We are looking at the glorious Lord’s Prayer. The more this wondrous prayer is pondered, the more the perfect wisdom of its author becomes apparent. Christ knew both our needs and the Father’s good will toward us, and therefore he has graciously supplied us with a perfect prayer. Every aspect of prayer is included in it: worship, adoration in its opening clause, thanksgiving at the close, and prayers for all physical and spiritual needs. The confession of sin is implied. It is a summary and epitome of the Psalms and a most excellent summary of all prayer.
It begins with “Our Father in heaven.” This opening clause presents to us the object to whom we pray and the most endearing relationship. He knows everything about me, he knows my sin and my weakness. I can go to him in any state, with any need I have. The word Father assures us of His infinite love for me, a love that has our best interests at heart, always wanting to do good. This precious title is designed to raise our affections and confirm our confidence in the efficacy of prayer every time we mention it.
“Our Father” is an eternal bond, stronger than any bond in the world. He is our Father by eternal covenant with Jesus Christ, our federal union with Christ, an inseparable eternal union. If God is Christ’s Father, He is my Father. It is the strongest bond that can never be severed in all eternity, by all devils, or by hell. He is our Father by creation and by providence, but that is not enough. He is our Father by regeneration, when we are born again. He planted his seed in me, and we are “made partakers of the Divine nature.” Oh, for the faith to extract the sweetness of this relationship.
Next, in praying that God’s name be hallowed, we ask that all His people on earth render the respect, worship, gratitude, adoration, and honor which is due to Him. His name is to be hallowed for all his attributes. As creator, honor is due to him. People see the world he created and eat every food he provides, yet they don’t honor him. May he be hallowed as creator, night and day, and by the sky. May gratitude and love increase in our hearts. We hallow him as our redeemer. May we every hour and day esteem, love, and grow in gratitude for him. May His wondrous attributes be glorified before the eyes of angels and people. This should be the motive of our life. We live to hallow God’s name. When we offer this petition, we acknowledge our indisposition and utter inability to do this on our own. Such a request denotes a longing to be empowered to glorify God in everything so that we may honor Him in all situations and circumstances. Whatever my lot, wherever I am, however low I may sink, through whatever deep waters I may be called to pass, may you get glory in and through me.
“Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The first petition has respect to God’s honor. The second and third indicate the means by which His glory is manifested on earth. It is the reign of God through Christ. God’s name is glorified here just in proportion as His “kingdom” comes to us, and the visible sign of His kingdom among us is when His “will” is done by us. This is why we are exhorted to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). This saddens me. Some of you don’t put any additional effort into this and there is no difference between last year and this one. In praying, “Your kingdom come,” we acknowledge that by nature we are under the dominion of sin and Satan and beg that we may be more fully delivered from them and that the rule of God may be more completely established in our hearts. We long to see the kingdom extended not only in us but that many people would know God. We pray and work toward others’ salvation so that Christ may rule in more hearts. Accordingly, we make a request that God’s will may be more fully made known to us, worked in us, and performed by us: “on earth as it is in heaven,” meaning humbly, cheerfully, promptly, and constantly.
Then we come to “Give us this day our daily bread.” This is the first of the four petitions more immediately relating to the supply of our own needs, in which we can clearly discern an implied reference to the direct ministry of each of the Persons in the blessed Trinity. Our temporal wants are supplied by the kindness of the Father; our sins are forgiven through the mediation of the Son; we are preserved from temptation and delivered from evil by the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit. In asking for bread, we ask not only as created beings who live only on the kindness of God for food and all physical needs. But, as people in Adam, and by our own sins, we deserve to be wholly deprived of them by God and cursed. Not giving us one drop of water, and just leaving us in the world without putting us in hell, is the greatest mercy he can show. In hell, there is not one drop of water. But God in his mercy, for his children, promised to give us bread. What great mercy to feed us daily! How much we are indebted to God. Oh, how indebted we are for every meal God provides. We must learn to thank him for this. How awful is the ingratitude that we have not granted the honor due to him for all the food we have eaten.
