“12 Forgive us our debts...”
Mark Twain intended to visit Hawaii for a week. He stayed for five. He thought it was a paradise. He thought that it must have been even better before the missionaries came.
He wrote that these missionaries, “braved a thousand [dangers] to come and make [the natives] permanently miserable by telling them how beautiful and how blissful a place heaven is, and how nearly impossible it is to get there… showed [the native] what rapture it is to work all day long for fifty cents to buy food for next day with, as compared with fishing for a pastime and lolling in the shade through eternal summer, and eating of the bounty that nobody labored to provide but Nature. How sad it is to think of the multitudes who have gone to their graves in this beautiful island and never knew there was a hell.”
Twain’s sarcasm is dripping at the end, “How sad it is to think of the multitudes who have gone to their graves in this beautiful island and never knew there was a hell.”
Mark Twain thought people were better off before they knew about sin and hell. He thought that Christianity created problems rather than solving problems. Twain thought the natives only needed forgiveness once the missionaries made them feel like sinners.
You live in a culture that increasingly agrees with Mark Twain. You live in a culture that increasingly thinks that Christianity creates far more problems than it solves. ‘Sin and hell aren’t real. They are superstitions and the quicker this nation gets rid of this Christian heritage the happier we will all be.’
That’s a very modern thought. It isn’t a very new thought –it has been said many times before. It isn’t a very new thought, but it is a very modern thought. People agree with Mark Twain and think that once we rid ourselves of ideas like sin and hell, everyone will be happy again like they were in Hawaii before the missionaries came, “fishing for a pastime and lolling in the shade through eternal summer, and eating of the bounty that nobody labored to provide but Nature.”
Twain deserves an answer. If people have genuine objections, and Twain was certainly genuine in his objection, they deserve an answer.
Twain would say that the prayer, “forgive us our debts,” is the product of a diseased mind because sin is superstition. There is nothing to forgive and no one to forgive it. Jesus trains his disciples to pray, “forgive us our debts.” He believes there is something to forgive and someone to forgive it. Who is right?
Do you care who is right? If Twain is right, you are wasting your time here. You might placate your dad or your mom by being part of a church, but if Twain is right this is a waste. If Jesus is right, Twain –despite all his wit—found himself unforgiven and all his sarcasm can’t wish his misery away.
If sin is real, it must be dealt with. It can only be dealt with by forgiveness. That’s the claim of this sermon: sin can only be dealt with by forgiveness.
We are going to study this in three points. First: the need for forgiveness. Second: the forgiveness of sins. Third: how forgiveness happens. First, we are going to think through Twain’s objection and ask if forgiveness is really necessary at all. Second, we are going to see what can and must be forgiven. Third: we are going to see how sin is forgiven.
First: the need for forgiveness. Twain scoffed at the missionaries who, “braved a thousand [dangers] to come and make [the natives] permanently miserable by telling them how beautiful and how blissful a place heaven is, and how nearly impossible it is to get there.”
The problem with Twain’s logic is that the natives were already miserable before the missionaries came. They didn’t live in innocence before the missionaries came with their talk about sin and how it angered God. They natives understood guilt well before the missionaries came. They knew what shame felt like before the missionaries came. They feared the wrath of God before the missionaries came. Their problem was they had no idea what to do with sin, guilt, shame, and wrath.
Pagan Hawaiians still talk about the wrath of their god. Earlier this year, the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupted and Twain’s natives were quick to talk in hushed tones about their goddess, Pele, “the woman who devours the earth.” “Pele created Hawaii,” said one worshipper, “she is that primordial force that exists within all land masses. And she can be vengeful, so watch out.”
Why was Pele so angry? Why did that volcano erupt? What sin did the people commit? Worshippers of Pele have no idea. This goddess has never told them what angers her. She has never told them how they can appease her wrath. “There’s nothing to do when Pele makes up her mind but accept her will,” said Lokelani Puha, a hula dancer and poet.
Twain scoffs saying that Christianity makes people neurotic about sin. The truth is that people are neurotic about sin without Christ. They are neurotic because they have no idea what is sin and what is safe. They are constantly walking through a moral mine field not knowing what will anger God and what will make peace with God.
