Matt 6:7–15 — The Lord’s Prayer, Part 6: Forgive Us Our Debts

The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” In this petition we confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness.

The Heidelberg Catechism explains it this way: “Because of Christ’s blood, do not impute to us, poor sinners that we are, any of the transgressions we do or the evil that constantly clings to us. Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbors.” We will consider the theology, community, and practice of confession.

The Theology of Confession

What Makes Sin a Debt?

Jesus tellingly uses the financial metaphor of debts to describe our sins. He could have said, “Forgive us our trespasses” or “Forgive us our sins.” Indeed, the parallel account in Luke 11 says, “Forgive us our sins.” Yet Matthew’s version uses the significant word debts, which contains a great deal of theology.

What makes sin a debt? We have wronged God and therefore owe him a debt. God’s justice must be satisfied, and his holiness and justice require that sin be punished.

We often imagine God as an indulgent grandfatherly figure who can sweep our sins under the rug and dismiss them as insignificant. But God is perfectly just and holy. When we sin, we wrong him, detract from his glory, and commit treason against him. The debt of our sin must therefore be paid; sin must be punished.

The Heidelberg Catechism addresses this at the beginning of its treatment of our sin and need. In question 12 it says that God requires his justice to be satisfied.

“Therefore, the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another.” God’s justice must be satisfied. It cannot simply be swept under the rug as though our sins were no serious matter.

Our sins must be paid in full, but we cannot pay the infinite debt ourselves. Its penalty is eternal condemnation; we could never reach a point at which the debt was discharged and we could be released from hell.

That is why we need Christ, the second person of the Trinity. The eternal Son of God became man for us and, in his human nature, took the burden of our sin upon himself and paid the debt in full. He is the propitiation for our sins: the sacrifice that pays the debt, satisfies God’s justice, and bears divine wrath in our place.

All of this is implied in the single word debts. The theology of atonement and satisfaction is contained in the phrase “Forgive us our debts.” Our sins are infinite debts that we cannot pay ourselves, but which Christ pays for us.

Because of Christ’s Blood

The Heidelberg Catechism begins its exposition of the fifth petition with the words “Because of Christ’s blood.” It asks God not to impute to us, poor sinners that we are, any of our transgressions or the evil that constantly clings to us.

The phrase “because of Christ’s blood” does not appear explicitly in Matthew 6:12, which says only, “Forgive us our debts.” Are the authors of the Catechism reading their systematic theology into the petition? I do not believe so.

They derive it from the larger context of Matthew’s Gospel. Two later passages connect the petition’s financial language directly to Christ’s work. When disciples sought positions of honor in the kingdom, Jesus said, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”

He came “to give his life as a ransom for many.” The word ransom continues the financial metaphor. Our sins are debts, and the ransom is the price paid to cancel the debt and release us from the impossible bondage of paying it ourselves. This is the reason Jesus came.

The Son of Man came to lay down his life as a ransom for many. The word many alludes to Isaiah 53, where the suffering servant bears the sin of many. Jesus identifies himself as that servant who gives his life as their ransom.

At the Last Supper in Matthew 26, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he gave his disciples the cup and said, “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.”

The word forgiveness is directly related to the command “Forgive our debts.” Such forgiveness is possible only because Christ gave himself as a ransom and poured out his covenant blood for many, again echoing Isaiah 53. When Matthew 6 is read in light of the whole Gospel, the Catechism is right to explain the petition as “Because of Christ’s blood, forgive us our debts.”

Why Confess If Christ Has Paid the Debt?

If Christ has paid our debt in full, we can call upon the Lord and ask him to forgive our debts. Yet this raises a question: If Christ has already paid the debt completely, why must we ask for forgiveness? The crucial point is that our confession is not the payment.

At the Reformation, Martin Luther recovered the gospel from a penitential system that had come to function as a substitute for Christ. Practices such as doing penance, performing works of satisfaction, embracing monastic devotion, praying for many hours, and saying the Mass could appear to offer a way for sinners to pay their own debt. Layers of ecclesiastical and sacramental tradition had obscured the truth that no human work can satisfy God’s justice.

