daily bread

11. Until now the petitions have concerned the great causes of God and his kingdom; at this point Jesus’ attention moves to the personal needs of the worshiper. It is interesting that immediately following the prayer for the perfect establishment of the kingdom of heaven and the accomplishment of the will of God we have a prayer for bread here and now. This was so incredible to many in the early church that they spiritualized the expression and understood it of Holy Communion or “the invisible bread of the Word of God” (Augustine, p. 42; he finds other meanings as well). In modern times we often find scholars claiming that the expression refers to the messianic banquet in the coming age. Both miss the point that Jesus takes seriously our physical needs. The word translated daily is difficult, but a survey of the evidence indicates that the ancient understanding “daily” fits the facts as well as any; “for the coming day” has essentially the same meaning. The prayer prayed in the morning seeks bread for the day opening out before the praying person, while prayed at night it seeks bread for the coming day. Both ways of taking the word see it as looking to God for the supply of one’s immediate needs, not those of the indefinite future. Jesus says that we should do no more than ask for food sufficient for the day on the day. Give recognizes that our basic food is not the result of our unaided endeavor; it is the gift of God, while today is important as pointing to a day-by-day reliance on God. The prayer encourages a continuing dependence on God; it does not countenance a situation in which the disciple asks God for a supply for a lengthy period, after which prayer he can go on for some time in forgetfulness of God. He depends on God constantly, and this dependence is expressed in this prayer.

12. Forgive (see on 12:31) recognizes that sinning puts people in the wrong with God and that only he can cancel out the offense and pardon it. The offense is here seen as a debt (in Luke 11:4 we have “sins”), which recognizes that we owe to God our full obedience. When we do not pay it we are debtors to God, and only he can remit the debt. The prayer for forgiveness is qualified by as we also have forgiven our debtors. This must surely be taken as an aspiration rather than a limitation, or none of us would be forgiven; our forgivenesses are so imperfect. But the prayer recognizes that we have no right to seek forgiveness for our own sins if we are withholding forgiveness from others, and perhaps even that we cannot really seek it (cf. Buttrick, if anyone says, “I’ll never forgive you!” that person “is not penitently aware of his sins, but only vengefully aware of another man’s sins”; Robinson remarks, “The spirit open to receive love is of necessity open to bestow love”). We also is emphatic; it underlines the significance of forgiving action on the part of those seeking forgiveness. Have forgiven⁴⁷ expresses more than a resolution for future action. The person seeking forgiveness must first have taken forgiving action with respect to those who have sinned against him; “as 5:23–24 shows, mere good intentions are not enough” (Schweizer). We should notice that it is debtors that are forgiven, not “debts.” Both, of course, are involved, but it is the person on whom the emphasis falls. Debtor may be used of literal, monetary debts (18:24), or it may be used metaphorically of various kinds of obligation, and of those who owe something to people (here) or to God (Luke 13:4). Sin may be viewed in any one of a variety of ways. Here it is seen as arising from the fact that we have obligations to God. When we fail to do what we should, we owe God a debt and are in need of help, namely the cancellation of the debt because we cannot repay it.¹

Give us this day our daily bread [Matt. 6:11].

As I have indicated, this prayer is a model for our own prayers. Now I want you to notice this petition for a moment. It is a wonderful petition, so simple yet one that should come from our hearts with great enthusiasm. It speaks of our utter dependence upon God. Our bodily wants, our physical necessities, all are supplied by Him day by day. “Give us … our daily bread”—just as Israel gathered manna for the day, they gathered nothing for the morrow. They were not permitted to gather manna for the next week. They could not hoard it. This prayer gathers manna every day, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It shows man that he lives from hand to mouth. It shows man that even his bodily necessities, his basic needs, come from God.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors [Matt. 6:12].

Our Lord Jesus could not pray this—He had no sin to be forgiven. You see, it is not the Lord’s prayer; it is the disciples’ prayer.

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive those that are indebted to us” is legalistic; it is not grace. I thank God for another verse of Scripture, Ephesians 4:32, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Today God is forgiving us on the basis of what Christ has done for us, not on the basis by which we forgive—as touching the matter of our salvation. The redemption of God is in full view when God forgives us. It does not refer to our salvation when we read, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” He is speaking here to those who are already saved, those who already have the nature of God. He does not wait for you to forgive before He forgives. This is not His method of settling the sin question. He gave His Son to die, and it is on this basis that God forgives.

