Is this necessary except in this life? For in the other we shall have no debts. For what are debts, but sins?

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.

No, Jesus is not saying we are earning forgiveness, but asking that we would be forgiven in a way that correlates with the way we forgive each other.

2. Those who do not forgive others are foolish, unwise, and will be miserable.

3. If our heart says it is a good, beautiful, desirable thing to forgive others, it will call down forgiveness from God for our own sin.

Next follows: “Forgive us our debts” [Matt. 6:12]. With this and the following petition, Christ briefly embraces all that makes for the heavenly life, as the spiritual covenant that God has made for the salvation of his church rests on these two members alone: “I shall write my laws upon their hearts,” and, “I shall be merciful toward their iniquity” [Jer. 31:33 p.; cf. ch. 33:8]. Here Christ begins with forgiveness of sins, then presently adds the second grace: that God protect us by the power of his Spirit and sustain us by his aid so we may stand unvanquished against all temptations.

in instructing all to confess their guilt, he admits none but sinners;

For this reason, we ought not to seek forgiveness of sins from God unless we ourselves also forgive the offenses against us of all those who do or have done us ill. If we retain feelings of hatred in our hearts, if we plot revenge and ponder any occasion to cause harm, and even if we do not try to get back into our enemies’ good graces, by every sort of good office deserve well of them, and commend ourselves to them, by this prayer we entreat God not to forgive our sins.

What do people of this sort gain from their petition but a heavier judgment?

Finally, we must note that this condition—that he “forgive us as we forgive our debtors” [Matt. 6:12]—is not added because by the forgiveness we grant to others we deserve his forgiveness, as if this indicated the cause of it. Rather, by this word the Lord intended partly to comfort the weakness of our faith. For he has added this as a sign to assure us he has granted forgiveness of sins to us just as surely as we are aware of having forgiven others, provided our hearts have been emptied and purged of all hatred, envy, and vengeance.

Also, it is partly by this mark that the Lord excludes from the number of his children those persons who, being eager for revenge and slow to forgive, practice persistent enmity and foment against others the very indignation that they pray to be averted from themselves. This the Lord does that such men dare not call upon him as Father. eThis is also eloquently expressed in Luke, in Christ’s words [Luke 11:4].

And how necessarily, how providently and salutarily, are we admonished that we are sinners, since we are compelled to entreat for our sins, and while pardon is asked for from God, the soul recalls its own consciousness of sin! Lest any one should flatter himself that he is innocent,8 and by exalting himself should more deeply perish, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to entreat daily for his sins.

Obj. 2. Christ commands us to pray that God will forgive our sins as we forgive our debtors. But we do not perfectly forgive our debtors. Therefore we, according to this petition, pray that God will not perfectly forgive us our sins, which is to desire our destruction since God will condemn even the smallest sin. Ans. This is to put a false construction upon the words of Christ; for the particle as, as used in this petition, does not signify the degree of forgiveness, or teach that the forgiveness which we extend to others is equal to that which God extends to us; but it signifies the kind of forgiveness, or the truth and sincerity of the forgiveness which we and God extend, that God will as truly forgive us as we certainly and truly forgive our neighbor from the heart; or to express it more briefly, we may say, that there is here not a comparison according to the degrees, but according to the truth and reality of the thing, so that the sense is, God so perfectly forgives us our sins as, we truly and certainly forgive our neighbor.

Obj. 4. He does not truly forgive who retains a recollection of injuries, and is desirous of taking revenge. But we all have a recollection of injuries, and are desirous of taking revenge. Therefore we do not truly forgive. Ans. He does not truly forgive who retains a recollection of injuries without showing any signs of disapprobation, or making any resistance thereto. And although we may scarcely be able to bury all remembrance of offences, or at least not without the greatest difficulty, yet if we only do not cherish it, but resist the remains of sin which still cleave to us, and do not give indulgence to them, there is nothing which may prevent us from truly and heartily forgiving others, and of obtaining that also on account of which Christ has added the particle as, which is, as has already been remarked, that we might rightly pray to God, which takes place whenever we pray in faith and repentance, both of which are confirmed in us by this petition.

