A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 35

Chapter 35 – Forgive Us

 

And forgive us our debts… (Matthew 6:12)

 

“It is a basic Christian doctrine that we are all sinners.” (p. 218) This is something we learn right from the start of Sunday school. We are all sinners. As humans, we will never be perfect. It’s impossible to be perfect. We are all sinners. What we get as Christians, though, is the knowledge that God knows we aren’t perfect. God’s level of expectation of creation is pretty low. As equally as we know that we are all sinners, we know that God will always forgive us.

 

An important piece of this doctrine of sin is remembering that “all” means “all”. It doesn’t mean “everyone else but me.” As M Scott Peck states, “Housecleaning, like charity, should begin at home, and we usually have quite enough to do being our own watchdog without having to be anyone else’s.” (p. 218) It is important that we self-reflect on our own sinfulness and ask for God’s forgiveness and not worry about anyone else’s sins. We can only control what happens within ourselves.

 

And what does forgiveness mean? It means to “let go without a sense of guilt, obligation, or punishment.” (p.220) In the petition found in Matthew 6:12, we are asking for God to wipe the slate clean and allow us to start again. We acknowledge what we did today was wrong and we are asking for a new beginning tomorrow.

 

And you know what? That’s exactly what God gives us – a new beginning with a clean slate.