We are once again looking at piety and still considering the Church as a tool that the Spirit uses to develop that in us. To get at this today, we will use the Lord's Prayer. In this prayer that Jesus taught you will find six petitions, each covering a certain category of life. We're going to focus on just one of those petitions: 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.'
Let me begin by telling you what this petition is not about. I find that I am slowly entering the high tech Internet world with its online bill paying and the like. So, each month I get an email from FirstEnergy written in the classic corporate dialect of English, 'Welcome to Penelec Online Bill Presentation. Your electric statement for your account is available for review and/or payment.' Then after listing the account details it goes on with this. 'To access your statement, click on the following link to our World Wide Web site...' And off I go. When I get there I read the bill, type in some numbers and hit the payment button. My debt to Penelec is now cleared - until the next time I hear from them. This is not the kind of transaction that Jesus is talking about. But, sadly, for too many folk, asking God for forgiveness of their sins is just a variation on what I just described. They are notified that they have an outstanding debt. They perform the proper steps to clear the debt - in this case a prayer of confession - and then they tell themselves, 'My debt with God is cleared - until the next time I hear from Him.'
That's not what Jesus is pointing us to in this part of His prayer. We are not dealing with some impersonal corporation that tries to sound friendly as it tell us that we owe it some money. We are talking with our Father, our Father who really loves us, our Father who, because of that love, wants us to help us deal with our sin. A mere mechanical reaction is not what Jesus is talking about. No, Jesus is talking about making sure that our relationship with the Father is in good shape - piety. This part of the prayer is about relationships. This petition is here to teach us about our relationship with the Father - and more.
Let's look for carefully. For one thing, did you notice Jesus' assumption? (This is so helpful and freeing.) Jesus assumes that you will sin against the Father - and thus will need to ask for forgiveness. He doesn't state it, let alone prove it. He just assumes it. He knows we are sinners. He knows that what we do best is sin. He knows that we sin a lot. And yet, this does not stop Him from loving us. We should be saddened by our sin but never surprised by it, and certainly never despairing because of it. Jesus knows all about us. He knows that we are sinners. And He loves us anyway. No one has ever loved us like that. And it is simply amazing that He, of all people, would.
Jesus has another assumption at work here. He also assumes the ministry of the Spirit. So often, we do not see our own sin. But the Spirit sees it. And, from time to time, He will point it out to us. He does not do this to make us feel bad, to feel condemned. He does this because He loves us. So, Jesus teaches us that when the Spirit does His work of pointing out our sin, we should go to the Father and ask Him to forgive. These are assumptions that are built into Jesus' words.
Now, let's stop and ask a question. What does it mean to ask for forgiveness? What are we actually asking for? What are we asking the Father to do? Imagine this. What if the next time I get that email from FirstEnergy I reply with something like this. 'Dear Sir or Madam: Would you please forgive this debt. Thank you. Cordially, Leon Ben-Ezra'. What am I asking my electric company to do? Let me translate. 'Dear FirstEnergy, You know that 30 bucks that I owe for the electric bill? What if you just let it slide? What if we both just forget all about it? Thanks loads. Leon'. That's forgiving a debt. Now, how much do we owe God for that sin we're asking forgiveness for? I think that we'll all agree that we're not talking 30 bucks. This is in a whole new category. But how do we gauge it? What would pay the debt? How do we answer that? This is the Gospel's answer. Payment for one sin: Hell. Forever. 'Dear God, You know that debt I owe You - you know, eternity in hell for insulting You - what if You let that slide? What if we both just forget all about it?' Can you imagine asking for such a thing? But that is what we are doing every time we ask the Father to forgive even one sin. It would be the height of presumption to do such a thing - if it weren't for the fact that this is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. 'Pray like this... “Our Father who art in heaven... Forgive us our debts”'. I wouldn't dream of writing to FirstEnergy with a request to forgive a 30 dollar debt, but I do something much more astounding all the time with the Father. And so do you. And we can make this huge request because of what Jesus did on the Cross. He has suffered hell for our sins, each and every one. Because of Jesus we can have a cleared relationship with the Father, one without the clutter of sin to muck it up. That's what Jesus is talking about here. This is a great gift of the Gospel.
