READ: Matt. 18: 21-35
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” – Mark 11:26
The fifth petition also includes the phrase: “as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Forgiving other people who have done something wrong to you is only possible if you see that you can only live by God’s grace in Christ. With that insight, you will want to show God your gratitude.
You can also put it this way: God’s grace sets you in motion to bring forth fruits of the Spirit. You show your neighbor that you have understood that God is showing you mercy by forgiving your sins, and in your turn you forgive your neighbor’s. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
You see that God’s wrath has been averted against you by the blood of Christ, which you have not deserved; you are amazed at God’s love and forgiveness. You recognize the depths of God’s love that He has surrendered His own Son to the curse of death on the cross. You acknowledge God’s forgiveness in that He therefore wants to cancel your debts as His child. Because of gratitude and love for God and your Savior you want to follow Him, and you thus show your forgiveness out of love for your neighbor.
Those who cannot do that have understood nothing of God’s love and the grace of Christ; they also understand nothing of gratitude and charity. They basically reject God, who had come to them in great mercy through His Son. Then God rejects them. So this Word of the Lord Jesus is a very serious warning to be aware of your own sins and to see God’s forgiveness as a miracle of grace.
From this awareness, you must show gratitude to Him as the great goal of your acquittal. Here, too, we can fall short. Let’s examine ourselves on this and confess it before God with the prayer for forgiveness.
Can you easily forgive other people?
Singing: Ps. 112:2