I would like to spend a little time with you this month focusing on the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. You don’t have to look twice to see that this particular petition deals with forgiveness. It talks about God’s forgiveness to us in Jesus Christ. But it also talks about our "forgiving-ness" to others who have wronged us or sinned against us. It is in this connection that the Lord then teaches us to pray: "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

First of all, God’s forgiveness to us: One quick look both into your life as well as mine tells us that we daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but God’s wrath and eternal damnation.

Our thoughts drift back to God’s Ten Commandments. As we look at these commandments one by one in view of our daily lives, the word "trespasses" becomes rather obvious. Together with Isaiah, we can easily say, "All we, like sheep, have gone astray. There is not one that does good, no, not even one."

And as if the picture was not bad enough, all at once a whole host of other passages begin to parade their way through our memory: "The wages of sin is death." "The soul that sinneth shall die." "Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the Book of the Law to do them."

Trespasses — yes, and many of them. But thanks be to God, there is more to the story. Already to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, God promised that in His forgiving love He would send a Messiah who would save all mankind from their lost condition.

For some 4,000 years, God’s people looked forward to and believed in the coming of that promised Messiah. Then, as Paul writes in Galatians, "In the fullness of time God did send forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law."

He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin’s womb. He was born in a simple manger — God and man in one person. He grew into adulthood, not once transgressing the Law of God. Finally, after three years of ministry, He was crucified, dead and buried, but thanks be to God, rose victorious again on Easter morning having paid for the transgressions of all men’s sins.

Through faith in that Jesus Christ, we now have forgiveness with God. Forgiveness for all of our daily transgressions against both God and our fellow man. And that’s what the Fifth Petition means when we say, "And forgive us our trespasses." We are simply turning to God and once again asking that He would daily do for us what He has already promised to do in Jesus Christ— completely remove all our transgressions as far as the East is from the West. What a glorious Gospel message!

Don’t stop reading now — there is more to this petition. In the second half of this petition, we pray: And even as we are daily forgiven by you in Jesus Christ, so also Lord, daily make us forgiving of others who have trespassed against us.

Being a sinful human is not just our personal problem alone. Everyone else has this same problem to contend with. Our husband or wife does. Our parents and children do. Our brothers and sisters, our relatives, the people with whom we work — even the fellow members of our congregations.

Their lives are also daily marked with transgressions, and sometimes these transgressions are directed right at us. Our normal reaction at such times can easily be: "How dare they do that! Boy, I’ll never forget that one against me. Wait until their day comes."

It is at that moment that our Lord would say to us, "Even as you are repeatedly forgiven by your Father in heaven for all of those trespasses that you day after day commit, so also be forgiving of those who trespass against you." Yes, "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Difficult to do? Yes, it is, but only until we remember God’s fantastic forgiving love in Christ for us and our many transgressions over against Him.

I can clearly recall listening to a radio broadcast by Dr. James Dobson one day as I was driving along the highway. Dr. Dobson was visiting with a lady who was really feeling the hurt of having been transgressed against by her sister. As they talked, again and again this lady would say, "I simply can’t forgive her." And again and again, Dr. Dobson would gently point this lady both to God’s fantastic forgiveness for her in Jesus Christ and also to the words, "Be forgiving of one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you."

But the thing I remember the most was that finally Dr. Dobson simply said to this lady in a very kind and gentle manner, "You are simply going to have to let go of this hurt that you feel over against your sister. For not until you do will you again find that peace in your life that I think you really desire. So, just let go of it. Just let go of it."

As people who have come to know God’s glorious forgiveness for us personally in Jesus Christ, God in this petition not only once again focuses our eyes clearly on the forgiving grace in Christ, but He also goes on to say: "And forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass against us."

God bless as you do.

A.L. Barry

Jude 24-25