11 - Prayer For Forgiveness

Chapter 11 PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS "forgive us our Debts, as we forgive us our Debtors"

Such is the doctrine of forgiveness ; and it lays the foundation for prayer for forgiveness. When a guilty sinner addresses himself to the God of pardons, with the language on his lips, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," the matter for prayer is to be found in the instructions of God’s word in regard to the principle, the encouragement, and great object of this request. If men are the sinful and ill-deserving creatures which the word of God represents them to be ; if Jesus Christ condescended to lay down his life as a sacrifice for their sins ; and if for his sake God is the God of pardons ; these are good reasons why they should repair to the throne of grace, that the effects of this sacrifice may be applied, and thus may in all its healing powers be conveyed to their own bosoms. These great truths are not only a sufficient warrant for the request, but also intimate the manner and spirit in which it should be offered. The most superficial view of the nature and objects of prayer cannot fail to teach us that such a request as this should be offered with great seriousness of mind. We would not go into the presence of an earthly prince, even though it were to solicit an ordinary favor, without forethought and preparation ; much less would we come as culprits to his throne to beg the interposition of royal prerogative in the exercise of the pardoning power, without respect and reverence. In prayer, we go into the presence of our Maker, to solicit audience of Him whose word spake worlds into existence, and before whom "all nations are as nothing, and are counted to him less than nothing and vanity." We go to entreat him to condescend to hear and pardon a human rebel; to plead at the throne of the " King eternal, immortal, and invisible," f or the deliverance of the soul that will never die, from chains of darkness and vials of wrath. It is no trilling matter to hold communion with the God of heaven on such an errand as this. He is mighty to save and to destroy. If before him angels bow and devils tremble, no sinner may take his name upon his lips, without feeling that it is a word of solemn, of awful, of gracious import. If ever the soul ought to command itself into veneration and awe, it is when she comes to cast herself upon the mercy of God in Christ, for the pardon of sin. To go in a careless, unprepared manner, with trifling and disrespect, or without great consideration and seriousness, or without unaffected tenderness of conscience and heart, were to offer the prayer that is emphatically an abomination. Such requests are worse than " vain oblations ;" they are gross insult, insolence not to be endured, were not the divine patience lengthened out even to long-suffering.

There is also an honesty of intention, a simplicity and godly sincerity in the man who offers this request, without which he may not hope to find access. A cold, formal, listless mind when the transgressor pleads for mercy, is in ill keeping with the object of his prayer. It is a guilty and sinful worm who has sinned against heaven and before God, and is no more worthy to be called his servant, much less to be accounted his child, who sues for mercy from the dread Lord of heaven and earth, and the compassionate Father of all mercies . Surely, if the heart ought ever to respond to every sentence the lips utter, it is when he is thus employed. Such a suppliant may well fill his mouth with arguments, and urge his request by all those considerations which a reflecting mind and a burdened conscience can draw from the fountains of God’s truth and the riches of his grace. He will not satisfy himself with the words of prayer, but from a burdened heart will say, " I am poor and needy ; O God, help me! Thou art my helper and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God !" The soul itself is at such seasons brought near to Him who is a Spirit and must be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

There is earnestness in the man, who, touched with his lost condition as a sinner, comes in sober verity to the foot of the throne, to crave pardon from a forgiving God, that bespeaks the struggles that are within. " Out of the depths," says the agonizing Psalmist, " have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord hear my voice ; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications !" The horror of the deserved curse is that which he deprecates; and if he prays as he ought, a dying man cannot be more sincere and in earnest. " Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions ! " Yes, there is honesty, there is interest, there is awakened attention and steady thought, there is eagerness of desire, that not unfrequently express themselves in " strong crying and many tears," when lips of clay plead for mercy from the God of mercy. Many a deep emotion agitates the bosom then. To be in an unforgiven state, is to be in a fearful state. Woe to the man whose thoughts were never engrossed by this great concern and to whom pardon and peace, through the blood of Jesus, do not appear more important realities than all the phantoms ever crowded within the compass of this perishing world ! To be offered either in seriousness or in sincerity, this request must also be offered in penitence. Arrested attention and awakened sensibility, earnestness and agony in prayer, may not always be the sure and unfailing indices of a broken and contrite heart. Thousands have no doubt cried for mercy, amid the convulsive agonies of death, who died in impenitence and despair. A man may tremble under the rebukes of a terrified conscience ; he may weep and turn pale at the fear of hell, without shedding one tear of contrition, without one pang of godly sorrow.