We see this in an Akkadian prayer entitled, “A prayer to every god.” Akkadian was the language of much of Mesopotamia, the area we think of as Babylon. These people lived near Israel. This man’s prayer was the way Israel’s neighbors thought about sin before they knew anything about the law of Moses. “The sin, which I have committed, I know not. The iniquity, which I have done, I know not. The offense, which I have committed, I know not. The transgression I have done, I know not… Although I am constantly looking for help, no one takes me by the hand; When I weep, they do not come to my side; I utter laments, but no one hears me; I am troubled; I am overwhelmed; I cannot see. Man is dumb; he knows nothing; Mankind, everyone that exists – what does he know? Whether he is committing sin or doing good, he does not even know.”
This man would welcome Twain’s missionaries with open arms because they could finally tell him what was sin and what wasn’t. Those natives who Twain envied weren’t ignorant of sin. They knew they were in sin but they had no idea what actions were sin. They had no idea what angered God. They walked through a moral mine field every day of their lives.
They had no idea how to stop God’s wrath. Listen to another part of that Akkadian prayer, “I kiss the feet of my goddess and [crawl before her]… How long, my god… How long, my goddess, until thy face be turned toward me? How long, known and unknown god, until the anger of thy heart be pacified? How long, known and unknown goddess, until thy unfriendly heart be pacified?”
Put yourself in that man’s place. You have no idea what you’ve done to anger God. You have no idea how to make it better. Put yourself in those Hawaiians place. You have no idea what you’ve done to anger Pele and no idea how to make it better.
That’s the condition of the modern man as well. He hasn’t wished sin away. He hasn’t shed himself of wrath. He might not try to appease his tribal deity like those Hawaiians, but he is dealing with guilt and shame all the same.
Some try to take care of guilt and shame through psychiatry. Now psychiatry has a very legitimate place in our lives, but it can’t make a man right with God any more than it can put a crown on a man’s tooth. Modern man tries to deal with his religious questions through counseling. That’s like me going to a carpenter for plumbing problems. He might be a very good carpenter, but plumbing isn’t his trade. Psychiatry can’t answer questions of sin and guilt.
Modern man also tries to deal with sin and guilt by inventing his own god and there is nothing more ancient than that. You see people inventing gods all over our culture. People like to say they are spiritual but not religious. They think that ultimate matters of wrath and grace are whatever you make of them. They think that faith is a lot more like modern art than it is like math. It can be whatever you want it to be and so people believe some strange things. “When man ceases to worship God, he does not worship nothing; he worships everything,” to compress a few Chesterton quotes.
The problem is that this spirituality without the Father of Jesus doesn’t do a thing to take away guilt. It doesn’t do a thing to cover shame. It doesn’t do a thing to make a man right with God and that’s why any man who says he is spiritual but not religious takes his beliefs very lightly. He has to take his own beliefs lightly because he doesn’t really know what he believes. He is making it up as he is going along. Like the man in that Akkadian prayer, he builds his life on what he neither knows nor understands.
When translated, that Akkadian prayer is 450 words long and offers no hope of being right with God. When translated, this morning’s prayer is four words long. It is short because it deals with the living God. It is that short because the speaker knows God personally. “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” That’s the Akkadian’s prayer. That’s the Hawaiian’s prayer. “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” The Father knows you need forgiveness. The question this morning is do you?
You need your sins forgiven. That’s the second point: the forgiveness of sins. Jesus trains us to pray, “forgive us our debts.” These debts are our sins against God and others. We must call sin ‘sin.’ God doesn’t forgive mistakes. Mistakes don’t require forgiveness. Sin requires forgiveness.
Do you know when you sin? God is kind enough to clarify what is sin and what isn’t sin. That is gracious. That man offering that Akkadian prayer never knew what was sin and what was safe. Those Hawaiians have no idea what angers God and so they live in fear. If you don’t know what sin is, you can’t ask for forgiveness of sins.
