The Lord's prayer has mainly two parts - God's greatness and man's depravity. (Matthew 6:9-13: Luke 11:2-4). In some circles of Christianity it may be known as 'The Our Father prayer'.
"Give us and forgive us" acknowledges our need for our bodies and souls.Humans have needs and God does not. Giving us our daily bread is asking for our bodily needs, to be freed from the fear of tomorrow. Forgive us is asking for spiritual need, so that we will be freed from the fear of sin and guilt. Only the one who does not have any needs can meet all human needs. Humans need forgiveness. The greatest human need is freedom from guilt and shame.
In the Lords prayer Jesus taught us to pray to forgive us our trespasses. Some will say “forgive us our debts,” some will say “trespasses,” and others will say “sins.” Those raised in Presbyterian or Reformed traditions are more likely to say “debts.” Those who come from Anglican/Episcopal, Methodist, or Roman Catholic traditions are more likely to say “trespasses.” Those whose churches were influenced by ecumenical liturgical movements of the late twentieth century are probably more likely to say “sins.”
But that still does not explain why some English Christian traditions use the word “trespasses” when Jesus’s actual prayer used the word “debts.” Both Greek and Latin New Testaments used words in Matthew 6:12 that meant “debt,” and earlier church fathers (like Augustine 400AD) and translators (like Wycliffe 1350 AD) used “debt”. William Tyndale (1494–1536) was the great English reformer who first translated the Bible into English from Hebrew and Greek texts preferred “trespasses”. Why he preferred this translation when few before or after him did is only speculation. He published his English New Testament in 1526 against the will and law of Henry VIII for which he had to pay with his life. “Trespasses” first appeared in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in 1549, and as of the 1979 edition it was still being used. A 'trespass' is to overstep prescribed limits or boundaries. A trespasser violates another person. This can be very damaging. Sin is trespassing into territory that doesn’t belong to us. In 1611, the translators of the King James Version went back to using “debts.”
In the garden of Eden, God approached Adam and Eve, who were hiding in shame. In this iconic instance, shame quickly turned to blame. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent (i.e., Satan), but all the while the Lord was simply calling upon the couple to confess their guilt. Instead of confessing their own sin and asking for forgiveness, they chose to pass the blame. We do the same to this day. That’s why we need a Savior. We don’t need to carry the guilt, but to confess our sin and be unburdened. Adam and Eve trespassed into territories that belonged to God. Its damage caused to the human kind is a debt for which nobody can pay for. We became spiritually bankrupt but there is no for bankruptcy court to declare freedom. We have seized the place of God and exercised a right that belongs to Him. We have violated God.
Through the first Adam, all have sinned and came short of the glory of God. The price of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The only one who can make it right by overcoming death is the one who has been violated. That is God himself. That is why He sent His son in Jesus Christ to die as a sacrificial payment for the trespasses of the world. He rose from the grips of death and won victory over sin and death. He became the ransom for our sins. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). When we ask for forgiveness, God is just and gracious to forgive and accept us back as His own children again. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NIV). The Greek word for “forgive” in the New Testament is the word “aphes”, which also means to dismiss or free. So God’s forgiveness is not just about being pardoned from doing something wrong, but also about being released and freed from it. "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people." (1 Tim 2:5,6)
While guilt acknowledges, the shame when one says, “I did something bad,” takes a deeper dimension when that person imagines, “I am bad.” The words guilt or guilty are found over 180 times in the Bible. Acknowledging our sin along with asking for forgiveness is the first step from our side when we go to God in prayer. If we just read down two verses we see Jesus focuses on forgiveness, and says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14–15).
Notice that Jesus connects God’s forgiveness with our forgiving others. They are inseparably linked. If we have experienced God’s pardon and acquittal, then we will surely forgive those who have wronged us. Christ underlines the importance of this immediately after the prayer. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15). He also develops this further in the parable of the unmerciful servant, where we are taught to forgive our debtors because God has forgiven ours. The point is to keep on forgiving those who have wronged us (Matthew 18:21-35).
If we are to forgive, we ought to be merciful. God forgives so that we forgive others. God shows us mercy to show mercy to others. God loves us so that we should love others. Augustine said: “If you are suffering the injustice of a bad man, forgive Him lest there be two bad men.”
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