The Lord's Prayer: Confession

Matthew 6.12

Introduction 

Going into 5th grade I had had 3 teachers at Lessenger Elementary. I had Ms. Jones for Kindergarten, Ms. Snyder for 1st, and Mrs. Yakubason for 2nd. Then I had Ms. Jones again for 3rd and Ms. Snyder again for 4th grade. Going into 5th grade I had only had 3 teachers. 

There are 3 teachers that Christians have used in liturgy and discipleship almost universally for the last 2,000 years: the 10 commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Al Mohler calls them the tripod of historic Christian teaching. For 2 millennia Christians have virtually uniformly utilized these three liturgically, in worship services, and in discipleship, to train our children and new converts, about the Christian faith. We stand in line with a great cloud of witnesses when we do the same.

There are a number of reasons why the church has employed the 10 commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. They are effective evangelism tools. I’ve had conversations with some of you guys who have told me how you’ve used the 10 commandments in evangelism, showing people their guilt. A number of you have told me that you’ve used those Apostle’s Creed bookmarks we made to share the gospel. They’re effective discipleship tools. Chrissy, Sue, and Emily used some hand memorization device to help teach kids the 10 Commandments.

And while all Scripture is inspired, necessary, and profitable, and Christ-centered, there’s a reason why these 3 have been read in worship services and used in discipleship for over 20 centuries. All 3 – the 10 Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer as sacred Scripture, and the Apostle’s Creed as the most historically venerated summary of Scripture – have at their core the forgiveness of sin. Think about the 10 Commandments, the point is that we’ve broken God’s law and that we need forgiveness of sin. We read the Apostle’s Creed earlier. The only statement that the creed makes about individual believers is “we believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

And we come to this point in the Lord’s Prayer, the first portion is about God – our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The second portion is about us. We saw last week that we begin acknowledging that we have needs and that God must meet them – give us this day our daily bread. Our neediness leads us to the greatest need we have in life, and Jesus’ next petition is the most extensive he gives about us in the entire prayer – and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Everything else Jesus prays about us is terse – give us this day our daily bread, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The most that Christ has to say about us in the Lord’s Prayer is and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

Follow the logic with me; the Scripture is all about Christ. The most concentrated explicit portion of Scripture concerning Christ is the 4 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The largest concentrated block of teaching Jesus gives is in the greatest sermon ever preached – the Sermon on the Mount. At the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount is the Lord’s Prayer and the most extensive statement that Christ makes about us in the Lord’s Prayer is and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Confession and forgiveness of sin is at the very heart of the Christian religion because it is the heart of the gospel. Jesus is teaching us how to pray and he has moved from adoration to submission, then to petition and now to confession. When we see God for who he truly is (adoration) we must submit to him. When we’re submitted to him, we can genuinely ask him for what we need and when we do so we’re reminded of our greatest need as human beings and that is the forgiveness of sin. Let’s look at confession in light of the two phrases Jesus prays: (1) forgive us our debts, and (2) as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Forgive Us

Charles Spurgeon said that the Lord’s Prayer teaches us about ourselves. “‘And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors’ – I am a sinner.” Debts is a synonym for sin emphasizing a certain element of our falleness. In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer he uses the word ἁμαρτίας, sins.

Matthew uses ὀφειλήματα, which means, “the moral debt incurred as the result of sin.’” Debt may seem like a minor annoyance to the middle to upper class American, but in 1st century 2nd temple Rome debt was serious. If you incurred debt it meant imprisonment until your family could pay. That’s part of why Matthew uses this word. It would’ve conveyed serious legal trouble.

When Jesus taught us to pray this way he wasn’t making a novel claim, but stood with the storyline of Scripture. From the beginning God gave Adam the command not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam sinned against God; the word sin means, “to miss the mark.” Adam missed the mark of God’s holiness; he rebelled against God’s word. Adam incurred moral debt against the eternally right one. Scripture says:

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken (Gen 3.21-23).

Notice 2 things in reverse order: (1) Adam then knew good and evil just like the God. This is an example of where ignorance was literally bliss. God, of course, has an understanding of evil. He is omniscient; he has perfect knowledge of what missing the mark of his perfection is. But Adam didn’t. All he had experienced had been sinless life in the garden serving God. But now we know evil and we know it all too well.

