Just as we cannot live without God’s daily provision for our material needs, so we cannot live without God’s daily demonstrations of tender mercy and forgiving grace.

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” is the second personal petition in the Lord’s Prayer. Unlike the previous clause which focuses on our physical needs (“Give us this day our daily bread”), this clause underscores our spiritual need for divine – and human – mercy.

In order to truly pray this prayer, we must recognize three important truths concerning ourselves, God, and others: (1) we are sinners, (2) God is merciful, and (3) others are fellow sinners who also stand in need of divine mercy.

The “S” Word

Perhaps no teaching of the Christian faith is more odious to contemporary ears than the doctrine of human depravity. It conjures up images of fundamentalist preachers who seek to manipulate and coerce people through condemnation and guilt rather than forgiveness and grace. For this reason, modern people often violently react against being labeled as sinners. The “s” word is considered offensive, degrading, and deplorable.

Even though the words, sin and sinner, are deemed irrelevant and old-fashioned, the reality to which these words point is immediately observable by all people. Most everyone (if not everyone!) will admit that things are not the way they are supposed to be – that everything around us is fractured, broken, or damaged in some way. We sense that something is not right without and within. People fail us and we fail them. People hurt us, and sadly, we often hurt others.

Though few of us commit “big sins” such as murder, adultery, or theft, we all struggle with lying, breaking promises, the use of demeaning language, outbursts of anger, hatred, coveting others’ possessions, and hundreds of other hurtful actions. No matter how hard we try not to harm others with our thoughts, words, and actions, we inevitably fall short. Even if we are unfamiliar with God’s holy requirements in sacred Scripture, we are all aware that we fall short of our own personal expectations. This awareness is frustrating and often painful.

In short, though many would not use the language of sin, all are aware of the reality of sin and its pervasive influence in our lives, individually and collectively.

Biblically speaking, sin is falling short of God’s glory – failing to fully reflect God’s beauty, truth, and goodness in our own lives. More practically, sin is failing to live up to God’s commands revealed in Scripture – commands given for our own good and the good of others. Put most simply, sin involves failing to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind and our neighbor as ourselves.

No matter how we describe it, the word that rattles our cages – the word we cannot escape – is failure. Sin is the inability – the failure – to live as we should, as we desire, as we expect. Perhaps this is the greatest reason that the language of sin is spurned by contemporary people: it constantly reminds us that we have failed God, others, and ourselves in a significant way.

Try as we might, our lives are not characterized by constant reflection of God’s glory, absolute conformity to God’s law, or perpetual love expressed to God and others. We either act contrary to these standards (traditionally called “sins of commission”) or find ourselves failing to live up to them (“sins of omission”). In other words, we sin by doing wrong and by failing to do what is right. Our sin causes us to “miss the mark” of God’s good will – whether we understand this as failure to fully reflect God’s glory, failure to obey God’s law, or failure to love God and others.

As difficult as it is to confront our failures and inadequacies, Jesus teaches us to daily face and confess our sins before God. The prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses,” keeps us mindful of our own inherent shortcomings. These shortcomings – “our trespasses” – are expressed personally and corporately.

“Our trespasses” certainly includes our own personal sins. It is vital that we find time to confess these sins specifically.

We don’t commit our sins in some bland, generic manner, and we shouldn’t confess them that way either. This means that when we pray, there should be a time of quiet introspection; time where we scroll through the day or the hours that preceded our time of prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to prompt our confession.[1]

We should also pray corporately. It is “our trespasses” that we are owning and confessing. This includes not only our individual sins but our corporate transgressions. We pray for the sins of our own local church, our own local community, our state, our nation, our world. As priests, we represent others to God and God to others. Like Daniel, we own and confess the sins of our people, regardless of whether or not we have personally participated in them (see Daniel 9:1-23).

Regular confession of sin strikes a blow against self-righteousness. Constant reflection on our own sinfulness and desperate need for divine mercy humbles us. Confession is a constant reminder that we are not better than others. The problem of our own sin keeps us from overemphasizing others’ sins. It is difficult to glory in our own goodness when we remain mindful of the depths of our own shortcomings.

“Forgive us our trespasses” keeps us honest before God. We don’t have to conceal who we are or what we have done. Our relationship can be genuine and authentic because we are able to express everything to God – including our deepest failures and frustrations – without fear of condemnation. This openness keeps our relationship with God fresh and strong.

