In His Name Devotionals
MAN’S GREATEST PROBLEM
In His Name Devotionals
MAN’S GREATEST PROBLEM
“And forgive us our debts.” (Matthew 6:12)
Man’s greatest problem is sin. It renders him spiritually dead, alienates him from God and his fellowman, plagues him with guilt and fear, and can eventually damn him to eternal Hell. The only solution is forgiveness, and the only source of forgiveness is Jesus Christ.
All sin is punishable by death (Rom 6:23), but Christ bore the sins of the world, thereby making it possible for us to be forgiven and to have eternal life through faith in and obedience to Him. What a glorious reality.
Holy Scripture speaks of two kinds of forgiveness: judicial and parental. Judicial forgiveness comes from God the righteous Judge, who wants to wipe our sins off the record and set us free from its punishment and guilt. At the moment of our salvation, He forgives all our sins and pronounces us righteous in His sight. That’s why nothing can ever separate us from Christ’s love (Rom 8:38-39).
Parental forgiveness is granted to Christians by their loving Heavenly Father as they confess their sins and seek His cleansing. That’s the kind of forgiveness Jesus speaks of in Matthew 6:12.
When a child disobeys his father, the father/child relationship isn’t severed. The child is still a member of the family, and there’s a sense in which he is already forgiven because he’s under the umbrella of his father’s parental love. But some of the intimacy of their relationship is lost until the child seeks forgiveness.
That seems to be the idea in Matthew 6:12. As a Christian, if you confess the sins you commit then you can never be robbed of your salvation, but your relationship with God can be affected. He loves you and will always be your Father, but the intimacy and sweet communion you once knew is jeopardized until you seek reconciliation by confessing your sins.
As a child of God, you are judicially forgiven but never presume on that grace. Make confession part of your daily prayers so sin will never erode your relationship with your Heavenly Father.