Do you know when you sin? Is hitting your wife a sin? Is belittling your child a sin? Is getting drunk a sin? Is looking at pornography a sin? Is wanting something that isn’t yours a sin? Is accidentally calling someone the wrong name a sin? Is forgetting to pay your credit card bill on time a sin? The first five are. The last two aren’t. Just because you feel bad about something doesn’t mean it is a sin. Just because you don’t feel bad about something doesn’t mean it isn’t a sin. God tells you what is and what isn’t sin and only He knows and can tell us because sin is what offends Him.
If you are new to the faith, I beg you to keep hearing about sin and forgiveness. If you don’t know what’s sin, you can’t enjoy the forgiveness of sin. You can’t put that sin to death and enjoy God’s favor, a clean conscience, freedom from Satan’s schemes, and harmony with other people. That’s what Jesus offers. That’s why he trains us to pray, “forgive us our debts.”
Jesus calls us to confess our sin. Confession is not natural to man. Wanting to silence your guilty conscience – that’s natural. Judas wanted to silence his conscience. “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us?’ they said. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”
That’s not confession. Judas just wanted his guilty conscience to be quiet. He wanted it quieted so badly that he took his own life. Some people try to quiet their conscience with hours of TV. Judas tried to quiet it by suicide. Judas knew better. He was most likely there when Jesus gave this training. He knew what confession involved. He wasn’t willing to confess his sin. Are you willing to confess your sin?
Confession is not natural to man. Neither is confession common. Blaming others is common. What did Adam say when God confronted his sin? “It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Adam went so far as to blame God. “The woman You put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Have you ever blamed God rather than confessed sin? ‘God, I only lied because You put me in an impossible situation.’ ‘God, how else could I act considering the parents You gave me?’ Blaming others and blaming God are not confession of sin. That’s not praying, “forgive us our debts.”
Confession is not natural. Confession is not common. Confession is not easy. If it were easy to confess sin, David never would have recorded this sad but common experience, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” It’s as if God said, ‘You’ve got a choice - confession or keep living in misery.’
Maybe that is you this morning. Maybe you are here, and you are conscience stricken and every day you fight to pretend that what you are doing is right. Since God loves you, He is giving you no relief until you confess, “forgive us our debts.”
Why is confession so hard? Why is confession so rare? Why is it so unnatural? Why would some people rather live in misery than confess? Why would some people, like Judas, rather die than confess?
Confession involves exposure. Genesis 3:9, “the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ When you confess your sin to God – “forgive us our debts” - you are as naked as Adam and Eve in the garden - ‘This is what I have done.’ Some people think it is more comfortable to lie to themselves and to God than to see and say the truth.
Hiding sin is a foolish way forward. It doesn’t work. In the end, all sin will be exposed. God’s word to Babylon is His word to the world, “Your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered. I will take vengeance; I will spare no one.” Expose your sin now and God will cover it. Hide your sin now and God will uncover it.
Confession is hard because it involves exposure. Confession is also hard because it involves acknowledging the depth of your sin. To pray, “forgive us our debts,” you need to understand how badly you need your sin forgiven. Do you understand how bad yours sins are? Do you believe your sin deserves death – your death? If you don’t think your sin deserves death then you don’t yet understand the depths of your need for forgiveness. You deserve to die for your sins. “The wages of sin is death.”
That’s why Christ needed to die in your place – he didn’t sit in a time out chair in your place, he wasn’t grounded in your place, he didn’t go to jail in your place - he died in your place because that’s what your sin deserves. If you grasp that, you know the debt that has been forgiven – “forgive us our debts.”
How do you deal with sin? Do you, like Twain, wish you never had a Christian upbringing because you imagine that then wouldn’t feel so guilty about sin? Do you pretend what you are doing isn’t sin? Do you distract yourself for yet another day with entertainment? Do you drown your conscience in alcohol? Do you try to get rid of the guilt before God by looking for reassurance from mere humans?
None of that will work. If you’ve tried any of that, you know it doesn’t work. Jesus knows how to deal with sin. We see how he deals with it in our final point: how forgiveness happens.
How is sin forgiven? Feeling sorry for what you did is not enough. If feeling sorry for what we did was enough that Akkadian man would have been forgiven, “I kiss the feet of my goddess and [crawl before her]… How long, my god… How long, my goddess, until thy face be turned toward me?” That man wasn’t forgiven. Just because you feel sorry for your sin doesn’t mean you are forgiven.
