He Came to Forgive

12/7- Lord’s Prayer- 4- “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Read: “Be kind, one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you.”  (Ephesians 4:32);You…will give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins.”  (Lk. 1:77)

Thoughts: Jesus came at Christmas so that when we mess up we can still get to God.  God gives us a second chance.  He also wants us to give others another chance too- even if they hurt us and we don’t want to trust them.  If we want to be forgiven when we mess up, then we need to be forgiving toward others who also hurt us- even if they do not deserve forgiveness.
    There are lots of people who rise up out of their inaction to hurt or get revenge for a wrong.  Jesus came to forgive.  Then He asks all those who follow Him to be forgivers too. 

Activity: On a piece of paper write down one thing you want to be forgiven.  Put the pieces from each family member in a box.  Then go outside and burn them- saying, “As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”  Trace the Lord’s Prayer on the illustration above, saying it together.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you came to forgive us.  Give us the grace and help we need to forgive others.  

Forgive Us Our Debts

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Thoughts: Forgiveness is a key to Christian thought.  For some it seems impossible.  Some deeds and words seem to be beyond forgiveness.  But as god forgives us of all our sins- so we should forgive others.  In fact, this great prayer puts a condition on forgiveness- to forgive others as we have been forgiven.

Prayer: Lord, help me to forgive others as you forgive me.

Heidelberg 126 Forgiveness

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:1-2)

Thoughts: Some think that Christians are weak because they offer forgiveness.  But we offer forgiveness undeserved because Christ offers it to us undeserved.  It was not weak for Christ to say on the cross, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."  Peace comes only if we are willing to forgive and relinquish the revenge that may be ours.  The Emanuel AME nine taught us that in forgiving a killer the state and many were changed and saw the power of God.  Those who are conscious of their need for forgiveness from God are more ready to forgive others.  But those who think they are righteous and do not need forgiveness (from God or anyone else) are not ready to forgive and are stagnant in their evil. 

Prayer: Lord, help me to forgive others as you have forgiven me.  

Q & A 126

Q. What does the fifth petition mean?

A. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” means: Because of Christ’s blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do or the evil that constantly clings to us.1 Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors.2

1 Ps. 51:1-7; 143:2; Rom. 8:1; 1 John 2:1-2
2 Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35

9/11/12 Forgiving Trespasses

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Thoughts: So what are we called to forgive- our sins, our debts, our trespasses?  All of the above may be the best answer.  The point is that we mess up, and need to be straightened out.  The person who thinks they do not mess up- that they do not interfere or trespass on another's property or have accrued a debt that they cannot repay then they have a blind pride problem.  We have a need to get rid of our sin.  It is not erased by drugs, by numbing the symptoms, or by pretending it is not there.  Our debt is built up not simply against another human being- or against humanity- or against the nature of things.earth- but against God.  To be pardoned is to be set free from the jail of guilt and to be set free to be the kind of person we were designed by God to be and not be weighed down by our past mistakes.
    On 911 one has to ask what role does forgiveness play?  There are those who say that it has no role because the wound is still fresh and some are still trying to hurt us.  Yet, perhaps we can learn a lesson from two things: 1) Northern Ireland and Palestine where there seem to be multi-generational animosity and the teaching of the holding of grudges.  When there has been peace, there has been a huge push to forgive.  2) From American History: notably Pearl Harbor, Germany, and the Civil War.  After World War II ended the United States played a sacrificial role in restoring the industry in western Germany and Japan as well as Europe (MacArthur in Japan and Marshall plan in Europe) and the world today is better off for it.   I can remember in 1980 having a Japanese exchange student over to our house and a World War II vet in our church refusing to speak to him because of the animosity he was taught in the war.  Yet in the end, there was a breakthrough where he told him he forgave him/them.  It was a breakthrough that took a huge burden off of the veteran.  After the Civil War Lincoln gave his second Inaugural Address to soldiers who had lost limbs and to many who had lost fortune, friends, and sons in the war.  Many were out for revenge against the South.  But Lincoln's speech was one of forgiveness, grace, and reconciliation.  He said,  "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."  As someone who grew up in the South, I know there are many who are still mentally fighting the civil war by prejudice against African Americans or whites and by prejudice against northerners or southerners.  Grace and forgiveness is a better, healthier way.  Martin Luther King also rightly called not just for civil rights, but for forgiveness and reconciliation in his "I Have a Dream" speech.  Forgiveness plays even a corporate role among the nations.  It is a hard thing to turn the other cheek when the first cheek is still smarting.  But to not do so means to perpetually continue the conflict which means more than another cheek will hurt in the end. 

Prayer:  Give me grace, Lord to be a forgiving person and not one who purposefully holds grudges against others.  

WSC (Sloan 2012) Q. 105 What do we pray for in the fifth request of the Lord's Prayer?
A. In the fifth request which is "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors", we pray that God (for Christ's sake) would freely pardon all our sins, which makes it possible for us to forgive others.


WSC (1981 modern translation) Q. 104. For what do we pray in the fourth request?
A. In the fourth request (Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors), encouraged by
God’s grace, which makes it possible for us sincerely to forgive others, we pray that for Christ’s sake
God would freely pardon all our sins.


(WSC 1647 )A. In the fifth petition, which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, we pray
that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather
encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.