Penitence implies a sense of sin, mourning on account of it, hatred of it, and turning from it unto God. The Gospel is no " glad tidings of great joy" to those who do not feel their need of pardon. Pardon and a sense of sin that is humbling to the soul, stand indissolubly coupled in the Scriptures. There is something absurd in the idea, that an obdurate and impenitent mind ever truly, and in the Scriptural use of the word, ’pray for forgiveness.’ There is no such thing as an impenitent prayer for God’s mercy. There may be the words, the agony, the " exceeding great and bitter cry" of Esau; but there is no prayer. It were an insult to the God of heaven for a man to pray for pardon, and yet continue to walk in the ways of sin and perdition. Such a petition would be implicitly asking God to deny himself. Men may regret that they are sinners, because they are afraid of the recompense of their wickedness; but this is sorrow for the consequences of sin. It is the sorrow of Ahab and of Judas; not the sorrow of David and Peter. It is the " sorrow of the world, that worketh death." It is such a sorrow as the devils have, who still love sin. There is no greater penitentiary in the universe than hell itself; yet is there no godly sorrow there. A sense of sin consists not in a bare rational speculation, or intellectual perception of the nature of sin, nor in the bitterness of grief for its consequences, but in the honest feeling of its baseness, a feeling of its base and hateful evil, and not an evil in its consequences only. Nor is it an abstract view, but a sense of our own wickedness, that becomes us when we approach Him, who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Nor may the truth be overlooked, that external acts are but a small part of that over which the penitent weeps. He is humbled on account of the sins of his heart, as well as the sins of his life. Deep humiliation of soul for his past offenses, and for the present and internal power of sin are inseparable from his every prayer for pardoning mercy.

There can be no pardon granted where this spirit is not in exercise. "He that exalteth himself, shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted." " He that covereth his sins, shall not prosper; but he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy." It is not befitting the great and holy God, even for the sake of his Son, to grant pardon to a man who has no true relentings of soul for his offences. This would be to make his Son " the minister of sin." Men would sin, that his grace might abound. The dispensing power of his government does not extend acts of pardon to such a man ; nor has any man a right to ask for them, on any such terms.

Reason, and conscience, and common sense, all confirm these teachings of the Bible. They teach us that there is a spirit of self-abasement, which is founded on a sense of personal sinfulness, and which throws the sinner at the feet of mercy. And all the experience of godly men does but establish these wholesome teachings.

They " look on Him whom they have pierced, and mourn; " they are ’’ ashamed and confounded, and know not how to lift up their faces any more." They have such a humiliating conviction of their defilement as urges them to cry, " Unclean, unclean!" and such a sorrowful sense of their guilt and unworthiness, as constrains them to cry out, " Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee?"

It is not an inappropriate employment of the soul, before she goes thus to the mercy seat, to call herself to an account, and look into the sins whereby she has offended God. The most honest and enlightened are in the dark as to the number and magnitude of their offences, and have reason to say with the Patriarch, ’’ Make me to know my transgressions and my sins; "and to acknowledge and pray with the Psalmist, " Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults!" The life of the honest suppliant is a life of habitual penitence; but nowhere does he exercise so true, so godly, and so deep a sorrow, as when he comes near to a forgiving God, and contemplates both his majesty and mercy. There at the throne of grace, his heart breaks; at those fountains of mercy, his tears flow. Clad with deformity, covered with filthiness, defiled with the abominations of sin that draws after it everlasting unworthiness and ill-desert, he asks "to be washed and made clean."

