Prayer as Confession
There are two words that describe, summarize, and are at the heart of the gospel, the Christian faith, and the Christian life — love and forgiveness. God loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the debt of our sins. When we repent and receive this gift in faith, God forgives our sins. Therefore, we love God with our whole being, and we show that love by loving our fellow humans like ourselves. And because we love and have been forgiven, we forgive others their sins against us. Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of our souls as bread is for the body. Therefore, the next prayer in the Lord’s Prayer is, Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. This prayer means, Forgive us our sins, as we also forgive those who have sinned against us.
1. Forgive Us
Forgive us our sins. Forgive us our debts. We are all sinners. We are all under the power of sin as Paul so clearly spells out in Romans 3 — There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (vv.10-12). We all need a Savior. We all need mercy and grace. It is only God’s mercy and grace that keeps us from being consumed because of our sins.
Because of our sins, we have run up a debt with God so large that we can never hope to pay it back. All we can do is ask for forgiveness. In the previous petition, we have acknowledged our utter dependence upon God for our daily necessities like bread. Now, we acknowledge our utter dependence upon God to forgive us the debt we cannot repay. And thankfully, our Father in heaven loves us, is merciful, and extends his grace to us. Note these beautiful words of Psalm 103:8-12 — “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
We all know the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32). It can also be called the parable of the running father. This parable illustrates God’s love, mercy, and grace that lead to forgiveness. When Jesus sat down to eat with tax collectors and sinners, he lived out the love, grace, and forgiveness of God’s kingdom. When he was challenged about this unacceptable and undignified behavior, he tells the story of the lost son and his running father. Remember, to run was unacceptable and totally undignified behavior for an adult, an older Jewish man, a father of adult sons. And yet, here is this father throwing away his dignity and running down the road to welcome his disgraced son with open arms, hugs, and kisses. He runs to greet his lost son, someone who has put a curse on him, someone who has brought disgrace to the whole family. And he forgives the son.
This is our God, our Father. He runs to us and pursues us. He came to us in His Son. He welcomes and embraces us. He forgives us because Jesus Christ has paid the debt for our sins. “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. … all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:22-25). Again — “And when you were dead in trespasses . .. God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col 2:13-15).
The cross and the resurrection were God’s great acts of liberation and forgiveness. Jesus brought God’s kingdom into the world, a kingdom where forgiveness of sins is happening, a kingdom where God gives people new, eternal life and transforms them into his kingdom people. Once we have believed in Jesus Christ, confessed, and repented, we are made God’s children. And once we have become children of God, we have entered his kingdom. And once we have stepped into the kingdom, we have stepped into, and we now live in a kingdom and a culture, in an environment, of love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
In Christ, we have been made righteous and holy. We are new creations. Unfortunately, we are still living in this broken and sinful world. Our old sinful self battles against our new self in Christ. We are not perfect in Christ yet. And daily, we still sin against our Father. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. … If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8, 10).
Again, forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of our souls as bread is for the body. Psalms 32:3-5 describes the painful reality of guilt and shame and what happens when we do not confess our sins — “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Therefore, daily we must pray prayers of confession and repentance like David in Psalm 51 — “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight … (vv. 1-4). Daily with the counsel of the Holy Spirit, we examine ourselves, and we realize that we must confess, and so we lay down our sins at the feet of the cross because Jesus is the only One that can claim, own, pay the debts of, and dispose of our sins. And His Word promises us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9).
2. As We Forgive Others
However, our prayer for forgiveness continues — forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, or as we forgive those who sin against us. While we are asking for the Lord’s grace to forgive us, we also ask Him for the grace we need to forgive others. We are sometimes hurt by the sins of other people. And sometimes we hurt others with our sins. Jesus teaches us not to hold a grudge or become bitter but to forgive. This is not easy. It’s a struggle that will only be won in prayer. In our world and society today, forgiveness seems crazy and outrageous. People are focused on self, their own rights, their hurts, and wounds, at getting back at the other person. Resentment, bitterness, hatred, hostility, anger, and fear take over and rule their lives. They become caught up in this self-destroying cycle of vengeance and retribution. An unforgiving spirit causes isolation, and self-pity, and destroys relationships. The more unforgiving people become, the more depressed, emotionally and spiritually unhealthy they become, even physically sick.
But Jesus again shows us how his kingdom is radically different from the world, and how his followers should be radically different. This is so important that immediately after the prayer he emphasizes and expands on forgiveness — “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” (Mt 6:14-15). And look at his conclusion to the parable of the unmerciful servant in Mt 18:21-35, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” And then Luke 6:35-37 — But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. There are many verses teaching us to forgive.
Do we realize what we are praying for here? In no uncertain terms, this prayer is saying that if we forgive others their sins, our Heavenly Father will also forgive us, but if we do not forgive others their sins against us, neither will our Father forgive our sins. This does not mean that our forgiveness of others earns us God’s forgiveness. When we have experienced God’s love and grace in Christ, when we have experienced God’s mercy, then we too will be merciful to others. We who have experienced God’s forgiveness cannot be hardhearted and have unforgiving hearts toward others.
In this prayer, we pray not only that God forgives us, but also that he will give us a forgiving heart and spirit. Because a merciless, unforgiving heart will receive neither forgiveness nor mercy. When we do not forgive others, when we maintain a grudge against others and cultivate hatred toward others, then there is a serious question mark about the authenticity of our faith, and whether we are truly followers of Jesus. A forgiving spirit is one of the chief evidences of true repentance. Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If I refuse to forgive, it’s because I am outside grace and I am myself unforgiven. The only reason we are kingdom people, God’s children, is that the forgiveness of sins has happened in Christ. So, if we do not live out forgiveness, we are denying the very basis of our new life and existence.
If I cannot forgive someone, have I really understood the gospel message? Have I really experienced, accepted, and received God’s love, forgiveness, and grace? Charles Spurgeon said, “Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death-warrant when you repeat the Lord’s Prayer.” C.S. Lewis wrote, “No part of his teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.” Again Jesus speaks very hard words that turn our self-centered worlds, pride, and egos upside down. There are no buts and ifs here. There is no softening the blow. And there are no limits to forgiveness. When asked how many times we should forgive, Jesus answered 70 x 7, unlimited. Then he said that the kingdom of heaven is like this … and he went on to tell the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt 18:21-35).
We are called to live out the way of forgiveness. At the end of Luke’s gospel, Jesus sends us into the world to proclaim the “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” to the whole world (Lk 24:47). We, the church, are to tell and live out the message of the forgiveness of sins. We are to model and embody before the world the only way of life, the way of love and forgiveness, and in doing so we announce and show to the world that the King and his kingdom have come.
Therefore, daily as you pray, let these three questions guide you in your prayers of confession and repentance. What do you need to ask God’s forgiveness for? Whom have you sinned against and do you need to seek forgiveness from? Who has sinned against you and you need God’s help to forgive? Allow the Spirit to examine your heart deeply, and then be humbly willing to confess what He reveals. Do this for the health of your soul. Do it for the health of the church, which is sick from a lack of forgiveness. Do it for the sake of the unbelievers and the world, which has not yet discovered the love and forgiveness of Christ.
We can forgive others because God has forgiven us. Christ in us through the Holy Spirit enables us to forgive. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 4:32-5:2). To err is human but to forgive is divine. You are never more beautiful or noble or healthy than when you forgive, for then you are like God. The image of God shines forth in and through you for the world to see.