So there are six petitions: three relate to God’s glory, and three relate to man’s needs. We have completed four and have come to the fifth: “Forgive us our debts.” This is a person’s deepest spiritual need. That is where God and man must, first of all, meet. For God to hear our prayer and do anything for us, we must have a relationship with God, and that relationship is only possible when our sins are forgiven. Forgiveness is so important. And you will notice that in verse 12, “forgive” is mentioned twice. In verse 14, “forgive” is mentioned twice. And in verse 15, “forgive” is mentioned twice again. Six times we see the thrust and the theme of the forgiveness of sins.
The more we dig into this prayer, the more my heart melts with gratitude and tears. Praise God, he is not only a giving God but a forgiving God. If we are so indebted to him for food, what about the innumerable sins that the Father put on his own Son and made him a curse and sin for me and delivered me from all of them? How difficult it was for God. We saw what words the Bible uses for forgiveness: it is taking and lifting away our sin burden from our conscience and freeing us, covering our sin, blotting out our sin, and forgetting our sin, and burying it in the depths of the sea so it never rises again. God literally eliminated my sins by Christ’s precious sacrifice. How grateful we should be for the uncountable sins he forgave us all at once! And what shall I say? He didn’t stop there. Even after saving me, he continues to forgive my sins as a believer, which is even greater. Oh, what a singing and joyful and grateful person a Christian should be! And how awfully sinful it is to live in doubt, unbelief, and be ungrateful to God who has met his greatest need.
Last week, I ended with a question: If God forgave all my sins, why should I daily pray, “Forgive my sins?” If all my sins are already forgiven in Christ, if all my sins were dealt with on the cross of Christ, why do I need to ask for forgiveness? And why won’t I get it unless I give it to somebody else? That is the question that has confused a lot of people. Some people say, “Well, this is a prayer for an unbeliever.” No, no, it’s not a prayer for an unbeliever because an unbeliever does not begin his prayer with “Our Father,” does he? This is a believer’s prayer. You are already a Christian before you get to verse 12, folks. You say, “Well, if I’m already a Christian and all my sins are forgiven, what am I doing saying ‘Forgive us our debts,’ and what is God doing saying, ‘And if you don’t forgive somebody else, I’m not going to forgive you?'” This is one of the greatest truths in all the Bible.
Now, there are two kinds of forgiveness: judicial and parental. You must understand the difference between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. One deals with your position before God forever; the other deals with the joy of your fellowship day by day.
Judicial Forgiveness
Let’s start with the first one: judicial forgiveness. What is that? It views God as a judge. God looks down and says, “You’re guilty. You’ve broken the law. You’re under judgment and condemnation, there’s got to be punishment.” The wrath of God is on us. But when we believe in the Lord Jesus and repent, that same judge says, “On the basis of Christ’s death, He bore your punishment; He took your guilt; He paid for your sin; the price is accomplished. I declare you to be forgiven.” That is a judicial act. It is full, complete, and positional. And by that act of judicial forgiveness, listen to this, all your sins: past, present, and future, committed, being committed, and uncommitted are totally, completely, and forever forgiven, and you are justified from all things forever. You are justified and forgiven from all punishment for sins. It happens the moment you place your faith in Christ. Your sin is put on him. His righteousness is put on you, and God judicially declares you to be justified. That’s Romans 3. You are declared righteous, positionally and forever, all sin covered, passed over, blotted out, and forgotten. Oh, what a thought! Isn’t that great?
The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you. He hits the table with a hammer and says you are “declared righteous in Christ.” That is an absolute, a positional truth that is as eternal as God is eternal. That is inviolable, unchangeable, and forever. The moment I put my faith in Christ, God’s righteousness is imputed to me. It is put into my account. It is eternal. That is settled. And He just keeps on doing it. This is because of Christ and what he did on the cross! This is the celebration of the New Testament, and this should be the celebration of our life. Just think and rejoice.