There may be those who know nothing of these impressions; there may be those who scoff at them ; but they are far from the kingdom of God. Woe to the man whose sense of sin never disturbs his tranquility; never puts a check on his worldly amusements and gay diversions ; never drives him to his knees to say, " God be merciful to me, a sinner!"

It is no small matter to know how to find the way to the throne of grace with the prayer for forgiveness upon our lips. The man who has not felt this difficulty has yet to learn that he is a sinner. If, as we have already seen, all our devotions of whatever kind, must be offered to God in Christ’s name, and he himself is the altar on which every acceptable offering is laid; there is still a stronger propriety in the appointment that our supplications for pardon be offered in his name, because it is only by redemption through his blood, and forgiveness of sin through the riches of his grace, that such a request could ever have been thought of Other mercies flow through the blood of Christ; but they flow indirectly, and as the consequence of his Propitiation; while the remission of the penalty of the law for sin is the immediate and direct object of his death, and that which made it necessary. The appropriate work of Christ is to take away sin, and by his bitter passion and ignominious death to dissolve the bondage of its curse. True penitence has a living apprehension of the Lord Jesus as the mediatoi and the procurer of pardon; it takes hold of the Lord Jesus as the divine and mighty sufferer; it pleads his agony and bloody sweat, his scoffs and ignominy, his thirst and abandonment, his crown of thorns, his shame and spitting, his bitter cry and his bloody cross. Here it rests its plea. ’’ It is Christ that died." This is the sacrifice which the law honors and with which justice is satisfied. O it is an inexpressible relief to the soul burdened with sin, and bowing to the justice of the sentence that condemns it, to have the confidence that in extending pardon to the guilty there is no sacrifice of righteousness. This great atonement he does, as it were, carry with him to the Mercy Seat. He offers what divine justice requires ; and only wonders that infinite love should have stooped so low as to provide itself the sacrifice, and permit him to offer another’s life instead of his own. The faith of prayer is the prayer of faith. Faith is reliance upon testimony, and is founded on the veracity of the witness. " This is the testimony of God that he hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." And it is " of the operation of God." There is no natural principle in the carnal mind that can produce it. It is " given" to the suppliant " in the behalf of Christ, to believe in his name." Sin is a continual and unmingled lie, and has no affinity to God’s truth. The faith which the sinner exercises in prayer honors the truth of God, and in that truth finds a sufficient warrant to deposit all his solicitude and all his burden on the Lamb of God. He has confidence in his atoning blood. Even under his greatest doubts and distress, he will not quit his hold on the God-man Mediator, nor discard his faith. Lord, none but Thee ; none but Thee !

It is a delightful thought, too, that associated as this request is with the name of Christ, it is offered in hope. Despair cannot pray. Despair has no language but its sullen and expressive silence, or its maddened shriek of agony. It is impossible to pray for pardon, where pardon is hopeless. The mercy seat is the throne of grace, and the emblem of hope. No good comes of despairing of mercy. The adversary would drive the soul to despair, that it may seal its lips of supplication: he would seal the lips of supplication, that he may drive it to despair. Take away all hope of mercy, and the throne which is now so attractive to the guilty, would repel them by its forbidding thunder and its flaming fires. It is only when the suppliant looks to God, not as the Holy God merely; not merely as the Lawgiver and avenger; but as the God of love and the Father of mercies, that he comes near even to his seat, points to the sin-atoning Lamb, and says. My Father, who art in heaven, forgive thy rebellious, thy guilty child! There is ’’ a rainbow around about the throne" then, and he looks up with hope. There is balm in Gilead, and a physician there. The Spirit of adoption descends upon him, and he cries, Abba, Father! God will abundantly pardon. High as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Human conception, human conjecture, human iniquities cannot measure it. " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my name’s sake, and will no more remember thy sins." It is not the voice of creatures which cheers the suppliant thus bowing at the throne, when it says, " Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more !"

