Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil; For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
5th Petition
“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
So often we find ourselves mouthing words in worship and in prayer without thinking about what we are saying. We pray the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us our inattentiveness and our empty words. We further implore Him to direct our thoughts and our words so that we always speak what we mean and mean what we speak when we address Him in worship and prayer. We praise our Lord for His patience with us and for His grace toward us in that He forgives us over and over again instead of treating us as we deserve. For surely it is true as we confess in the 5th petition of the Lord’s Prayer as taught by Dr. Luther: “We daily sin much and indeed deserve nothing but punishment.”
In this petition, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we ask that our Heavenly Father would not look upon our sins, but graciously, for Jesus’ sake, forgive them. We have the wonderful assurance from the Scriptures that the Father is pleased to forgive us our sins, yes, even the dullness of our devotion, for Jesus’ sake. For this cause Jesus came into the world. His perfection covers our imperfections; His holiness covers our sins; His death has paid our penalty; and His resurrection has put an exclamation mark to His word from the cross: “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30). By virtue of His finished work, our sins have been forgiven.
The forgiveness of sins is a gift in which to delight and for which to thank our God. Forgiveness of sins is not license to live a life of sin or to think of sin lightly. It is the power to fight against sin. Daily the Christian will lament his sin and be thankful to God for His grace.
Our thanks for forgiveness is given in words and also shown in our actions. We cannot earn forgiveness of sins, but we can lose that gift if we find ourselves unwilling or unable to forgive our neighbor. Take your Bible and read Matthew 18:22-35 as well as Mark 11:25-26. Now think about what you are praying. “Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us.” Have we ever said or thought, “I can (will) never forgive him (her) for what was done to me”? Then ask yourself a question: “Do I really want God to forgive me as I forgive my neighbor?” This in turn will lead the honest heart to confess, “Lord, I have sinned. Forgive me for Jesus’ sake, and help me, O Lord, to forgive my neighbor, to put behind me all grudges.” Remember, forgiveness is not approval.
Jesus forgave us our sin, though He did not approve of our sin. Jesus died for us. He has forgiven us at great cost to Himself. He did not complain or murmur. For those who crucified Him, and ultimately for us, He prayed to His Father, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). If our God has forgiven us and continues to forgive a mountain of sin daily, even those sins which we do not know (Ps. 19:12), can we not find it in our heart to forgive our neighbor who has not sinned against us in the same magnitude as our sin against God?
Even as we continue to sin in weakness and by reason of our flesh, the Father is strong in grace to forgive. As we contemplate that and rejoice in that forgiveness, “We will also heartily forgive and readily do good to those who sin against us.” The fact that we fail is certainly no reason to quit trying, and is good reason to daily pray, “Forgive us our trespasses . . . “. The Lord will give the strength for the next day and the new desire to forgive as we have been forgiven.
–Pastor Daniel Fleischer
A comparison of two currently used version --
THE FIFTH PETITION
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would
not look upon our sins, nor on their account deny our prayer; for we are
worthy of none of the things for which we pray, neither have we deserved
them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much
and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So will we also heartily forgive
and readily do good to those who sin against us.
--DR. MARTIN LUTHER'S Small Catechism (Concordia Publ. House, 1943)
The Fifth Petition
"And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
What does this mean?
We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look on our sins or
deny our prayer because of them. We are not worthy of things for which we are
asking, neither have we deserved them. However, we ask that our Father would by
His grace give us what we ask; even though we sin often every day and indeed
deserve nothing but punishment. We, too, will from our hearts gladly forgive and
do good to all those who sin against us.
--MARTIN LUTHER'S SMALL CATECHISM (Sydow edition, 1988)