The impact of this prayer extends beyond the individual to the community. Constant attention to confession – both individual and corporate – creates a humble, loving, and authentic community. We should not have to put on masks in the presence of other confessors. As disciples who regularly pray “Forgive us our trespasses” we are aware that Jesus is for losers. We don’t claim to have it all together. We affirm that the gospel is not our own testimony of perfection, success, and achievement. We affirm that the gospel is about God’s grace to unworthy sinners who constantly fall short of God’s desires and yet remain steadfast objects of divine love. We affirm that this is true for parishioners and pastors, the devout and the despairing, the strong and the weak. There are no “professional” Christians; we are all beginners, constantly in need of fresh grace, new mercy, and free forgiveness. Instead of declaring, “I’m OK, you’re OK,” we proclaim, “I’m a mess, you’re a mess.” “Nothing is more powerful in our relationships than the realization that, as imperfect humans, we all make mistakes.”[2] This creates a community unlike any other:

There are not very many acceptable places in our society for people to express inadequacy and need. To admit failure, sadness, grief, or hurt is to be a loser. And America does not reward losers; it rewards winners. But the heart of Jesus runs counter to this kind of superficiality.[3]

God’s Joy in Mercy

Our confession of sin would bring only despair were it not for our awareness of God’s faithful and forgiving mercy. It is dangerous to focus on our sins if we fail to recognize that it is God’s great delight to forgive, accept, and embrace sinners.

Jesus taught that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7). Three verses later, to underscore this amazing truth, Jesus says, “I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7, 10). The “joy in heaven… in the presence of the angels of God” is no less than the joy of God reveling in another opportunity to lavish grace upon sinners. It is startling to realize that when we confess our sins, God leaps for joy!

One of the most foundational truths in the Bible, emphasized in both the Old and New Testament, is this: God is merciful. “I am Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7). God acts with compassion toward those willing to admit their need. This is the consistent testimony of the sacred Scriptures.

It is God’s glory to prove that divine grace is greater than human sin. We participate in God’s mercy by admitting our ever-present sinfulness and embracing God’s unending forgiveness. We need to do this, not once, but throughout our entire faith journey. “Forgive us our trespasses” is a prayer that assumes “we will need to ask for forgiveness not on one or two rare occasions but very regularly. This is a sobering thought, but it is matched by the comforting news that forgiveness is freely available as often as we need it.”[4]

God knows that we are but flesh (Ps.103:14; Mt. 26:41). Our sins do not surprise God. They grieve God, but they do not surprise God (Eph. 4:30). Because they are no surprise, God’s mercy is ever new to surround us with forgiveness, love, and support. God has made it clear through the sacred scriptures and ultimately, through the cross of Christ, that he is committed to grace, mercy, and love. The only qualification to participate is one’s willingness to receive.

As you meditate on the whole concept of divine love and forgiveness, it is important to realize that God does not divide people according to their virtues or vices, but according to their honest desire to accept the grace that he offers them. He does not justify or condone wrongdoing, but he rewards repentance. God offers pardon to the person who admits his violations and wrongs, who understands that he has gone astray, and who now has regrets.[5]

Contrary to expectations, confession of sin opens us up to grace. Refusing to own our sin closes us to grace. Put simply: we resist grace by denying our sinful state; we experience grace by admitting it. Confession takes sin and grace seriously. We cannot possess the latter without admitting the former.

Sin is bigger than we think, but so is God’s grace! Until we can truly affirm that we are a sinful “wretch” we cannot truly comprehend what makes grace so “amazing” and “sweet”! We are freed from self-deception when we can truly pray with the tax collector, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Contrary to contemporary wisdom, awareness of our sinfulness is not debilitating or self-destructive. On the contrary, it is our unwillingness to confess our sins that leads us to despair, anxiety, and self-hatred.

There is no risk in admitting how sinful and broken we are once we learn to rest in the comfort of God’s love. We wrongly assume that a vocabulary of sin leads to self-hate, discouragement, or depression. On the contrary, once we see ourselves as sinners, we can stop trying to earn God’s favor and learn to rest in God’s arms.[6]

Reflecting God’s Mercy to Others

We pray “Forgive us our trespasses” with full awareness that we are sinners and that God is merciful. But this is not enough. God’s gracious treatment of us is meant to be reflected in our treatment of others. As recipients of God’s mercy, we are called to reflect this same mercy to others: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Our perspective of others changes in light of God’s treatment of us. We view others, no matter how deplorable or depraved, as fellow sinners who also stand in need of God’s mercy – and ours! We find we “have something in common with even [our] worst enemy: we both need forgiveness.”[7] As the old cliché states, the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

Amazingly, we are called to reflect God’s abundant mercy and grace – not just to likable people hindered with a few peccadilloes, but to real sinners burdened with weighty sins. We are to be as merciful and forgiving to them as God is – and God always forgives!