Such is the spirit with which this request should be offered. " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." It is in the exercise of this seriousness of mind, this honesty and simplicity of intention, this penitential sense of sin, this faith in the Mediator, and this hope in abounding mercy, that the sinning and guilty sons and daughters of men are encouraged to seek forgiveness from God, They need forgiveness, and they need it daily. Vain is the attempt to silence the voice of conscience, much as her remonstrances may be suppressed, and the strength of her rebukes impaired by sin. No man can practise this deception on himself with ultimate success. The God of heaven is able at any moment to fasten a sense of guilt upon him that is greater than he can bear. He can do it on the bed of languishing, or under the pressure of external calamity, or in the flush of health, and in the heyday of cheerfulness and folly. There are a thousand ways in which he can take off the covering from the secret thoughts of men, refresh their memory in view of sins long past and long forgotten, and incite their sluggish conscience and sleeping fears. And they shall have no means to prevent reflection, or divert their thoughts from the gloomy retrospect; but their wickedness, in all its forms of ugliness and horror, shall be present to their minds, and haunt their imaginations like so many ill-boding messengers of avenging justice. It were the part of wisdom in impenitent and unpardoned men to treat conscience as a friend; to throw no obstructions in the way of her faithful scrutiny; to invite her unsparing rebuke, though she scourge them with her vituperating tongue, and lash them with her whip of scorpions. Better suffer all this, than grieve the Spirit of God, become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and be overwhelmed with still more insupportable convictions when the day of repentance, and prayer, and pardon is past.

There is hope for the man who feels that he is a sinner. Delightful thought, that to the writer and the reader, there is a mercy-seat, and an open way to it by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is good news from heaven, that " the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost;’’ that he wounds in order to heal ; that he " breaks not the bruised reed, nor quenches the smoking flax." There are no higher, no greater goodness and mercy, than the contrite and suppliant offender finds at this mercy seat. They are the highest goodness and mercy in the universe, there treasured up in Jesus Christ, and freely dispensed by him to whoever will ask and take them.

Let none be surprised to learn, that there is no forgiveness for those who do not ask it. A prayerless man is an impenitent man; and the decree never will be altered, ’’Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." There would be no meaning in prayer, if men could be saved without it. The light of heaven would be obscured; the mercy seat, itself the beauty and glory of heaven, would be tarnished; could a prayerless sinner enter into the kingdom of God. It would be a contempt of justice, an outrage on the very sanctuary of mercy. Is the reader, then, familiar with the spirit of this request? does he know the relief of pardon and grace? does he know the preciousness of such a prayer? Where a sense of sin has taken hold of the conscience, much more where divine grace has bruised the heart, and made it contrite, the mercy seat is indeed a covert from the tempest. Here, there is redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Let those who have not accepted this redemption, be admonished that there is not the least ray of hope from any other quarter. Where the waves and billows of God’s wrath go over the soul, it must take refuge in this sure and safe retreat, or suffer shipwreck for eternity.

It is the God of mercy who has taught us to pray for mercy. It was not in vain that he sojourned here on earth, if it had been only to instruct us to say, " Forgive, as we forgive." Having left his cross, and ascended to his throne, his language is, " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." You will stand speechless and condemned before his throne of judgment, if you find not forgiveness at his throne of grace. Think not that such a privilege may be regarded with indifference, or such a duty deferred to a more convenient season. Talk not of such a season. You may delay in other matters, but not here. Delay what ? Delay becoming a man of prayer ! delay becoming a pardoned sinner ! Belay deliverance from the burden of sin, and the terrors of the law ! Belay a pacified conscience, and the sweet intimations of your heavenly Father’s love ! Belay going and clinging to the ark of the covenant, as your only hope ! Millions of worlds were no recompense for the delay of one poor hour.