The Lord’s Prayer - "Those Who Sin Against Us“

The Lord’s Prayer - "Those Who Sin Against Us”

If you are a human being, I know something about you. I know that you and I have something in common. At some time or another you have had another human being sin against you. Welcome to the club.

When that happens, it hurts. So, how do we manage that? What is the Christian response to it? It’s helpful to look at the Psalms. David was a target of sin many times, but his prayer in Psalms 51 is different than his other prayers. That’s because Psalm 51 is his prayer for forgiveness after HE was the offending party. He was the sinner.

Twice in that prayer, he asks God to “blot out” his sin. The Hebrew word for blotting out something is “Machah.” It means to obliterate or to annihilate. You see, David was already forgiven.

2 Samuel 12:13

“Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has taken away your sin...’”

Now, he was going the extra step required in true forgiveness. When David cried out to the Lord, it was not just to be forgiven but for his sin to be completely erased. That picture of complete forgiveness should be smacking you and I right in the face about now. Jesus erased our sin so that it no longer exists. It is gone.

Acts 3:19

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

THAT is how we are to forgive others. That’s not easy, is it? But that’s exactly what God did for you and me. He is serious about our sin yet He gave up His Son in order to obliterate our sin forever. Hebrews tells us that He remembers our sins no more!

When you experience a sinful offense against you, remember that Jesus went the distance to erase even the memory of your sin. We need to follow in those footsteps. What peace could be had if we could only live up to that.