We're not done with Jesus' words. Listen again to what He teaches us to pray. 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' It's amazing the difference that a little word can make. I'm thinking of the word 'as'. Jesus is tying together two things. He's tying together our forgiveness by the Father to our forgiving other people. By including that 'as' Jesus is telling us that our being forgiven by the Father depends on our being forgiving of others. Now, that's a big deal, and I think Jesus knew that it would raise some questions. So, just a couple of sentences later we find Him saying this. '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.' So, let me repeat what I said. Our being forgiven by the Father depends on our being forgiving of others. The Father's forgiveness of our sins is conditional. I'm sure that this raises all kinds of questions that, in one way or other, start out, 'That can't be right.' But it must be right, because Jesus said so.
Now, I want to take that and apply it in just one area. I want to take this call for you to be forgiving and relate it to one group of people you know. According to Jesus, the quality of your relationship with the Father depends on the quality of your relationships with the other people in this room. Notice the wisdom of God. It is so easy for us to forget about other people, to neglect them and our relationships with them, and to focus on ourselves. That's one of the consequences of being sinners. So, Jesus gathers up sinners like us, and He puts us into this thing called the Church and then He tells us, 'If you want to enjoy your relationship with your Father, then you'll have to learn how to get along well with each other.' Now there's motivation. Do you see how being the Church, as Jesus defines it, is a tool that He uses to develop piety in us?
Let's develop that a bit so that we are all clear on what Jesus is saying. Imagine someone saying, 'Well, I have no outstanding debts with anyone in the church. There is no one that I need to forgive. So, it's all good, right?' Wrong. A husband who has not had an affair with someone who is not is wife, who hasn't even thought about any such thing, has not yet fully kept the commandment about adultery. Though God spoke the command in the negative, 'You shall not commit adultery', He was also expecting the positive, 'Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church.' This kind of thing happens a lot in the Bible. So, our Larger Catechism not only asks what sins are forbidden by the Ten Commandments, but it also asks what duties are required by each of them. So, Jesus' stated expectation that we would forgive the other people in this room also includes His unstated expectation that we would work hard to develop good relationships with them. And He makes that explicit elsewhere. 'This is my commandment, that you love one another' - and then the standard for that love - 'as I have loved you.' So, it is pretty clear that we need to work at the relationships that we have with each other. And we need to do that from both sides of the coin. We need to work at the part that requires that we deal with sins in such a way that it leads to our granting forgiveness to each other. And we need to work at the part that requires that we develop ties of love with each other. Remember: the quality of your relationship with the Father depends on the quality of your relationship with the other people in this room.
Let me finish by mentioning few things to help you deal with what I've just told you. The first comes out of my own experience from this past week. As I worked on the sermon, I was really hit with the tie that Jesus makes between our forgiving each other and the Father's forgiveness of us. It wasn't news to me, but it hit me in a new way. How I relate to you really makes a difference in how I am able to enjoy the Father. That made a dent. I hope that you also see that in a new way. I realize that this probably feels overwhelming. But it doesn't have to because of two things. When the Spirit brings us to see something of the Gospel in a new way, that's an expression of His goodness to us. He's simply saying that we've learned the last skill of Godly living well enough so that we can now move on to the next. He's opened another door so that we might become even more like Jesus. New expectations of us always feel a little daunting. But we need to remember that this is good. This is a sign of progress. And thanks be to God for that. The other thing that we need to remember is that whenever Jesus calls us to take the next step, whenever He says, 'Now, let me show you a bit more clearly what following Me looks like', He will also provide the grace we need to be able to take that next step. Ours is a religion of grace. It always boils down to God granting more of His favor to us, His children. He showers His favor on us as we work at obeying Him. So, don't give in to feelings of being overwhelmed. The Spirit is here. He will guide us and take care of us. He will give us whatever we may need to follow Jesus. He will never abandon us to our own resources because He knows - better than any of us - that to do such a thing is to consign us to failure. And if anything is true, this is: He wants us to flourish. So, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed, in a way that's good. You understand what is being required of you. But don't stay there. Don't allow that feeling to dominate you. Believe the Gospel of God's grace and then work at obedience.