In some churches today where there is formal religion, liturgy, and ritual, they use “forgive us our debts” while others will use “forgive us our trespasses.” Two little girls were talking about the Lord’s Prayer as repeated in their churches. One said,“We have trespasses in our church,” and the other said, “Well, in our church we have debts.” (Probably they both were right as far as the churches of our day are concerned—they have both debts and trespasses.) So which phrase is accurate? There is no difficulty here at all since all of these words refer to the same thing, and that thing is sin.²

11. The section of petitions begins with the request to give us this day our daily bread. Bread (Gr artos) may be applied to the provision of food in general. The term “daily” (Gr epicusios) denotes “indispensable” (Arndt and Gingrich, Lexicon, p. 296). The concept of daily provision of bread fits perfectly with the Old Testament example of the daily provision of manna to the Israelites while they were wandering in the wilderness (Ex 16:14–15). In a similar sense, while the Christian pilgrim takes his journey through a strange land that he does not yet literally possess, but which has been promised to him, it only stands to reason that God would make a similar provision to this New Testament, gospel-age wanderer.

12. The phrase forgive us our debts refers to sins which are our moral and spiritual debts to God’s righteousness. The request for forgiveness of sin is made here by the believer. In order to be saved one need not necessarily name all of his sins, but must confess that he is a sinner. For continued spiritual growth and cleansing the believer acknowledges his sins in particular. Notice that we seek forgiveness as we forgive, not because we forgive. Our expression of forgiveness does not gain salvation for us. We are to seek forgiveness in the same manner as we forgive others. Forgiveness is the evidence of a regenerate heart.³

Concern with need

When it is our business to engage in the worship of God, to be concerned with doing the work of God, in submission to the will of God, we will discover we have many needs. The requests of this prayer address three areas of need.

a. Physical need: ‘Give us today our daily bread’. It is right and legitimate that we acknowledge our dependency on God for our physical needs, not taking them for granted, but asking in humility for our ‘daily bread’. This request is not for a stockpile to last the next month! God provides today what we need today. Should we have enough resources for the next month or year, that is entirely legitimate, but it is not what we have a right to and therefore not what we ask him for.

b. Spiritual need: ‘Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors’. We come to God in constant need for cleansing. The condition attached to this is important, ‘as we have forgiven our debtors’. This is amplified at the end of this prayer when Jesus said, ‘If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’ (6:14–15). Forgiveness is free but not cheap. To live with integrity before God we must live with the same integrity amongst people. Those who offend us may not deserve our forgiveness in our estimation, but neither do we deserve God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness is not dependent on the offending party but on the offended party. It is God who forgives us. It is we who forgive others. The refusal to forgive others in appropriate circumstances, shuts out the forgiveness of God. The change of mind that characterises our repentance towards God must be a change of mind that characterises our attitude towards others—particularly those who need our forgiveness

27

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS

Matthew 6:12

We have already considered the prayer acrostic ACTS, in which “C” stands for confession. The confession of sin ought to be a regular part of both our private and corporate prayers. Here our Lord is teaching that the prayer of confession and the request for forgiveness are an integral part of the model prayer, so He says in this petition that we are to say to God, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (v. 12).

Another rendering of this petition is, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Either one is correct. Both accurately communicate the sense of the text here in Matthew and also how it is framed in Luke’s Gospel. Luke uses the word “sins” and Matthew uses the word “debts.” As we consider the nature of the sin for which we need to be forgiven, we will consider three different dimensions or aspects of sin. The New Testament describes sin in three primary ways: (1) as a debt; (2) as a crime or transgression against the law of God; and (3) as an act of enmity or hostility that estranges us for our Creator. When we ask for forgiveness, we are asking it for all three of these elements of sin.

Sin Is Debt

First, then, sin is a debt. Debts are obligations that we owe to another. We usually think of debt in monetary terms, but there are pecuniary debts, which are monetary, and moral debts. Picture a young boy who walks into an ice cream parlor and orders an ice cream cone with two scoops. When the server hands the cone to the child, she says, “That will be two dollars.” The boy’s lips begin to quiver, and he looks helplessly to the waitress and says, “My mommy gave me only one dollar.” What would you do if you were a witness? You would do what anyone would do. You would reach in your pocket, hand the server a dollar, and say, “Let me satisfy the young boy’s debt.” The money you supply is legal tender. The server has to accept that in payment, and the little boy can now enjoy his ice cream cone.

