Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

“A man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness” C.S. Lewis
“Nothing less than the Cross could have persuaded men that God does blot out their sin.” H.R. Mackintosh, Scottish theologian

“The Forgiveness of sins consists in this, that a man, notwithstanding his real guilt, is treated as if he had not sinned, or in other words, goes free from punishment.” George Smeaton, Scottish theologian

This petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the basis on which prayer is possible. Prayer implies a relationship with the God called Father, by those who through mercy have been made His children. It is the forgiveness of sins, which opens up the great relationship that unites what was broken by sin.

Sin in its most devastating destruction resulted in the broken relation of God and Man. Nothing is more descriptive of sin’s power than being cast out of the presence of God – which is what happened when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden.

Secondly, the reality of sin is always experienced in every heart by the presence of guilt. There are certainly degrees of what is called psychological or conscious guilt - but Moral guilt is that true sense in which all of us as sinners – rebellious law breakers possess.

The word debt is an economic term, and the Bible uses it to describe the reality of our guilt before a holy God. We are in debt spiritually before God. But, this does not mean God is simply keeping a ledger in heaven of our every sin. And that this is what is forgiven in our redemption through Christ.

The truth is that our sins are far greater than the sum of our rebellion and sin. What makes God’s forgiveness so marvelous and so astounding is that our debt is not just great – it is infinite. Our sins have been committed against an infinite holy God and nothing but infinite love can forgive them. This is why forgiveness cannot be understood apart from the Cross, because in the blood atonement of the perfect God/man, God the Father dealt with sin in a definitive and final way.

When we ask God to forgive us our debts, it is always predicated on the knowledge that God took infinite grace and satisfied divine justice by exchanging our sin for Christ’s righteousness.
This must be understood as the root and cause of our forgiveness – that we are justified –counted as righteous because of the Cross of Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21 (ESV)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It is extremely important to understand the personal and relational application of the Atonement. Being justified, means we can have the experience of forgiveness. To put it another way, forgiveness is the experiential side of Justification.
To be forgiven is to know that an infinite debt was wiped out, by an infinite cost, through an infinite grace.

This realization and experience makes us instruments of forgiveness in being mirrors to others of reconciling love. As C. S. Lewis so aptly put, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
(the picture is a indulgence sold to cancel out sin by a medieval church)