- Word of Salvation – Vol. 13 No.46 – November 1967
Getting Rid Of Our Debts
Sermon by Rev. G. I. Williamson on Matthew 6:12
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:1-15
Psalter Hymnal: 299; 34; 138; 228
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The substance of what we have thus far discovered in our consideration of the Lord’s prayer, can be stated in two simple statements. First, God is everything – and second, man is nothing! Or, as the Shorter Catechism expresses it: man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. That is why we are first taught to pray that God will be honoured – that his Kingdom will come and his will be done in earth as it is in heaven – before we ask anything for ourselves! And that is also why we are taught to begin our humble petitions for ourselves with the request for ‘daily bread’. For in this way we are forcefully reminded of the fact that we deserve not the least of the tender mercies of the Lord.
It is characteristic of man – now that he has fallen into the state of sin and misery to reverse this order precisely. Being completely blinded to his own wickedness and guilt, he not only likes to hold a good opinion of himself, but even more likes to think of himself as deserving every conceivable possession and pleasure in this world. He is, in actual fact, more inclined to think that God owes him something, than to think that he owes God a debt that he can never pay! But that is exactly why the natural man can never pray the Lord’s Prayer. And we see this even more clearly than before, as we consider the words of the fifth petition.
I. OUR DUTY
Is it not perfectly obvious that we could never say the words of this petition if man were not created for the purpose of doing service to God? A debt can only arise where there is first the obligation of service. A debt can never arise, where a man does not have obligation to render servitude to another.
Of course we usually think of such obligations as a purely voluntary matter. If we do not like the people that we are working for, we look around for a more attractive place to work. Or, if we happen to be in a position to hire other people, we tell them that they won’t be needed, if we do not like the way they do their work. Under such conditions of voluntary servitude we can terminate the arrangement if we do not like the obligations involved. Nevertheless, there are obligations. There are debts that we have the duty to pay – whether it be in the form of honest labour, or in the form of a just wage. And if either side withholds that which is just and equal, there is a debt which will always remain until that debt is paid.
But in man’s relationship to God, it is not possible to terminate the arrangement. God created man in his own image, and commanded him to do certain things. And the fact that God is man’s creator, while man is God’s creature, imposes upon man a duty he can never lay aside. This relationship is not like that which exists between a worker and his employer. It is rather like the relationship that exists between children and their parents. They are born – not because they wanted to be born – but because the parents wanted them to be born. And they are born, not as equals to their parents, but as minor subjects to their parents. So, whether they like it or not, they are – and always will be – the children of those particular parents, no matter what they do. That is their responsibility, and if they do not do it, they have only made themselves ‘debtors’. They owe to their parents something that they have not paid.
In the case of man and God, furthermore, the duty is absolute faithfulness. It is man’s duty to do everything that God commands, and never to do anything that God forbids. Since God is perfect, he as the Lord and ruler of man has the right to require perfect obedience from man. And this is exactly what the Scripture tells us that God does require. “Be ye therefore perfect”, says our Lord, “even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. According to the Bible, this simply means that it is man’s duty to perfectly obey the Ten Commandments of God. For the scripture calls this the perfect law of liberty! And these Ten Commandments, in turn, teach us that there are two great aspects of this perfect duty for man. The first four commandments clearly teach that man’s primary duty is to worship the true and living God – with all the heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.
And the last six commandments just as clearly teach that man must serve his God as a member of the human race by loving his neighbour as he loves himself.
Perhaps the strangest idea that ever occurred to the mind of sinful man, is the thought that by ‘doing the best that we can’ we can merit something from God. But this is just like saying that an employer owes a good wage to his employee even if he only does a small part of the job he was hired to do! This is what our Lord said about such a matter: “When ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do!’ (Lk.17:10).
II. OUR DEBT
But if the first principle reflected in this petition is that we owe the duty of perfect obedience to God, the second principle equally evident is that we have not discharged that duty as we ought. For debt is nothing but an unpaid obligation. When we pray “forgive us our debts,” we therefore acknowledge that every deviation from the standard of perfect righteousness incurs a penalty that must be paid.
According to the Bible there are two entirely different kinds of debts.
(1) On the one hand, there is the debt that we owe because we have done that which God has forbidden. And the Bible says that the penalty or debt for this kind of sin is the wrath of God and the infliction of suffering in hell. This is like the debt that a criminal owes, because he has stolen, or murdered. When such a person is apprehended he is taken before the judge. And the judge determines what the punishment will be. And then, as Jesus once said, he is delivered “to the officer and…. cast into prison”. Then, speaking directly to such a person, our Lord said: “Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”
But that is the terrible thing about our “debt” unto God. There is no way that we can ever pay! We tend to think of sin as only a little thing, because it is simply a momentary act performed by a creature. But the Bible says that we cannot measure sin correctly until we see that it is an offense unto God. Sin is sin because it is disobedience to the infinite and eternal God. So it can only be paid by an infinite and eternal punishment. That is why the scripture plainly says that those who are at last cast into hell to pay the debt of sin, will never come out again. It is not because God likes to torment his helpless creatures. No, it is only because there is no other way for sinful man to pay the debt for himself – and that is what brings men to hell – the determination to pay that debt for themselves.