Obj. 5. But Paul did not forgive Alexander, for he says, 2 Tim. 4:14, “Alexander, the copper-smith, did me much evil; the Lord reward him according to his works.” Yet he obtained forgiveness of God. Therefore our forgiveness is not necessary in order that we may obtain the forgiveness of God. Ans. Forgiveness is three-fold. 1. Of revenge. This pertains to all men; inasmuch as all ought to forgive revenge. It is of this that this petition speaks, and this Paul forgave Alexander. 2. Of punishment. This all cannot forgive as all cannot inflict punishment. Neither ought the magistrate to whom it belongs to inflict punishment, to remit it except for just and weighty reasons; for God desires that his justice and law should be put into execution. This Paul also forgave Alexander in as far as it had respect to him. Yet he at the same time desired that he should be punished of God, in case he would persist in sin. 3. Of judgment in reference to others. This should not always be remitted; for God, who prohibits falsehood, will not have us to judge of knaves as honest men, but designs that we should distinguish the good from the bad. Christ enjoins the same thing, when he says, “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine.” “Be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Matt. 7:6: 10:16.) Paul did not, therefore, sin in entertaining an opinion of Alexander, as a wicked man, as long as he did not repent of his wickedness.

Forgive us our debts: 1. Even the disciple of the Saviour sins continually; 2. these sins also are debts before God; 3. for these debts also is daily forgiveness ready; 4. this forgiveness becomes our portion only when we for our part are disposed to forgiveness towards others.—For also we forgive: 1. No ground of our hope; 2. no means of compelling an answer to prayer; 3. no intimation of the measure according to which we expect forgiveness, but a sign: 1. Of humility, which is conscious of its own debt; 2. of love, to which the “Forgive us” is more than an idle sound; 3. of uprightness before God, which cannot possibly have a controversy with our brother, since the Father has remitted so infinitely more

Here it may be proper that we should be reminded of what I said a little before, that Christ, in arranging the prayers of his people, did not consider which was first or second in order.

Our daily bread does but feed us as lambs for the slaughter, if our sins be not pardoned. It intimates, likewise, that we must pray for daily pardon, as duly as we pray for daily bread. He that is washed, needeth to wash his feet. Here we have,

Faith and one of its manifestations, namely, the disposition to forgive, are conditions that must be met and exercised if salvation and its component, pardon, are to be received. We must believe, we must forgive. God does not do these things for us. Nevertheless, it is God who plants in our hearts the seed of faith and of the forgiving disposition. Moreover, the power to believe and the power to forgive are from God. At every step—beginning, middle, and end, all along the way—God is both present and active. “With fear and trembling continue to work out your own salvation; for it is God who is working in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12, 13). See also N.T.C. on Eph. 2:8 and on Phil. 2:12, 13. It is exactly as Greijdanus observes, in commenting on the parallel passage, Luke 11:4 (“And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive every one indebted to us”). He writes, “In spite of for, this clause does not indicate the ground upon which God bestows forgiveness, but that which must be complied with for us to enjoy God’s forgiveness of our own sins.”320

To be genuine, this forgiveness that we ourselves bestow upon our fellow men must be given gladly, generously, and with finality; not in the spirit of, “I’ll forgive, but I’m telling you that I’ll never forget.” Lord’s Day 51 of the Heidelberg Catechism gives a correct, succinct, and beautiful explanation of the fifth petition: “Be pleased, for the sake of Christ’s blood, not to impute to us, miserable sinners, any of our transgressions, nor the evil which always cleaves to us; as we also find this witness of thy grace in us that it is our full purpose heartily to forgive our neighbor.”

But if, in our religion, we consciously and purposely aim after mere externalism and show, we enter upon a course of hypocrisy, setting up in our outward forms a counterfeit of what is sacred. The commencement of this false religionism consists in painful service and outward works. Although a man may at that stage still set God before him, it is only in an external manner. In worshipping Him, he no longer has regard to the character and the love of God, because he realizes not that God has regard to his affections and state of heart. He is only anxious that God should have regard to his work, and his service, just as he has only regard to the work of God and the reward of God; and as he regards this reward as merely external, like his own work, he gradually comes to seek it among men. His externalism now leads him to merge his God in the opinion of men. Hence the outward show which marks the second stage of religious perversion. His great object now is to let his beneficence, his prayers, and his fasts appear as fully and as pompously as possible. From this spiritual pride and spiritual servility the transition is easy to the third stage, which is that of deception and imposition, when the hypocrite conceals his hardness of heart under the mask of beneficence, his coldness and deadness under that of singular devotion, and his love of the world and lustfulness, with the corresponding works of darkness, under that of asceticism.

Progress of piety from concealment to open manifestation: 1. It is a secret between the Lord and the hearts of believers, hid from the eyes of the world. 2. The light which proceedeth from Him who is invisible, shines through the hearts of believers into the world, and becomes manifest there. 3. The divine life fully manifested in the great day of revelation.