Listen to this, Colossians 2:13. It’s a fabulous illustration. It’s the picture that God has kept the books I told you about. And all through our lives, he writes down the record of our sins, and the debt gets worse and worse. And there is no capacity in our lives to pay the debt at all, and all of this debt is on the sheet. Then all of a sudden, Christ goes to the cross, and you read in Colossians 2:13, “And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh.” That’s you, dead. You couldn’t do anything about your sins. You were hopeless. “You have been made alive with Him.” Now watch, “Having forgiven you all trespasses – “ and then this fabulous imagery, ” – blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you – “ ” – and nailing it to His cross, He took it out of the way.”
You know, when they crucified a criminal, they crucified him with the record of his crimes at the top of the cross, nailed there for the world to see why he was being crucified. The Apostle Paul is saying a great truth here: when Jesus died on the cross, God pulled all the pages out of the books that belonged to me and you, not leaving one sin. He stacked them all together and nailed them to the cross, as if they were the crimes of holy Jesus. And when Jesus died, He paid the penalty for every crime that was nailed to His cross, and God blotted them out. You see?
That’s judicial forgiveness. Oh, to know that we are ultimately and forever forgiven in Christ is a tremendous joy, isn’t it? One man said, “My conscience will have a thousand tongues, and every tongue will describe my horrible sins and eternally accuse and condemn me.” Child of God, you don’t have to say that. Yours is a victory and triumph. You can say with Paul in Romans 8, “Who is he that condemns?” It is God who justifies. Where is he? Who condemns me? If God is the highest court in the universe, and He declares me just, who’s going to condemn me? Nobody.
Hebrews 10 is one of my favorite passages. In Hebrews 10, the writer is comparing the sacrificial system of Israel with the sacrifice of Christ, and I want you to notice verse 10 of Hebrews 10. He says, “We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Stop right there a minute. “Sanctified” means to be made pure, made holy, set apart, and separated. We are made holy. We are set apart by the one sacrifice of Christ. Oh, listen, people. We are sanctified, set apart from sin to God, which is a perfect participle in the Greek with a finite verb. And it is the strongest possible way the Greek language knows to show the permanent, continuous state of salvation that issues from one great event. So perfect, even a holy, piercing God couldn’t find guilt, but declared us righteous eternally.
Do you know God is so perfectly holy that to be righteous before him, we have to be perfect. He will condemn even the slightest corruption, and even the angels and heavens are not pure in his sight. And I, a filthy bag full of sin, became so pure and so holy that he declares me righteous and eternally holy. It is because my Christ took all my sins, even the millions upon millions of sins I myself do not know I did in my heart, and not one sin did he leave. He experienced the wrath and bitterness of everything and said, “It is finished.” He didn’t stop there, but purchased perfect righteousness. He not only took my sin and suffered for it, but he also put his righteousness on me. Oh, my Christ. And so Christ dies on the cross, and the moment we believe, that is imputed to us. And there is a continuous forgiveness based on that one offering. You don’t have to repeat it. When He died and we believed, His sacrifice was sufficient. He said on the cross, tetelestai, “It is finished.”
In contrast to that, in verse 11, the priests of the Old Testament were daily ministering, and they were standing. Do you see the word “standeth?” They were standing and offering the same sacrifices again and again. They were always standing up because the job was never done. Verse 12 says, “But this man after He offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down.” Why? It was over. The priests may be standing, walking around doing it again and again, but Christ did it once and sat down. It can’t be repeated; it doesn’t need to be. Why? Verse 14 says, “For by one offering He hath perfected forever and ever them that are sanctified.” And if Jesus says in Matthew 5:48, “Be ye perfect; you cannot enter the kingdom of God” and Christ goes to the cross and perfects us, then Christ is the solution to the problem. We’re to be perfect, and He perfects us in His one offering. That, beloved, is judicial forgiveness, and the result of it is in verse 17: “Their sins and iniquities will I – “ what? ” – remember no more.”
Oh, what a great thought. Listen, beloved, all your sins are forgiven because of Christ if you believe. That is judicial positional forgiveness.