Suppose we look at the scenario a bit differently. The boy places his order, and as soon as the server hands him the cone, he runs out of the store without paying. Unfortunately for him, he runs right into the arms of a policeman on his beat while the employee is screaming, “Stop, thief!” So the policeman brings the boy by the scruff of his neck back into the store and asks the employee what has happened. She explains that the boy has stolen the ice cream cone. You witness all this, so you reach into your pocket and say, “Wait a minute, officer. Please don’t put this boy in jail. Don’t press charges against him. I’ll pay the two dollars.” This time the employee does not have to accept your money because the debt is moral, not simply monetary.

I typically use this illustration to deepen our understanding of what took place on the cross, when the Son paid our debt that the Father was not required to accept but did in mercy and grace. The Bible uses a metaphor of debt to describe us as sinners who cannot possibly pay our debts. We are debtors who simply cannot pay.

If someone claimed that I owed him $10,000 and threatened me with jail unless I could come up with the money, I think I could find a way to raise the money to keep myself out of jail. But if someone claimed that I owed him $4 billion, there is no way I could pay him. That is a poor analogy, because our obligation to God is far greater than that. He has commanded us to be holy even as He is holy; He commands us to be perfect even as He is perfect. We have fallen so short of His standard that it is virtually impossible for us to pay our debt. We hear it said that everyone is entitled to one mistake, but the only thing we are entitled to is everlasting punishment in hell. By virtue of our sin we hold the title to our own just punishment. God never said we are entitled to one mistake, and even if we were, how long ago did we make it? We have sinned against God and His perfect holiness multiple times since we got out of bed this morning, and when we sin against God, we add to our accounts before Him one more bit of wrath.

The Apostle Paul describes impenitent people as those who are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. Every day that you linger in this life without falling on your knees and asking God to forgive you of your debts, you increase that treasury of wrath. Jesus loved people enough to warn them and to teach them to beg God for forgiveness. We are debtors who cannot pay our debts, and when that debt is called in, it will be the most severe crisis that you can imagine if you must pay it yourself. We have witnessed in recent years the calamity of multiple foreclosures on mortgages because people cannot pay their debts, but that is nothing to be compared with the debt that we owe to God. That is why Jesus said that when we pray, we are to ask the Father to forgive our debts.

Sin Is Crime

Sin is also a crime. The Westminster Catechism asks, “What is sin?” and the answer given is, “Sin is any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.” Imagine if someone were to be arrested for first-degree murder. A video camera captured his bloody act, and there are witnesses who will testify that he boasted days earlier of his intent to murder. The evidence is brought before the court and indicates overwhelmingly the guilt of the accused, but the defendant pleads not guilty and asks to function as his own lawyer. He tells the judge, “I cannot be guilty, because I do not feel guilty.” That is not a legitimate defense. The question of guilt is not one of feeling. It is not subjective but objective. It is a question of whether someone has, in fact, broken the law. If he has broken the law, he has transgressed the law and is therefore guilty.

Jeremiah criticized the people of Israel for becoming so hard of heart that they had acquired the forehead of a harlot (Jer. 3:3). Jeremiah was saying to the people of Israel that they had seared their consciences to the point that they could sin with no pangs of guilt. It bears repeating that God will not judge us by our feelings. He will judge us by His law, and His judgment will be perfect and completely just. The one thing we never want to have to face is the just judgment of God.

The only hope we have is His grace and mercy. The whole of Christianity is about forgiveness. A Christian person is a forgiven person. As someone put it, “I have no righteousness in myself, so when I proclaim the gospel, I am just one beggar telling other beggars where they can find food.” That is our state. As people who have violated God, we have committed treason against Him. In every sin we commit, no matter how small, we assert our authority and will over His and defy His power by our own. That is the folly of sin.

Sin Is Hostility

Sin is also an act of hostility. It is an act of estrangement whereby we are left in a serious need for reconciliation. The Bible is all about reconciliation. The one necessary condition that must exist before reconciliation can happen is estrangement. People who are not estranged have no need for reconciliation. We are by nature the enemies of God. In our natural state we are, as Scripture tells us, at war with God Himself. Man in his natural state does not believe he is hostile to God, but the Bible tells us that man prior to regeneration hates God.

In Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Man Naturally God’s Enemies,” he explored why man in his natural state is hostile toward God, and he identified a few aspects of God’s nature that provoke hostility within us. First and foremost is that God is holy and we are not, and unholy people do not appreciate a standard that reveals their unrighteousness. If God were not so holy and we were not so sinful, perhaps we could get along, but there is that irreparable breach between fallen humanity and the eternal holiness of God that can be healed only by the mediating work of the Savior and the forgiveness He offers.

The second reason we hate God by nature, Edwards said, is that God is omniscient, and since that is the case, there is nowhere we can hide from Him. We can hide from the gaze of humans in our private sin, but there is nowhere we can hide from God. David said:

Where can I flee from Your spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend into heaven, Your are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. (Ps. 139:7–8)

When I was a boy, my mother worked at the office with my father, so I had a lot of free, unsupervised time. My mother would tell me, “I can’t watch you today, but God is watching you.” After growing up, going to college and seminary, and learning some theology, I realized that the simple way in which my mother had talked about God was exactly right. Nothing escapes His notice. Jesus said that every idle word we speak will be brought into judgment (Matt. 12:36). I can imagine standing before the bar of God’s justice while He brings out a recording of my life so that I have to listen to every offensive thing I said during my life. I do not want that to happen. I want my sin to be covered long before I get to that point.

The third thing Edwards said we hate about God is His omnipotence. If He were impotent, we would have nothing to worry about, but He is all-powerful. There is no force in heaven and on earth that can subdue His strength. As the psalmist declares:

The kings of the earth set themselves,

And the rulers take counsel together,

Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,

“Let us break Their bonds in pieces

And cast away Their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,

And distress them in His deep displeasure:

“Yet I have set My King

On My holy hill of Zion.” …

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear,

And rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And you perish in the way. (Ps. 2:2–6, 10–12)

Jeremiah cried out to God, “You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed” (Jer. 20:7). If God overwhelms us, nothing could be more tautological than to say that we have been overwhelmed. Nothing we do can defeat the power of God.

Edwards gave those three and then one more. The fourth thing about God that we hate is His immutability. God is unchanging. Why would we be hostile toward God’s immutability? Edwards anticipated our mystification and explained that since God is immutable, not only has He been absolutely holy from everlasting to everlasting, but there is no hope that He will ever stop being holy. Sometimes we root for righteous people to fail so that we will not be embarrassed by their excellence. God’s holiness is an immutable holiness. We cannot hope that at some day in the future, God’s omniscience will fail Him.

When we talk about being forgiven, we say that God not only forgives our sin but also forgets it. We are tempted to think of this as some sort of memory lapse on God’s part so that once He has forgiven us, He cannot recall that we had ever sinned. That is not what God’s forgetting is about. God still knows every sin that we have ever committed and that He has forgiven. He will always have that knowledge because that knowledge is immutable. When the Bible speaks of His forgetting our sins, it means that He remembers them against us no more. He is fully aware of our transgressions, but He does not remind us. He does not call them to mind or hold them against us. That is the essence of forgiveness, and we need to imitate that in this world. When we offer someone forgiveness, we are making a commitment never to bring up the wrong again. If he does the same sin to us again, we still cannot hold it against him. To forgive is to erase the slate. Our culture today, however, has a cheap understanding of forgiveness.

Finally, there is no hope that God will ever lose any of His power. His right arm will not be weakened. He will be in eternity as omnipotent then as He is today. All of this teaches us that God is a formidable opponent. When we are hostile toward Him and estranged, we are in a battle we cannot possibly win. The only way the battle can end is by our unconditional surrender, which is what we are doing when we get on our knees and say, “Forgive us our debts.” That is an act of giving up and saying, “God, I cannot fight you. I do not want to be estranged from you but restored. I want to be able to love you, not hate you, and I want you to love me in spite of my hostility toward you.”

Forgive Us Our Debts

With respect to this petition we are told to ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The best commentators tells us at this point that if were to take this literally, we would be finished, because if God forgave us in exact proportion to how we forgive others, we would perish. Thank God that this is an aspiration rather than a condition. Jesus is teaching us to aspire to reflect the kindness of God and to be ready to forgive anyone who has sinned against us or offended us when he repents.

There is a lot to learn in this petition; we have only scratched the surface of what sin is about and what forgiveness means. There is no greater experience than to get up off your knees knowing that in God’s sight you are clean and that He has forgiven every sin you have ever committed. That grace—that forgiveness—is something we all need, and we need it desperately.⁴

1 Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (pp. 146–148). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

2 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34, pp. 92–93). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

3 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 1895–1896). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

4 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 159–165). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.