on human fallenness, see Psalm 14:3; 51:5-6; Mark 7:21-13; 10:18; Romans 5:12-21; this previous blog post, or check out one of my favourite authors on this topic: Brant Hansen's The Truth About Us.)

One of my favourite books of the past decade.

CONCLUSION

(One last thought)

At the end of the American Civil War, Abraham gave a speech that concluded with the following paragraph:

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." ~ Abraham Lincoln (Second Inaugural Address, 1865)

This last paragraph of his Second Inaugural Address reflects Lincoln's deep compassion for the suffering of all involved in the scourge of war. But his vision of compassion, forgiveness, and enemy love did not resonate with everyone. Listening in the crowd that day, unmoved, was a man named John Wilkes Booth, and six weeks later, he would kill the President.

A colourized picture of Abraham Lincoln, taken February, 1865

Whenever we align with Jesus' message of scandalous forgiveness, radical reconciliation, and shocking enemy love, there will always be people who hear it as more threatening than encouraging. They will reject any idea of forgiveness with a "No, thank you" (or something more like "No, f*ck you" and a bullet to the head). The world is full of John Wilkes Booths who despise the forgiveness of Jesus as weak and dangerous. They may not assassinate us with a bullet, but they may try with a keyboard. Still, our hearts are always ready to forgive.

"Justice and peace, truth and mercy, will one day reign in God's world; and the church, who could almost be defined as the people who pray the Lord's Prayer, is to model and pioneer the way of life which is, actually, the only way of life, because it is the way of forgiveness." ~ N.T. Wright (The Lord and His Prayer)

CONTEMPLATE

(Scripture passages that relate to and deepen our understanding of this topic)

Psalm 32:5; 103:10-14; Lamentations 3:22; Mark 11:25; Luke 17:3-4; Ephesians 4:31-32; Colossians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Hebrews 12:14-15; James 2:12-13; 5:11; 1 Peter 3:8-9

CONVERSATION

(Talk together, learn together, grow together)

What is God revealing to you about himself through this passage?
What is God showing you about yourself through this passage?
What "Call To Action" step are you taking this week?
What is one thing you can think, believe, or do differently in light of what you are learning?
What questions are you still processing about this topic?

CALL TO ACTION

(Ideas for turning talk into walk)

Pray the Lord's Prayer, out loud, slowly, every day. When your heart feels convicted about something, jot it down, finish praying, then go do it.
Practice micro-forgivenesses all day. Don't let frustration build up from small interruptions, irritations, passive-aggressive comments, or online interactions. Use the small things as training grounds for grace. Practice this internal monologue of grace with animals, objects, and toward yourself.
Make contact with one person you have held at arm's length. Try writing a note, making a call, or simply praying for them as a first act of mercy.

SM #33: As We Forgive

Recent Posts

Comments