As sinful beings, we don’t realize what sin does to God and how much he had to do to forgive our sins. It is contrary to all the attributes of God. It violates and challenges every attribute and touches his head. Sin is a defilement, a dishonor. It is a violation of His holiness and law. It is the greatest crime and injustice we do to our creator, and hence, it is a debt. The most difficult thing for God himself is forgiving sins. When you get saved, God forgives all your sins and delivers you from Satan, hell, sin, and judgment. Hallelujah! Amen. Oh, it is a great deliverance for people to be delivered from sin. Instead of living in the sin of terrible guilt and then dying and falling into hell, with eyes wide open to see the great torment, you are eternally separated from God and damned forever. What a deliverance when Jesus Christ died for you and me, so that our sins are washed as white as snow, and our conscience is made clean like a baby.
I will tell you, our problem is that we forget how great the forgiveness Jesus brought for us. We get saved and grow a little bit, and then we think we have learned something. We become smart and proud about our biblical knowledge and self-righteousness. Oh, we have to be on our faces prostrate for this forever. This is the song of heaven for all eternity for all saints: “Worthy is the lamb who loved and delivered us from our sin.” God delivered us from hell forever and forgave all our sins. How much gratitude should we have? The first song I learned was “I am happy today, I am in Jesus Christ today, for he has washed all my sins away, and that is why I am happy today.”
If this is enough to burst our hearts and make us eternally thankful, what shall I say? God doesn’t stop there, but even after saving me and doing so much for me, I am so ruined by sin that I still fall into temptations and sin against my Father. When I sin, oh, how terrible I feel. I hate myself. My sins as a Christian… who can understand the struggle I have with my sins? And a lot of times, I fall. Oh, the burden of sins as a Christian is great. Who knows that burden? After being saved, how terrible it is to live in guilt. A changed heart will not allow us to enjoy sin fully, and there is no satisfaction in it. And guilt will not allow us to enjoy God’s salvation. There is no joy of forgiveness. We lose God’s presence. The most wretched person is a saved but sinning Christian. Is an unbeliever’s sin or a believer’s sin bigger? Sin is measured by light. A believer, knowing the truth, has sins that have greater condemnation. Oh, do you know what he does when I sin even after he saved me? My Father, he put all those sins also on his son, and when I come to him with a contrite heart and repentance, he continues to forgive me as a Father. Oh, the indebtedness of our soul to God.
Praise God, he continues to forgive our sins. God still forgives. The same God who justified us does not leave us, but he also sanctifies us. Not only does he sanctify, but he will save us. He will also glorify us. He will not leave me until he glorifies me. Hallelujah! How should we thank God more and more for this forgiveness?
Parental Forgiveness
So what is parental forgiveness? It is important to understand how to deal with sin as a believer. Even though we are believers, we still have a sin problem, and we must face that problem. This petition in verse 12 is prayed by one who already belongs to God. There are some people who think that when you become a Christian, you don’t need to bother with confessing sin anymore or seeking God’s cleansing and forgiveness. But that’s very wrong. If we pray this prayer, “Our Father,” we must also say, “Forgive us our debts.” When you become a believer, you become more sensitive to sin. And as you mature as a Christian, there is a decreasing frequency of sin, but an increasing sensitivity to it when it does occur. When we sin as a believer, we are not dealing with God as a righteous judge; we are dealing here with God as a loving father. Now listen, even though we have been judicially forgiven and that is settled eternally and never changes, we still sin, don’t we? And when we sin, something happens in our relationship with God. The relationship doesn’t end, but something is lost in the intimacy of it, right?
It is so pleasant to live in the smile of God, with our hearts singing praises to him and joyfully living in his light. Oh, it is so sweet. In everything, we see God—in the lake, plants, trees, family. God is everywhere. We can jump and run. What pleasantness and joy! But when we sin, things change.
If a child sins against their father, the relationship doesn’t end. They’re still his child. He is still the father of the child. And there is a certain forgiveness in the father’s heart that is automatic because they are in his family. But something in the relationship causes a loss of intimacy until they come and say, “Daddy, I’m sorry,” and then the intimacy is restored. That’s what he’s talking about here. This is not some unbeliever praying for salvation. One person said, “If I sin and I die before I get it confessed, will I go to heaven?” And the man said, “No, you’ll go to hell.” What a terrible, terrible lie that is, to put someone under that kind of fear. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking here about the forgiveness that gives us the fullness of joy in intimacy with God. It is all that the relationship can be. That’s what he’s talking about.
