Following the Lord’s Prayer in which Jesus tells us that as part of our prayer life we need to seek the forgiveness of God for our debts and we need to forgive others he says these words,
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)
We need to feel the weight of what Jesus is saying here. He wants us to understand how important it is that we forgive others and what it means for us if we do not forgive others. Reread the verses again, especially the last phrase. That’s some pretty serious consequences for us if we are unwilling to forgive.
Let’s unpack this a bit. Let’s start by understanding what Jesus is NOT saying.
In short, Jesus is not teaching that our eternal salvation is based on our forgiving of other people. Jesus is not suggesting that our forgiveness of sin which justifies us and brings us salvation is contingent on our willingness to forgive others. Our salvation does not hang on our granting of forgiveness every time someone wrongs us. That would go against clear biblical teaching. God’s grace is not contingent on our grace. The entire Bible shows us that God sent his Son to save people from their sins as an act of grace. Full stop. The salvation that he gives us is received by faith and is NOT contingent on works, even the good work of forgiving others. Jesus gives his life as a ransom for many; he does not say “he will ransom men if they fulfill certain preconditions.” In short, to suggest that God’s forgiveness of us, which grants us justification and salvation, is dependent on our forgiveness of others in our day-to-day experiences is to deny that God’s gospel is gracious.
But Jesus said what he said. We need to make sure we do not lose the weight of what Jesus is saying by over-qualifying his statement. It is clear that there is some aspect of God’s forgiveness given to us that is in fact contingent on our willingness to forgive. So what is Jesus speaking about?
To understand this, we need to connect vv 14-15 with v 12. In that verse Jesus says, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” When we put these two texts together, we come to understand something very troubling about our unwillingness to forgive. Our unwillingness to forgive others tells God that we don’t want to be granted forgiveness by him. As Bryan Chapell states, “our forgiveness of others is a necessary consequence and a personal confirmation of our reception of [God’s] grace.” Negatively this means that if we don’t forgive others in our day-to-day relationships, we are communicating to God that we don’t desire the same forgiveness in our day-to-day relationship with him.
Wayne Grudem summarizes,
“Our Lord does not have in mind the initial experience of forgiveness we know when we are justified by faith, for that would not belong in a prayer that we pray every day. He refers rather to the day-to-day relationship with God that we need to have restored when we have sinned and displeased him. In fact, Jesus commands us to build into our prayers a request that God forgive us in the same way that we have forgiven others who have harmed us: Forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who sin against us (Matthew 6:12). If we have not forgiven others when we pray this prayer, then we are asking God not to restore a right relationship with us when we sin, just like we have refused to do with others.”
Obviously, no true believer will want this to be the state of affairs between him and his Lord. No believer wants a broken relationship with their Heavenly Father. No believer wants to chip away at their union with Christ. No believer wants to grieve the Holy Spirit. Instead, the believer recognizes their need for divine forgiveness for their wrongs done against their Savior and Lord and recognizes the full and free grace of forgiveness granted to him in abundance each and every moment. They desire it because they want to clear away any and every barrier that sin may put in the way of full fellowship with God.
Thus, they desire not only to know the forgiveness of God for their own sins but desires to radiate forgiveness to others as well. The believer recognizes that their forgiveness of other people is a reflection that they have truly apprehended that God has forgiven them. Like all God’s gifts being forgiven brings responsibility; it must be passed on, we must ‘pay it forward.’ So, when we recognize that we have been forgiven and what this has meant for us, we will be driven to be a person who is ready to forgive.
Soli Deo Gloria