For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)
When evangelicals articulate the gospel, usually there is an emphasis on God forgiving our sins. The healing of the paralyzed man is a classic example (Matt. 9:1-8, Mark 2:3-12, Luke 5:17-26). Jesus declared the lame man’s sins were forgiven and then–in order to prove his sins were forgiven–Jesus commanded the man to rise and walk.
There is less emphasis in most gospel presentations that receiving forgiveness from God means we, in turn, must forgive others as well. Jesus was insistent about this second half of forgiveness. First we are forgiven. Then we forgive. It’s so crucial that the Savior made the second half of forgiveness a condition to the first half. We can’t experience forgiveness ourselves if we deny forgiveness to others. The Lord’s Prayer has several lines, but the necessity of forgiving others is the only part of the prayer which Jesus explained to his disciples.
The New York Times recently reported on the fury of Ukrainians in Odesa against Russians. Nina Sulzhenko, 74, said, “I don’t have the words to say what we should do to them…. Look at what they did! The fact that those who live next to us, and lived among us, could do this to us — we can never forgive this. Never.”
Such anger is easy to understand. The war instigated by Russia has devastated the Ukrainians, resulting in untold human suffering. Vengeance is only natural. But when we follow Jesus’s model in prayer, we enter the supernatural realm. Forgiveness is a God thing. Only God can forgive us our sins. And only God can help us forgive others who sin against us. We can’t do that on our own. But we must forgive others if we are to follow Jesus.
Jesus made several intimidating statements in the Sermon on the Mount. This warning at the end of the Lord’s Prayer is one of them. I shudder to think of the consequence of not forgiving others. Do you?
Prairie Pastor 