20150813 FORGIVE AS WE FORGIVE

FORGIVE AS WE FORGIVE

Matthew 6:12, 14-15 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

(14)  "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  (15)  But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

I have included verses 14-15 with verse 12 for continuity sake. Lord willing, tomorrow we will look at verse 13.

Out of all of the model prayer verse 12 is the only part that Jesus comments on. That must mean that this is very important, so pay attention. This isn’t the only place that Jesus brings up this topic. In Matthew 18:22-35 Jesus shares the story of a man who was forgiven a great debt. He in turn refused to forgive another man for a much lesser debt. In the end He is sent away to pay his original debt. I urge you to read the passage by clicking the above link.

The point is clear. We are expected to forgive others as God has forgiven us. If we have truly repented, that is, changed our minds to agree with God in all things then we must forgive. Ephesians 4:32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Let’s take the idea of agreeing with God a bit further. God sees all sin as horrible. We have a tendency to see the sin of others as worse than ours. But look at James 2:10  “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God's laws.” So God sees all of us in the same way. No one is better than anyone else. All have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Rom 3:23 my paraphrase). Imagine we all, one by one, must jump across a bottomless pit to reach God. The closest distance is 30 feet and we are only allowed to use our bodies, no machines. The world record for the long jump is presently held by Mike Powell at 29 feet 4 ½ inches set in 1991. Most of us might be able to jump a few feet and some of us would do well to get to the edge and fall over, but all would still fall short. The point is this. God demands perfection and deserves perfection, but none of us are capable of it on our own.

When we refuse to forgive someone we look at them and judge them worse than ourselves and unworthy of God’s forgiveness. God sees us all the same and He wants us to see each other the way He sees us, in need of a Savior and “savable” by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Father in heaven, let us see each person as You see them through Your eyes of love and forgiveness. Give us Your grace to deal with all our past hurts in loving and forgiving ways. In Jesus Name, AMEN!!!