Luther came to understand that nothing he did—not even sorrow for sin or fervency in confession—could pay the debt. Christ alone pays it in our place. Nevertheless, we still need to confess our sins, repent, and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Christ has objectively secured our forgiveness by fully paying our debt. Before we become conscious of it, the record in heaven has already been stamped “Paid in full.” We are free and released from prison. This is an objective reality before we experience it subjectively.

Nevertheless, God graciously brings us to a conscious experience of forgiveness through justification by faith. In that initial act, we become aware of our sinfulness and trust in Christ for forgiveness. We experience the joy of pardon, the cleansing of conscience, and the privilege of calling God our Father.

The continuing practice of confession is a renewal of that initial act of faith—a renewed exercise of justifying faith. We are not justified a second time or repeatedly throughout the Christian life. Rather, as we confess our sins, we renew our faith in Christ and receive fresh assurance of his pardon.

Forgiveness becomes freshly real to our hearts and consciences. Yet our objective standing before God—the heavenly verdict “Paid in full”—has already been secured by Christ.

The Community of Confession

The second half of the petition is, “As we also have forgiven our debtors.” Jesus not only includes that phrase but adds an explanatory footnote in verses 14–15: “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.”

This is the only one of the six petitions that receives such an explanatory footnote. Jesus thereby gives this aspect of the prayer particular emphasis.

This is obviously important. Yet verses 14–15 are also difficult because they can sound as though God’s forgiveness is conditional on a good work we perform—as though we must first forgive others in order to receive his forgiveness.

Forgiveness as Evidence of Grace

We resolve this difficulty by reading the passage in the context of Matthew’s Gospel as a whole. In Matthew 18:21–35, the parable of the unforgiving servant illustrates how God’s forgiveness of us relates to our forgiveness of others—not as a condition, but as its necessary fruit.

In the parable, a servant owed his king ten thousand talents, an enormous sum that no one could repay. Since he could not pay, the master ordered that the man, his wife, and his children be sold and that he be cast into debtors’ prison.

The servant pleaded for patience, and the master took pity on him and forgave the entire debt. Soon afterward, however, the forgiven servant found a fellow servant who owed him the comparatively small sum of one hundred denarii. He seized and choked him, demanding, “Pay what you owe.”

Although the fellow servant pleaded for mercy, the forgiven servant refused. The master therefore summoned him and said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”

The order is clear. The servant did not first forgive his fellow servant and then receive the master’s forgiveness; he received forgiveness first. Yet that mercy did not transform his heart. He did not recognize his unworthiness, rejoice in the grace he received, or extend the same forgiveness to his fellow servant.

The parable explains the fifth petition. A gracious and forgiving attitude toward others is evidence that we have received God’s forgiving grace. The Heidelberg Catechism therefore asks God to forgive us “just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbors.” Jesus does not say, “Forgive us our debts because we forgive our debtors,” but “as we forgive our debtors.”

If we are deeply conscious of how much God has forgiven us, humbled by the magnitude of our sin and his grace, how can we maintain an unmerciful attitude toward a fellow believer or anyone who has sinned against us? As one commentator writes, “To ask to be forgiven while oneself refusing to forgive is hypocritical.”

We cannot sincerely ask the Lord to forgive us while refusing to forgive others. To seek forgiveness while maintaining an attitude of mercilessness is hypocritical and contradictory. It calls into question whether we truly believe the gospel and the forgiveness we have received from the Lord.

The Community of the Forgiven

Jesus gives this prayer in the corporate plural: “Our Father” and “Forgive us our debts.” We may certainly use it as a guide in personal prayer, but it is also the prayer of God’s people—the community of Jesus’ disciples praying together.