We do not do this to earn our own forgiveness. The prayer does not read, “Forgive us our trespasses because we forgive those who trespass against us.” The operative word is as. We are to treat others as God in Christ has treated us. We are not first forgivers, but the forgiven. We love because have first been loved by God (1 John 4:19). And if we don’t love others, we prove that we don’t understand the depths of divine mercy we have been given (1 John 4:20). “It is the acid test of a life of charity, of true incorporation in the Body of Christ. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect; indiscriminate and unmeasured in generosity, and in forgiving, healing love.”[8]

The point of divine forgiveness is not simply that we might revel in it. The point is to shape us to reflect divine forgiveness to others. God wants us to love as he loves, to show mercy as he shows mercy, to forgive as he forgives. Chrysostom understood this: “Nothing makes us so like God as our readiness to forgive the wicked and the wrongdoer.” This is what it means to be holy as God is holy – to love others with an “otherly love” that can only be described as divine! To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Our commitment to reflect God’s mercy to others is so important that it is the only clause in the entire prayer that Jesus develops explicitly (Matthew 6:14-15). I believe he does this because our natural tendency is to withhold, rather than give, mercy to others. The reason: forgiveness is difficult and painful.

Forgiveness – both divine and human – is painful. As C. S. Lewis wrote, “Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.”[9] Forgiveness involves absorbing the pain, hurt, and grief inflicted by another and refusing to lash out in return with violence, revenge, or hatred. Sin builds barriers to relationships. Forgiveness seeks to tear down these barriers. God’s forgiveness in Christ demonstrates how exceedingly painful it is to truly forgive another – a fact evidenced most clearly at the cross:

We are constantly under a temptation to suppose that the reason why we fail to understand completely the atonement made by God in Christ is that our minds are not sufficiently profound… But there is a deeper reason still. It is that we are not good enough; we have never forgiven a deadly injury at a price like this, at such cost to ourselves as came upon God at Jesus’ death… Let the man be found who has undergone the shattering experience of pardoning – nobly and tenderly – some awful wrong to himself, still more to one beloved by him, and he will understand the meaning of Calvary better than all the theologians in the world.[10]

By absorbing the pain of others’ sin and responding in love, we forgive. We no longer use the memory of the past against others. We refuse to act like the wife in the following humorous illustration:

“Why do you keep talking about my past mistakes?” said the husband. “I thought you had forgiven and forgotten.”

“I have, indeed, forgiven and forgotten,” said the wife. “But I want to make sure you don't forget that I have forgiven and forgotten.”[11]

By absorbing the pain and refusing to respond with violence or hatred, we do not lose our hurt feelings. Undoubtedly, if the offense against us was great, deep feelings of anger, bitterness, and hatred will continue for some time. If we assume that forgiveness relieves us of this painful process, we have misunderstood the nature of forgiveness.

[M]any people quite wrongly presume that forgiveness means to deny the effect of an offense, or to minimize its significance, or to say that something dreadful was not really so bad and can be dismissed without comment or control. But failure to understand the true nature of forgiveness only further stimulates the desire to retaliate.[12]

Will we who choose to forgive still possess angry feelings, rage, perhaps even hatred? Certainly. But we can also possess compassion toward one expressing true repentance. Like God, we are able to experience a complex variety of emotions. Yet, compassion, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love must rise along with all the negative emotions we experience. We may spend our entire life going through the process of forgiving another in regard to the emotions we experience, but we can commit to treating others with mercy, compassion, and love rather than hatred, bitterness, and malice.

When we are committed to reflecting divine forgiveness to others, we bear witness that love is stronger than sin. We restore the glory of God to our relationships with others. Theologically speaking, sin is falling short of God’s glory. When love triumphs over sin, then divine glory begins to shine anew. The gospel – the triumph of divine mercy over human sin – bears fruit in our lives.

Conclusion

Sin damages our relationship with ourselves, others, and God. Forgiveness, mercy, and love restores our relationships. Unless we are willing to admit our problem, we cannot find a solution. Unless we name our disease, we remain unable to find a cure. When we recognize that our problem is sin and the solution is readily available in divine forgiveness – forgiveness from God and subsequently reflected through us to others – then we can revel in God’s abundant mercy to all.

We are all in the same boat, we all share the same disease, we all have the same problem, and therefore, we all need divine mercy. We have this in common with the entire world – from our enemies to our dearest friends.

It is confession of sin that opens us up divine grace. Through daily confession of sin we open our lives to ever greater measures of grace, love, and glory. We also open ourselves up to better reflect the joy of divine mercy to others.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2005