(2) The other kind of debt is that which we owe because we have not done what God requires. And again, in this case also, when once we have failed even for a moment to do what God requires, there is nothing that we can do but suffer the penalty of hell. Some people imagine that if they have not done what God requires of them yesterday, they can make up for it by doing what God requires today. Some even think that they can do more than God requires today, in order to make up for what they failed to do yesterday. But this reminds me of a story I heard about one of the great orchestras when it was making a very difficult recording. Everything was going well, when one of the trumpet players dropped his mute on the floor. Everyone heard that mute drop, and yet no one stopped. In fact, everyone worked harder than ever to finish the recording with the touch of perfection. And it was, in many respects, the most perfect performance that they ever gave. But unfortunately, nothing changed the fact that that mute was dropped on the floor. And the record reveals that fact. No matter how well they played after the mute was dropped, the record shows that there was no perfect performance. Of course that orchestra was able to do it over. But we are not able to live our lives over. We cannot go back and start again from the beginning. What’s done is done and we cannot change it. That is why the Bible says that, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. No one has ever yet made the perfect record that God requires, except our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But God has never made the least concession to this lamentable fact. Some people would like to believe that God has said something like this: ‘Well, I can see by now that I have asked too much. So I’ll just have to lower the standard of righteousness at least far enough for some to reach it! But the scripture says that our Holy God could never make such a horrible compromise with sin. No! “We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
III. OUR DESPERATION
When our Lord taught us to pray this petition, he taught us to acknowledge our desperate plight, and at the same time to admit that there is nothing whatever that we can do to remedy the situation! For surely we would not ask God to forgive us our debts if there were any conceivable way that we ourselves could pay! What could possibly be more self-evident than that? And yet – to this day – there are multitudes who still go on with the incredible delusion that they can pay this debt to God!
Mr. Average Man in our day is a good example of this delusion. He believes in the doctrine of ‘good works” as the solution to man’s need of acceptance with God. He is quite willing to admit that he is not perfect. And it gives him great comfort to know that others are not perfect either. He will even cheerfully admit that there are others more righteous than himself. But still, because he avoids the big sins, and tries to do at least some little bit of positive good, he is convinced that he will not experience the eternal wrath of God. He says that his religion is the ‘golden rule” – doing unto others as he would have them to do unto him. And as far as he is concerned a loving God could never possibly expect anything more than this.
Others have a view which sounds considerably more like the teaching of scripture. And at first sight, it also seems. to be a turning from reliance upon human works to a reliance upon the mercy and grace of God. These people ask God to forgive them for the sins that they have done because they realize that their debt is much too great for them to pay in their own strength alone. But at the same time, they do not want to admit that this is all there is to the matter. No, at the same time, they also want to take at least part of the credit themselves. And so they think that their salvation is partly due to what God is willing to do for sinners, and partly due to what sinners are willing to do for themselves. If they do their part, then God will do his part. If they repent of their sins, and believe in the Lord, partaking of the sacraments and attending Church faithfully, then God will forgive their sins and accept them as righteous on account of what they have done. But when we read the Bible, we find that this is not really a Christian view at all. For the Bible says that if we are saved by God – that is “by grace, it is no more of works” at all, “otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace” at all “otherwise work is no more work”. And the simple truth of the matter is that so long as we operate upon any theory which holds that God does part and we do part of what is necessary for our salvation, God will not do anything at all, and we will be lost. And the reason is that we are really not able to do anything in the matter of making ourselves righteous before God. For, as the Bible says: Of ourselves we can do nothing!
The proof of this fact – that man can do nothing when it comes to his own salvation from sin – is just that man finds it so impossible to accept the fact that he can do nothing. The one thing that men will hold on to above all else is just the false notion that they can at least do something to gain salvation from God. That is why so many people even within the Christian Church find it so hard to accept the doctrines of our historic reformed faith. Why is it that the doctrine of man’s total inability is so hard for men to accept? And why is it that the doctrine of eternal divine election is such an offense to the heart of a sinner? What makes the doctrine of Christ’s death as a substitute for some men only, rather than for all men, a stumbling block? And for what reason is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit’s irresistible grace an unpleasant thing to those who need it most? Well, it is just that man hates to face up to the fact that he can do nothing – nothing at all – to save himself from sin.