The church is a praying community whose common life has been transformed by God’s kingship. Together we have become disciples and entered Christ’s kingdom through his ransom, blood, and sacrifice. We are therefore the community of the forgiven, whose debts have been canceled through Christ’s work. The community of the forgiven must also be the community of the forgiving.

The forgiveness achieved through the saving death of Jesus Christ—his “blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”—must be reflected in the community of disciples through a forgiving attitude. If we refuse to forgive, hold grudges, and remain unmerciful, we call into question whether we are truly conscious of our own sinfulness and of how much God has forgiven us.

The Practice of Confession

Scripture presents two closely joined movements in confessing our sins to the Lord: admitting our sinfulness and coming to Christ.

Admitting Our Sinfulness

The first and hardest movement is admitting our sinfulness—acknowledging that we truly are sinners.

The Heidelberg Catechism calls us “poor sinners” and speaks of “the evil that constantly clings to us.” Do we truly see ourselves that way? Even as people brought into Christ’s kingdom, given new hearts, and granted faith, we are not perfect. Evil still clings to us, and we must be conscious of and deeply affected by that reality.

In Romans 1–3, the Apostle Paul uses the law to show that both Jews and Gentiles fall short of God’s glory. He concludes that section with the key statement in Romans 3:20: “Through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

This knowledge is not merely intellectual assent to the doctrine that everyone is a sinner. It is a deep, heartfelt consciousness of sin: an awareness of God’s greatness and holiness and of how far we fall short.

Consider the two great commandments that summarize the law, beginning with the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart. We seldom allow the full weight of that requirement to affect us. We do not love the Lord with all our heart. We love ourselves, other creatures, the things of this life, and our own pleasure. We do not seek God’s honor and glory as we ought.

God made us in his image to worship, reflect, and honor him. Any deviation from that calling—whether a sin of omission, failing to do what we ought, or a sin of commission, doing what we ought not—is treason and rebellion against God. It serves the creature rather than the Creator. We must admit our sinfulness and allow that truth to sink in.

David describes this turning point in Psalm 32: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.” Then he says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

David is not describing a new objective basis for pardon, which Christ secures once for all, but a renewed subjective appropriation of forgiveness by faith. First John 1:8 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” We readily minimize our sins by comparing ourselves with other people rather than with God and his holy law. By using society’s standards, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are better than we are.

This explains the rejection Jesus encountered among many of his own people. They did not believe that they needed a Savior or a ransom for their sins.

They thought they were righteous. The Pharisees and scribes regarded any remaining sins as minor matters that could be addressed through sacrifices, fasting, and rituals. In their view, they did not need Christ or a Savior. Matthew 9 records that many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined at table with Jesus and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” The Pharisees considered themselves well, although they were truly sick, and therefore saw no need for a physician.

Jesus continued, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Meticulous observance of the sacrificial system and ceremonial distinctions could not make them acceptable to God. Jesus came to call those who know that they are sinners. The tax collectors and sinners came to him because they knew they needed a Savior and could cry, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”

Coming to Christ

Admitting that we are sinners is the first movement of confession. The second is inseparable from it: coming again to Christ and trusting in his sacrifice. The Day of Atonement provides a vivid Old Testament illustration. One goat was killed, while another was kept alive and sent into the wilderness, symbolically expelled from God’s presence to bear the people’s sin.

Leviticus 16:21 describes the priest laying his hands on the goat’s head: “Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness.”

This perfectly illustrates confession. We acknowledge our sinfulness, humble ourselves, and allow the reality of our guilt and treason against God to affect us. But we do not stop and wallow in guilt, nor imagine that sufficient sorrow or tears could atone for sin. Christ alone can do that. By faith we lay our hands upon him and place our sins on the one who bears them away.

Through a renewed act of faith, we appropriate again the reality of our justification and forgiveness. Isaac Watts captures this beautifully: “My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine, while like a penitent I stand, and there confess my sin.” Faith lays its hand on Christ and rests in the sacrifice by which he has carried our sins away.