Let me urge you to consider what Jesus assumes and says in our text. Let it percolate during the week so that the specifics that the Spirit wants you to get will become clearer. And then rejoice in the grace of the Gospel that makes following Jesus possible.
Let me begin by telling you what this petition is not about. I find that I am slowly entering the high tech Internet world with its online bill paying and the like. So, each month I get an email from FirstEnergy written in the classic corporate dialect of English, 'Welcome to Penelec Online Bill Presentation. Your electric statement for your account is available for review and/or payment.' Then after listing the account details it goes on with this. 'To access your statement, click on the following link to our World Wide Web site...' And off I go. When I get there I read the bill, type in some numbers and hit the payment button. My debt to Penelec is now cleared - until the next time I hear from them. This is not the kind of transaction that Jesus is talking about. But, sadly, for too many folk, asking God for forgiveness of their sins is just a variation on what I just described. They are notified that they have an outstanding debt. They perform the proper steps to clear the debt - in this case a prayer of confession - and then they tell themselves, 'My debt with God is cleared - until the next time I hear from Him.'
That's not what Jesus is pointing us to in this part of His prayer. We are not dealing with some impersonal corporation that tries to sound friendly as it tell us that we owe it some money. We are talking with our Father, our Father who really loves us, our Father who, because of that love, wants us to help us deal with our sin. A mere mechanical reaction is not what Jesus is talking about. No, Jesus is talking about making sure that our relationship with the Father is in good shape - piety. This part of the prayer is about relationships. This petition is here to teach us about our relationship with the Father - and more.
Let's look for carefully. For one thing, did you notice Jesus' assumption? (This is so helpful and freeing.) Jesus assumes that you will sin against the Father - and thus will need to ask for forgiveness. He doesn't state it, let alone prove it. He just assumes it. He knows we are sinners. He knows that what we do best is sin. He knows that we sin a lot. And yet, this does not stop Him from loving us. We should be saddened by our sin but never surprised by it, and certainly never despairing because of it. Jesus knows all about us. He knows that we are sinners. And He loves us anyway. No one has ever loved us like that. And it is simply amazing that He, of all people, would.
Jesus has another assumption at work here. He also assumes the ministry of the Spirit. So often, we do not see our own sin. But the Spirit sees it. And, from time to time, He will point it out to us. He does not do this to make us feel bad, to feel condemned. He does this because He loves us. So, Jesus teaches us that when the Spirit does His work of pointing out our sin, we should go to the Father and ask Him to forgive. These are assumptions that are built into Jesus' words.
Now, let's stop and ask a question. What does it mean to ask for forgiveness? What are we actually asking for? What are we asking the Father to do? Imagine this. What if the next time I get that email from FirstEnergy I reply with something like this. 'Dear Sir or Madam: Would you please forgive this debt. Thank you. Cordially, Leon Ben-Ezra'. What am I asking my electric company to do? Let me translate. 'Dear FirstEnergy, You know that 30 bucks that I owe for the electric bill? What if you just let it slide? What if we both just forget all about it? Thanks loads. Leon'. That's forgiving a debt. Now, how much do we owe God for that sin we're asking forgiveness for? I think that we'll all agree that we're not talking 30 bucks. This is in a whole new category. But how do we gauge it? What would pay the debt? How do we answer that? This is the Gospel's answer. Payment for one sin: Hell. Forever. 'Dear God, You know that debt I owe You - you know, eternity in hell for insulting You - what if You let that slide? What if we both just forget all about it?' Can you imagine asking for such a thing? But that is what we are doing every time we ask the Father to forgive even one sin. It would be the height of presumption to do such a thing - if it weren't for the fact that this is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. 'Pray like this... “Our Father who art in heaven... Forgive us our debts”'. I wouldn't dream of writing to FirstEnergy with a request to forgive a 30 dollar debt, but I do something much more astounding all the time with the Father. And so do you. And we can make this huge request because of what Jesus did on the Cross. He has suffered hell for our sins, each and every one. Because of Jesus we can have a cleared relationship with the Father, one without the clutter of sin to muck it up. That's what Jesus is talking about here. This is a great gift of the Gospel.