And (2) God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin to clothe them. God took the life of an animal so that Adam saw the blood atonement for his sin. The skin was used to cover his shame. This was the 1st foretaste of forgiveness in the Bible. The idea developed further through the sacrificial system of Israel. As the redemptive storyline moves foreword forgiveness of sin is at the heart of the relationship between God and his image bearers.

This is story reaches its climax in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53.5 says that Christ was pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities. In Luke 24.46-47, Jesus said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” In Acts 2.38-39, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Paul wrote Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Cor 15.3).

So when we think about praying forgive us our debts we’re thinking about legal forgiveness and relational forgiveness. Like the animal that YHWH sacrificed for Adam, Jesus death is the blood atonement that satisfies the justice of God. The eternal law has been broken and it must be rectified. You might be tempted to ask, “can’t God just forgive sin? Why does someone have to die?” That’s a low view of forgiveness. You’re asking if God can forget.

The eternal law of God was given and we broke the law. Because justice is an intrinsic characteristic of God, justice must be. Sin must be atoned for. But this is precisely why the gospel is good news. God volunteers to satisfy his own justice with his own blood; all that he himself demands, he gives. Jesus stands in our place, the blood sacrifice for our sin to satisfy the justice of God.

Not only does Jesus bring us legal justice with God, but also relational justice. His sacrifice atones for the sin but it isn’t enough to bring us into the presence of God; the only way that we can do that is to be without sin. The wine isn’t enough we need the bread as well. This is why the life of Jesus is essential to orthodox Christianity. This is why we confess “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.” Jesus’ life is the active righteousness that we need to be with God. Sin means missing the mark, the life of Jesus is the only human in history who met the mark of God’s perfection. And so like Adam was covered with the skin of the animal so we are covered with the righteousness of Christ so that we can eternally be with God. 

As We Have Forgiven

CS Lewis said, “we all agree forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it.” Jesus show us how beautiful it is to have forgiven our debtors. This is the only thing Jesus actively has us doing in the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t read this wrong though, Jesus isn’t saying God will forgive your sins because you’ve forgiven the sins of others. The conjunction ὡς is comparative not resultant. That would be an attack on the gospel. He says as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

Christ assumes that this of us before we pray. The verb have forgiven in Greek is ἀφήκαμεν, which is in the aorist tense. The aorist is often interpreted past tense. Jesus isn’t saying as we will forgive (future) or that we might forgive (subjective), but it’s past tense. We confess our sins having already forgiven others.

Pastor Kevin had a good tweet this week, he wrote, “a sour Christian is an oxymoron.” The same is true of an unforgiving Christian. Jesus illustrates this vividly in his parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt 18.21-35). Jesus says a king called in his debts and there was a man who owed much. He couldn’t pay and so the king ordered that the man and his family be sold. The man begged for mercy and the king was merciful. The man then turned around and went to a fellow servant who owed him a little. He began to choke the man demanding his money. The fellow servant asked for patience and said he would pay but the 1st servant had him thrown in prison. When the king heard about this forgiven man’s lack of forgiveness he had him thrown in jail until his debt was paid.

Jesus models this for us on the cross. Scripture only records 7 sayings of Christ on the cross; one of them is “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” It would be foolish of us to assume that Christ is teaching universalism here. The rest of Scripture thoroughly denounces that. But he is showing us that there is forgiveness through his death on the cross. And Jesus himself is modeling forgiveness but putting it in the hands of God. Forgiveness ultimately means trusting God with the outcome.

Withholding forgiveness is one of the most distinctly anti-gospel sins we can commit. How can those who have been forgiven much not forgive little? And yet we’re all guilty of it. And so the Lord’s Prayer is a reminder to us that forgiveness must be our disposition. Forgiven people forgive people.

Conclusion

The church has used these 3 teachers, 10 Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, for worship, evangelism, and discipleship over 2,000 years because all 3 emphasize our need to have our sins forgiven. Even now as we come to the Eucharist it is a means of grace to call us to repent. Listen to Matthew’s account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper:

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 26.26-28).

Your greatest need is to have your sins forgiven and in Christ Jesus God offers forgiveness of sin. “Praise the Lord his mercy is more, stronger than darkness, new every morn, our sins they are many his mercy is more.”