“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
There are two things I learn from Jesus in Matthew 6:12 when teaching his disciples to request forgiveness when praying.
1) Asking for daily bread precedes asking for forgiveness. Generally, if you wrong someone and you need to ask a favor of them, you would begin by asking forgiveness followed by the request of a favor. The counter-intuitive sequence in the Lord’s Prayer reminds us of God’s unmerited favor.
2) The request for forgiveness is a request to remove all barriers to our fellowship with the Father in the same way that we have forgiven those who have wronged us to remove all barriers to our fellowship with them. It is not a request to have a right standing with God. Believers are declared righteous and in right standing with God by faith. (Romans 5:1-2a) A right standing with the Father is a legal declaration and it will never change. However, a right standing does not mean unbroken intimacy and fellowship. This is best illustrated by a Father’s relationship to his child. Nothing that child can do will ever change the father-child relationship. The child can rebel and disown the father but the child is still the father’s child. The father will always love his child. This relationship cannot be changed. The intimacy of their fellowship is nevertheless affected by the child’s disrespect. The intimacy of their relationship can be restored when the child seeks the father’s forgiveness.
Praying, as Jesus taught, is keeping our intimacy and fellowship with him as a consideration when we talk to him.
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