Title: Pray like this 9: Give me forgiveness
Pray like this 9: Give me forgiveness
July 3, 2010 (Sat) Tel Aviv Joppa Church
Matthew 6:9-15
Today, the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer, is about forgiveness. Let's start with this question first. what is life What do you think life is? Human 人 day life, according to the Chinese characters, life is a person born and lives. But when it comes to what life is, it's not that simple. Maybe that's why there are so many sayings about what life is.
I think life is grace. Life is a gift from God and it is grace. Being born, breathing, and living is grace itself. life is grace it is God's grace So life is a blessing. Life is never a pain. neither is it nonsense. It's not a coincidence. Life is God's grace and blessing. The grace of God is watering our lives.
However, there is something that hides this grace. There are things that cover, block, and prevent us from enjoying the grace of God that surrounds us. Something? tighten. Sin constantly obscures God's grace toward us.
Sin is the opposite of grace. There is no grace in life unless the problem of sin is solved. Life without grace is suffering. The way that a life of suffering can become grace and blessing is only possible through Jesus Christ. Without Jesus there is no grace. He himself is the grace of God. Only when we receive forgiveness of sins through Jesus and become immersed in God's grace can our lives be blessed. Life without Jesus is suffering. nonsense and tragic But a life with Jesus is a grace, a blessing, and a fruitful march. Believe in Jesus.
Sin is the opposite of grace and cuts off all relationships. First, cut off your relationship with God. Life comes from God, but what would life be like when your relationship with God was cut off? Tragedy and pain, meaningless and futile. Is that all? Sin also cuts off relationships with people. Relationships are personal. Sin destroys personal relationships. Sin depersonalizes everything.
Depersonalizes the living and personal God into idolatry. I make God, who wants a relationship, a means of fulfilling my desires at best. In their relationships with people, they depersonalize them by oppression and deprivation instead of personal relationships where they respect each other, humbly ask and receive gratitude. God-given language for personal relationships is depersonalized with lies and exaggeration. The sex given to the couple to become one is depersonalized as pornography and lewdness. Politics that should achieve fairness and justice is depersonalized by oppression and injustice, and power is depersonalized by war. There are so many of these things. So we need forgiveness.
For life to become grace and blessing as God intended it to be, we need forgiveness again. So we need Jesus. We must receive the grace of God who forgives our sins through Jesus.
God is a forgiving God. It says in Exodus 34:6-7.
“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and truth, will show kindness to a thousand generations, and will forgive iniquity and transgression and iniquity, but will not absolve him of his father’s iniquity. to the third and fourth generations of their descendants.”
God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and forgiving iniquity, error, and sin. It tells us that God is angry with sin, but does not spare forgiveness to those who sincerely repent for it. Isn't it the same in the Garden of Eden? Even though punishment is given to those who have committed a mortal sin, doesn't it end with forgiveness and exile? This is why repentance for sin is called for throughout the Bible. God hates sin, but he always forgives those who repent and return.
It is the cross of Jesus Christ that perfectly demonstrated God's forgiveness. The cross is God's love for sinners and God's forgiveness for those who repent and return. Only by receiving this grace of forgiveness can life truly be grace and blessing.
What does it mean to be a Christian, a believer in Jesus? It means a person who has been forgiven. The petition given to such people is the petition for forgiveness we see today.
“Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”
As we know, this petition is not simply a petition to forgive our sins. There is such a thing as a premise. Something? “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.”
How does it sound? It's very cumbersome and inconvenient. It's just asking us to ask for forgiveness for our sins, but why is the phrase 'as if we forgive those who sin against us' in front of it? Isn't it? This is not easy. It is even more so because there is hatred in me and an unforgiving heart. But in the petition for forgiveness, the Lord asks me to forgive those who have sinned against me, those who have offended me, and those who have offended me. If I just read it, it seems that if I do not forgive, He will not forgive my sins either. It seems even more so when we look at verses 14-15 that follow.
“If you forgive men, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you.”
This section is an extension of the Lord's Prayer. In particular, it can be said to be an amplification of the petition for forgiveness. So, while expounding on the Lord's Prayer, I continued reading, including this part in the text. Don't you see this part? It sounds like God will not forgive our sins unless we forgive those who have sinned against us, those who have offended us, and those who have offended us.
Is our forgiveness a prerequisite? Does it mean that God sees us forgive and forgives us? If so, does that mean that when we forgive those who sin against us, God also forgives according to the number of times? Does this mean that God's forgiveness depends on the forgiveness of our sins?
Be careful here. If the text is misunderstood, it is easy to become an ideology of merit. What is the concept of merit? It is the idea of being saved by human effort or action. It means that I am chosen by God and saved by doing good deeds and making some effort. Is that so? no.
Salvation is entirely by the grace of God. Our existence is sinners who have sinned against God and departed from God. there is nothing good It is not good in human moral standards, but good in the sight of God. In the sight of a holy God, human beings are nothing but a corpse of sin that is corrupt to the core of their bones. Therefore, salvation cannot be achieved through human effort or works. Only by the grace of God can we be saved.
So is forgiveness. We are not forgiven by God through the act of forgiving. Forgiveness is the total grace of God. The prerequisite for forgiveness is true repentance, and the basis for forgiveness is the grace of God who receives repentance and forgives. It means that our sins are not forgiven by God through the act of forgiving those who have sinned against us. This should be noted.
Nevertheless, this petition presupposes our pardon. In order to see the exact meaning of the text, it is necessary to analyze the original language. I won't go into detail about difficult Greek or Hebrew this time, but let's take a look at some important things.
First, in the Greek text, the conjunction 'kai' και appears twice. It has the meaning of 'and, also, also'. The Hebrew translation of the Bible also has the same meaning as 'gam'