"Whenever you pray, say… And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us." (Luke 11:2a, 4 CSB)
"Forgive us our sins"
I love the order placement of this request as it emphasises grace. Scripture says in Psalm 66:18 "If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." Perhaps a more familiar translation of this verse is "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (KJV) The placement of this ask in the model prayer drives home the truth that, as a child, I would often misinterpret this verse; and I believe I am not alone in this. We are sinful people, and we are also fallible people. While all sin is failure, not all failure is sin; but combine those two and the deck is in a sense "stacked against us" when it comes to the correct interpretation of Scripture. This is one more reason we must seek The Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. What I thought it said was if I have sin in me then God would not hear my prayers. Another way to verbalize this horrendous misunderstanding of the verse is, "I must be pretty near perfect to have my prayers heard." Perhaps I'm the only one in this, but I don't think so because there is at least one other person in all history who thought this way - "God I thank You that I am not like other people…" (Luke 18:9-14). There's quite a bit of misconceptions regarding prayer floating around and this is one that can get into our hearts. We can easily feel like we gave a bit more than 10% of last week's paycheck and so we feel more assured that God hears us this week. But here, in the model prayer we have gotten halfway through it before we have asked for forgiveness and there has been no hint that we were merely echoing off the ceiling up until this point. However, this doesn't minimize our need for constant forgiveness. Afterall, this is the 4th phrase of 5 in the model prayer. The very fact that we have asked God to set His name apart, further His kingdom in, through, and around us, and keep us dependently full of Him are all pointers to the reality that apart from His working of grace in us, we would do and be the exact opposite of all those things. We need His forgiveness.
"for we ourselves also forgive…"
If we thought we could misinterpret/missapply Psalm 66:18, this one is an all-you-can-eat buffet of possible misinterpretations. Even now, I had to stop and ask The Holy Spirit to guide me and keep me from erroneous understandings of this. This doesn't mean I think for a second what I'm about to say can't possibly be wrong due to some "pre-blessing" of my mind. Just that I'm seeking Him to guide me as I go forward. I'm not going to be so arrogant as to say I've got what this means, but I can share with you how I pray it and why I believe this is in line with God's Word. First, let's look at a couple of passages regarding our seeking forgiveness as it's tied to our granting it: (CSB translation)
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 - "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses."
Mark 11:25 - "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing."
Ephesians 4:32 - "And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ."
Colossians 3:13 - "bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive."
Scripture is clear that there is nothing we can do that merits the forgiveness of God. While we were still sinners, opposed to God and all He desires for us, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) When God forgave us, He bore the hurt. Instead of requiring it of us, He took it on himself. We are called to pattern this forgiveness. This forgiveness we extend to others, doesn't merit grace - grace, by definition, can't be meritted otherwise it isn't grace. Paul makes this clear in Romans 11:6 "Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace." Our refusal to forgive, however, can absolutely block forgiveness from flowing to us. Why? Well, because Jesus said so; but let's try to think about this a bit further.
The Flow Principle
Proverbs 21:13 says, "The one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself also call out and not be answered." We read this and think, "That's right! That's how it should be. Don't expect a hand out when you're in need after you refused to help others when it was well within your power to do so." The concept of do unto others, also known as "the golden rule" (Matthew 7:12) seems fair. But this prayer takes it a step further to "do unto others as I would have God do unto me." As followers of Jesus we are to be salt and light to the world. The love of God should flow through us, into a fallen world. The words of God should flow through us to those who are still enemies of God. Paul said, as he called sinners to repentance it was as though God was making His appeal through Paul (2 Corinthians 5:20). If we refuse to let the forgiveness of God flow through us, then forgiveness will cease to flow to us.
The Consumption Principle
James 4:3 says, "You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures." If we are refusing to forgive others, then our own seeking for forgiveness is merely for our own consumption. Scripture is clear, that when we ask for a thing, no matter how good, our sinful desire to consume it apart from God (here is an instance of truly regarding iniquity in our hearts that Psalm 66:18 speaks of) assures that our request be denied. Jesus made a reference to this flesh-fulfilling asker when He said, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) To be clear, this is not to imply salvation is by anything other than grace alone through faith alone. It does however unmistakably declare that faith, without works, is dead. (James 2:17) To seek forgiveness while refusing to grant it indicates you seek something other than forgiveness, perhaps the avoidance of consequences, but not forgiveness.
The Hypocrisy Principle
In Luke 11:37-12:3 Jesus denounces the Pharisees and the law experts because of their hypocrisy and warns His disciples to be on their guard against being infected by it. Jesus pronounced woe on these experts in the law and said "you load people with burdens that are heard to carry, and yet you yourselves don't touch these burdens with one of your fingers." Hypocrisy. When we pray for God to bear the burden of forgiving us while we aren't willing to move a finger to bear the burden of forgiving our fellow man, we are guilty of the same "leaven of the Pharisees" Jesus warned His disciples of, and publicly denounced in no minced words.
The Walking Principle
1 John 1:6-7 "If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." This is the final principle as it is the indicator that those who refuse to forgive have more concern than just the immediate instance of receiving forgiveness. A refusal to forgive is indicative that the refuser has yet to experience forgiveness themselves. If we walk in darkness, refusing to grant forgiveness while claiming we are in need of it, we are liars. Two can't walk together unless they are in agreement (Amos 3:3), neither can we rightly claim fellowship with Jesus while walking a different path than Him.
"forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us."
"Dear Father, forgive me my sins and please continue to tune my heart to walk as you walked. When met with the temptation to harbor bitterness, or withhold forgiveness from those who have hurt me, graciously remind me that You were wounded for my transgressions and it is by Your stripes I am healed. May Your forgiveness flow to me and through me to others. May the forgiveness you grant me conform me more into the image of Your Dear Son as You further sanctify me by Your Spirit. Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for forgiving me and begetting forgiveness in me to others. Amen."
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