Jesus tells you that if you are going to be forgiven you need to confess your sin to his Father. This is a prayer to the Father. “This, then, is how you should pray, “our Father… forgive us our debts.”
Forgiveness isn’t a psychological trick that cleanses your conscience. Forgiveness is a gift from the Father of Jesus Christ. Allah doesn’t grant forgiveness. Your inner self doesn’t grant forgiveness. The living God who acts in history grants forgiveness. Forgiveness that you imagine is not more real than your imagination. Forgiveness given by the God who created all things is as real as all things.
God the Father is willing to forgive. His Son tells you that the Father will forgive you. If the Father weren’t willing to forgive your sins, Jesus wouldn’t have taught you to pray, “forgive us our debts.”
Jesus knows that the Father will forgive your sins if you confess them to Him. You might think your sins are unforgivable. If you do, I want to ask you a question. Do you know the Father better than Jesus knows Him? Do you imagine that you know God the Father better than God the Son knows Him? Do you think you’ve got a better grasp than Jesus on what God the Father will and won’t forgive?
Jesus knows the Father. Jesus knows the Father will forgive all who confess any sin. He knows that because He knows the cost of the Father’s forgiveness. “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” “Surely he took up our painand bore our suffering,yet we considered him punished by God,stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions,he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him,and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray,each of us has turned to our own way;and the Lord has laid on himthe iniquity of us all.” That’s how God forgives sins – by the cross. That’s how forgiveness happens – the cross. God doesn’t forgive sin just because you feel bad about it. He forgives it because His Son paid the penalty for your sin.
Jesus knew what it would cost him to assure us that sin can be forgiven. Jesus knew what it cost him to train us to pray, “forgive us our debts.” Do you know it costs you to pray, “forgive us our debts”? It will cost you your sin. You need to give up your sin. “Shall we sin because we are…under grace? By no means!”
The question is not, ‘are sin and wrath real?’ Sin and wrath are very real. The question is not, ‘is forgiveness possible?’ The Father is willing and able to forgive. The question that remains is, ‘are you forgiven?’
Maybe you are here this morning and you are a child of the Father, but you’ve stuck yourself in sin and you now know how badly you need forgiveness. Pray, “forgive me my debts.”
Maybe you are here this morning and you are a child of the Father and you have been putting sin to death, you are repentant, but you still have a guilty conscience. You don’t feel forgiven. You need to know that this sense of guilt and shame come from Satan who has deceived you. You are forgiven. 1 John 1:9 is for you, “If we confess our sins, [the Father] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hebrews 10:19 and following is for you, “since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience.”
Maybe you are here this morning and you are not a child of God. You can’t pray, “Father… forgive us our debts,” because God isn’t your Father. What can you do? You can ask Him to be your Father. You can ask Him for salvation from what your sin deserves, which is wrath and death. You can recognize your pride in living for yourself and come to God humbly asking for mercy. You can find that mercy at the cross of Christ.
Jesus takes sin very seriously. That’s why he takes forgiveness very seriously. Some of Jesus’ followers think it is gracious to take sin lightly.
They think they are doing others a favor by taking sin lightly. They think grace takes sin lightly. They act as if sin is a small thing so people don’t feel bad about themselves. That’s not the church of Jesus Christ. He died a gruesome death to atone for sin. He came to save us from sin. Don’t call what put Christ to death ‘not a big deal.’ Don’t say, “well we’re all sinners.” Christ died to put sin to death. He died to forgive it. If you take sin lightly, you will take forgiveness lightly. You will take Jesus’ cross lightly, and you won’t find much joy in Jesus. “'Until sin be bitter,” said Thomas Watson, “Christ will not be sweet.”
Grace doesn’t paper over sin in yourself, in your spouse, or in your children. Grace doesn’t avoid dealing with sin. Grace forgives sin through the cross of Christ. That’s what it takes to forgive anyone’s sin, yours or mine.
That’s what it would have taken to forgive the sin of Mark Twain, but he didn’t believe he had a problem. He thought thinking of himself as a sinner was the problem. Don’t be so foolish. Be forgiven. Amen.