Oh, praise God for this forgiveness. What would happen to us if this was not there? What a terrible guilt it would be for a saved person. Sometimes the guilt is more than a sinner’s now, as a saved person’s sensitivity is high. They feel wretched. Without this, I think all saved people would die of guilt. Sadly, some live sad Christian lives with guilt because they don’t understand this. It is a terrible life as a believer to live with guilt. Let us see an example.
David’s Prayer for Forgiveness
In Psalm 51, we see the prayer of King David, a man who was already saved and redeemed by God. He had received Old Testament salvation, and righteousness had been credited to his account. He loved, trusted, and believed in God, but he fell into sin, committing adultery and murder. Had he not been king, he likely would have lost his life.
David’s prayer in this Psalm comes from a heart burdened with guilt and stained with blood. It’s a powerful text to read and pray when we have sinned. In verse 14, he cries out, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation.” Here, David affirms his salvation and acknowledges that God is still his Savior. He is crying out to a God whose Spirit is still within him, whose salvation is still his.
However, even while affirming that he has judicial forgiveness, David feels a profound loss in his intimate relationship with God. This is what he means when he cries out in verse 2, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” In verse 7, he continues, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Judicial vs. Parental Forgiveness
David’s prayer highlights the difference between judicial forgiveness and what we might call parental forgiveness. David was saved, but something had come between him and God, causing him to lose the joy of his salvation. That is why he says in verse 8, “Make me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.” He wanted the joy back.
In verse 10, he prays, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” The key is in verse 12: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” He doesn’t ask God to restore his salvation, but rather the joy of it.
This is the crucial distinction: Judicial forgiveness takes care of the fact of our salvation, while parental forgiveness restores the joy of our relationship with God. You can be forgiven, but if you remain in a state of unconfessed and unrepentant sin, you forfeit the joy and fullness of that relationship. That is the core issue.
The Need for Confession
In 1 John 1, the apostle John explains that the purpose of his teaching is to bring people into fellowship with God and other believers (judicial forgiveness). He writes to them so that their “joy may be full.” Being saved puts you in the fellowship, but being obedient to God’s standards allows you to experience the fullness of joy within that fellowship.
Right away, John says that if you are in the fellowship, you should be confessing your sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession brings the fullness of joy that comes from parental forgiveness.
In John 13, Jesus illustrates this with a powerful spiritual lesson. He washes the disciples’ feet, an act that was humbling for both Him and them. When He comes to Peter, Peter refuses, saying, “You shall never wash my feet.” But Jesus replies, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus then explains that a person who has been bathed (judicially forgiven) only needs to have their feet washed (parental forgiveness).
This is a beautiful picture of our daily walk. When we are saved, we receive judicial forgiveness—we are “bathed” once and for all in the saving blood of Christ. This does not need to be repeated. However, as we walk through the world, our “feet” get dirty with daily sins. Parental forgiveness is the ongoing cleansing we receive as we confess these sins, keeping the intimacy of our relationship with God open.
The Heart of Confession
David understood this. After Nathan confronted him, David knew that his sin was “put away” by God and that he had judicial forgiveness. Yet, in Psalm 32, he still cried out in confession, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” He confessed to God to open the channel of parental forgiveness and restore the intimacy of his relationship.
The plea “Forgive us our debts” is simply a request for the moment-by-moment cleansing that comes from confessing our sins to the Lord. This act of confession is vital. It is difficult, as Adam and Eve found when they tried to hide from God after sinning, but it is necessary to experience joy. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
God is not tired of hearing our confessions. He is eager to pardon. As the Puritan prayer says, “I am always going into the far country and always returning home as a prodigal, and always saying, ‘Father, forgive me,’ and you are always bringing forth the best robe again.” God delights in mercy, and His grace abounds even more where sin abounds. He is a God who wants to forgive us as often as we come to Him.
As believers, we have been provided with this forgiveness. How foolish it is to live in guilt and without the joy of salvation. Come to the Father in faith and ask Him to forgive your debts, no matter how many times you have sinned. Do not live a single minute in guilt or without the joy of salvation.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 