Forgiving Others
Notes
Transcript
Forgiving Others
Forgiving Others
Last week we spoke on this idea of forgiveness as it relates to us and God. We made it clear that we have an unpayable debt to God, except for the fact that Jesus died for that unpayable debt.
After this great need of forgiveness by God for our sins which we called last week “positional” forgiveness, we have a need for another type of forgiveness, and we could call it “parental” forgiveness or “practical” forgiveness. We need God to wipe away our daily sins away as we walk along in this dirty world and get our feet dirty. We need the cleansing power of forgiveness to restore the joy and intimacy of our fellowship with God.
We need that. It is crucial in our spiritual walk that we confess those daily sins and have Christ cleanse them from us.
Ok, with that in mind - I want to look at the second half of this verse 12 and then we will use verse 14 & 15 as a commentary or an explanation of verse 12.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
We live in a “get even” society.
AS WE ALSO...
Oh, we need to understand this. This is so very important for us.
If you are asking yourself right now if God withholds forgiveness from those who withhold forgiveness to others - then yes, you are correct.
Again - this is NOT positional forgiveness. This is NOT the salvation type forgiveness we are referring to here. This refers to a daily, practical, fellowship type forgiveness.
We are asking God to forgive us in the same manner as we forgive others!
My daily forgiveness hinges on the fact/lack of my forgiveness of others sins against me!
Unforgiveness in our hearts against someone else creates a dam where God’s forgiveness cannot flow to us!
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Do you see that “just as” there? It’s the same idea as in Matthew 6:12 “as we also have”.
These are direct words. These are difficult words.
GET SERIOUS AND LOUD HERE
You may be thinking to yourself right now - “oh yeah, but you have no idea what that person did to me!” And you are right, I don’t. I don’t know how they hurt you, I don’t know how they abused you, I don’t know how they betrayed you.
But I do know what my sin and your sin cost God. It cost Him His Son. It cost the life of Jesus to pay what we could not pay!
I know this. I know that no matter what anybody does to me (or to you) - they can never top what we did to Jesus. Our sin put Jesus on the cross! I’m sorry, but the excuses stop there. No sin is greater than our own that CRUCIFIED JESUS!
The old song - “were you there when they crucified my Lord?” - well as a matter of fact we were there in a sense. We were there in the sense that Jesus was paying the price for our sins on that cross that day. We were there. Our sin drove the nails in His hands and feet.
PAUSE
Our relationships with others on this Earth matter to God.
This is a dangerous prayer to pray!
I’ll forgive