But how – I ask you – can a man ever pray this petition, until he has at last come to admit the fact that it is so? For what is this petition but a cry of a lost sinner to his God, in which he asks God by himself to do what he cannot ever possibly do for himself? When we suffer the sad delusion that we can do something – even a small part – of what is necessary for salvation, what then is our prayer to God? Let us imagine what such a prayer would be like for a man who somehow thinks that he himself is able to contribute something to his own salvation.
Perhaps he thinks that he can, by his own natural power, repent of his past sins. Or again, he may imagine that he can, by his own strength, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well then what will his prayer be? It will not be that God will forgive – but rather that God will give him something because of what he has done. He will ask God to give him eternal life because he has repented and because he has believed. But on the other hand, what will be the prayer of that man who understands that even his repentance and faith are themselves a part of God’s gift of eternal life? Well, his prayer will be the prayer that our Lord taught his disciples. He will not come to God saying, ‘Look Lord – look what I have done, now give me my reward!’ No, he will say, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” He will say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors!”
IV. THE DELIVERANCE
And the wonder of the gospel of Christ is, that he will forgive all who come to Him on this basis alone. For the Bible says that, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1) And this means, above all, that we must come to God with the humble admission of the fact that we do not deserve what we ask. When a man comes to God with the idea that he has done something – no matter how little – he is really only an offense unto God. But why is it an offense? It is because it is not really so. God is a God of truth. He cannot but hate that which is false. But when a sinner comes to God admitting the truth admitting that he has nothing by which he can claim that he is different from others he is by that very fact acceptable unto God.
(2) That is why the Bible always commands us to seek our salvation by pure grace alone. The man who cried to Christ, “I believe, Lord, help mine unbelief,” was heard because he did not have the false idea that he could believe in and of himself. When the prophet of old said, “turn us, and we shall be turned” he did not have the false idea that he could repent by his own strength and power. And whenever a man sees things this way, he is seeking salvation by God’s pure grace alone. “For by grace are ye saved through faith,” says the Apostle, “and that – that faith – not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
(3) And this is one and the same with saying that such a man already manifests the fact that he is a new creature in Christ. For none but a new creature in Christ can ever come to the place that he will seek salvation from God on the basis of pure grace.
Do we not see this very thing in the second part of this petition? For he who prays in truth “forgive us our debts,” must also be able to pray, “as we forgive our debtors.” And you know what our Lord Jesus Christ said about that! “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you – that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?” Does a Christian obey our Lord when he does not forgive the injury that is done unto him, until the one who has offended has first done something to make up for it? No, the very thing that makes the Christian different from the unbeliever is that he forgives those who do not do anything to “make up for” the wrong they have done! And in this the believer simply reflects the grace that he has received from God. We love him, said John, because he first loved us. It was first that he gave us his grace, and only then that we did repent and believe. And so we also forgive our debtors even though they have done nothing whatever to deserve, or even seek, our forgiveness. Like our Lord before us, we simply say, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do!’
Now I know that this has always seemed like a ‘hard pill to swallow’. It has always seemed like robbery to man, when he hears that God is everything and he is nothing and that God does everything pertaining to salvation – and that he can do nothing. But like some other ‘bitter pills’ it is really good medicine. For the Bible says that when men do come to God in this way – admitting their debt – and admitting that they can do nothing at all to pay the debt then God himself will pay the debt forever through the sacrifice of his Son. Yes, he will take the guilt of all their sin, and cast it into the depths of the sea. He will remove it as far as the east is from the west, He will remember it no more. And what is more, he will put upon that sinner as the Father in the parable put upon his long-lost son the best robe, even the robe of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. From that very day – down through all the endless ages of eternity – that man will be fully and perfectly acceptable in God’s sight! But it will not be because God has changed his mind about sin! No, it will only be because God has changed the sinner’s mind about sin, in order that the sinner himself might be separated from his sin forever. No, it will not be because God has decided – after all – to let guilty sinners come into his presence on account of having done the best that they can! Rather will it be because they are not sinners any more – not in God’s sight – for the wonder of it is that those who come to God for the entirety of their salvation, saying “forgive” shall then hear the wonderful news of the gospel of Christ, which says, that:
“He hath made him to be sin, for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
As the Psalmist has truly said,
“How blest is he whose trespass has freely been forgiven,
whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven.
Blest he to whom Jehovah will not impute his sin,
who has a guileless spirit, whose heart is true within”.
And whose heart is true within? It is just that man who understands that it is his duty to be perfect. It is just that man who understands that there will be no peace between him and God until he is perfect. It is just that man who knows that he has a debt that must be paid and that he cannot do anything at all to pay it! Yes, he is that man who at last comes to his senses, and says, “Thou must save and thou alone – forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. That man indeed shall receive the blessing of the Lord.
AMEN.