We're not done with Jesus' words. Listen again to what He teaches us to pray. 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' It's amazing the difference that a little word can make. I'm thinking of the word 'as'. Jesus is tying together two things. He's tying together our forgiveness by the Father to our forgiving other people. By including that 'as' Jesus is telling us that our being forgiven by the Father depends on our being forgiving of others. Now, that's a big deal, and I think Jesus knew that it would raise some questions. So, just a couple of sentences later we find Him saying this. '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.' So, let me repeat what I said. Our being forgiven by the Father depends on our being forgiving of others. The Father's forgiveness of our sins is conditional. I'm sure that this raises all kinds of questions that, in one way or other, start out, 'That can't be right.' But it must be right, because Jesus said so.
Now, I want to take that and apply it in just one area. I want to take this call for you to be forgiving and relate it to one group of people you know. According to Jesus, the quality of your relationship with the Father depends on the quality of your relationships with the other people in this room. Notice the wisdom of God. It is so easy for us to forget about other people, to neglect them and our relationships with them, and to focus on ourselves. That's one of the consequences of being sinners. So, Jesus gathers up sinners like us, and He puts us into this thing called the Church and then He tells us, 'If you want to enjoy your relationship with your Father, then you'll have to learn how to get along well with each other.' Now there's motivation. Do you see how being the Church, as Jesus defines it, is a tool that He uses to develop piety in us?
Let's develop that a bit so that we are all clear on what Jesus is saying. Imagine someone saying, 'Well, I have no outstanding debts with anyone in the church. There is no one that I need to forgive. So, it's all good, right?' Wrong. A husband who has not had an affair with someone who is not is wife, who hasn't even thought about any such thing, has not yet fully kept the commandment about adultery. Though God spoke the command in the negative, 'You shall not commit adultery', He was also expecting the positive, 'Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church.' This kind of thing happens a lot in the Bible. So, our Larger Catechism not only asks what sins are forbidden by the Ten Commandments, but it also asks what duties are required by each of them. So, Jesus' stated expectation that we would forgive the other people in this room also includes His unstated expectation that we would work hard to develop good relationships with them. And He makes that explicit elsewhere. 'This is my commandment, that you love one another' - and then the standard for that love - 'as I have loved you.' So, it is pretty clear that we need to work at the relationships that we have with each other. And we need to do that from both sides of the coin. We need to work at the part that requires that we deal with sins in such a way that it leads to our granting forgiveness to each other. And we need to work at the part that requires that we develop ties of love with each other. Remember: the quality of your relationship with the Father depends on the quality of your relationship with the other people in this room.
Let me finish by mentioning few things to help you deal with what I've just told you. The first comes out of my own experience from this past week. As I worked on the sermon, I was really hit with the tie that Jesus makes between our forgiving each other and the Father's forgiveness of us. It wasn't news to me, but it hit me in a new way. How I relate to you really makes a difference in how I am able to enjoy the Father. That made a dent. I hope that you also see that in a new way. I realize that this probably feels overwhelming. But it doesn't have to because of two things. When the Spirit brings us to see something of the Gospel in a new way, that's an expression of His goodness to us. He's simply saying that we've learned the last skill of Godly living well enough so that we can now move on to the next. He's opened another door so that we might become even more like Jesus. New expectations of us always feel a little daunting. But we need to remember that this is good. This is a sign of progress. And thanks be to God for that. The other thing that we need to remember is that whenever Jesus calls us to take the next step, whenever He says, 'Now, let me show you a bit more clearly what following Me looks like', He will also provide the grace we need to be able to take that next step. Ours is a religion of grace. It always boils down to God granting more of His favor to us, His children. He showers His favor on us as we work at obeying Him. So, don't give in to feelings of being overwhelmed. The Spirit is here. He will guide us and take care of us. He will give us whatever we may need to follow Jesus. He will never abandon us to our own resources because He knows - better than any of us - that to do such a thing is to consign us to failure. And if anything is true, this is: He wants us to flourish. So, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed, in a way that's good. You understand what is being required of you. But don't stay there. Don't allow that feeling to dominate you. Believe the Gospel of God's grace and then work at obedience.
Let me urge you to consider what Jesus assumes and says in our text. Let it percolate during the week so that the specifics that the Spirit wants you to get will become clearer. And then rejoice in the grace of the Gospel that makes following Jesus possible.
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