Mat 6:14-15; Let the Old Life Die.

Class Outline:

Sunday September 8, 2024

 

Christ has no accounting or bookkeeping in mind when He instructs us about forgiveness of others.

 

Matthew’s Gospel contains five major sermons from the Lord. The Sermon on the Mount is the first, and the Lord’s teaching on prayer is the very center of that Sermon. Out of the 7 petitions the Lord gives us to pray, He takes time to comment on only one of them.

 

Idea: Every Christian has to forgive all others from a new, Christ-like heart, or else God will discipline him.

 

Main text: MAT 6:14-15

"For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. 

 

Context: MAT 6:9-15

 

A difference to vs. 12 is the change from debts to “transgressions.” 

paraptomata = make a false step, a violation of moral standards. 

 

They have broken a moral standard with you as the object. They have wronged you with actions or words. They have failed to do what even common decency and moral law demanded that they should. They may have done so on purpose or ignorantly. The kinds and number of sins involved can be of many types. 

 

The passage is plainly stated as a positive and negative, which emphasizes the role of your forgiveness of all others of all they do - your debtors.  

 

It is the only petition that Jesus comments on. Perhaps He knows something that we don’t. He knows that this is a weak spot for us all. 

 

What does it mean to the redeemed to be forgiven by the Father or not based on our own forgiveness of others (all others)? 

 

In the OT, there are several passages that use the phrasing of God not forgiving Israel their sins and the result is painful discipline or judgment upon them, JOS 24:19 (worshiping idols); 2KI 24:4; JER 18:19 (imprecatory prayer). 

 

What we can confidently say: How you treat others is how God is going to treat you. He’s not going to sin towards you. But more like: 1PE 5:5 God makes war with the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

 

Because of your lack of forgiveness you do not do actual good to them. But then you expect God to do good to you, MAT 18:34-35.

 

All believers are forgiven of all sin (ACT 10:43; EPH 1:7; COL 2:13). But it is going to be a very undesirable position for you not to forgive anyone.

 

Christ demands all of you, not some which means forgiveness of all debtors, or all transgressions. 

 

If we cannot forgive all others, we will be defeated Christians, 1CO 9:24-27

 

God wants the whole of you, GAL 4:19; EPH 4:13; 1CO 2:12, 16. 

 

Christ is alive now in you (COL 1:27). He has crucified the old man or woman in you, and He is in you killing it in your own conscience, replacing the old desires and passions in your conscience with a new life - His life. His tools are the Holy Spirit and the word of God. 

 

The Chrisian life is not about what you do, but who you are (and from that heart, you do). If Christ were to forgive 99 and then not forgive one, we wouldn’t commend Him, but we would wonder how out of character it was. Character is a quality of a person, not a quantity. This is why we have to forgive all. Forgiveness is a quality and not a quantity. 

 

Christianity offers nothing other than becoming like Christ. And it is not an exercise for only the top part of the class, but for all believers. 

 

Every Christian has to agree and therefore at the very least consent to having Christ change his whole heart (EPH 3:14-21).

 

Our theology sneaks in and conveniently throws a rope to our souls. Thanks theology! But you should not throw out anything that the Lord says. Seek the person of God and His will in the Scripture, not just systematic theology.  

 

Application: 

 

Christ was a genius among much lesser men, yet He looked for faith that would lead people to seeing what He sees - be willing to change in big ways so as to conform to Him. 

 

The unforgiven are in bonds and their judges are the bond holders. Set yourself free from being a band holder and the stress that it brings, not to mention the distance from God and discipline that it causes, because it is a role that you were never given and you are not designed to have it. 

 

How you treat others is how God is going to treat you. 

 

What is forgiveness? (Remember to know the meaning of what you are pursuing). 

 

Pardon - release from a penalty. 

 

Hospitality - allowing entrance to those who do not qualify (at the least into your soul, maybe not your home). 

 

Forgiveness is Christ in you.