Forgive Us Our Debts

The Lord's Prayer Series | The Deepest Hunger: Forgive Us Our Debts

Scripture: Psalm 32:1–5; Luke 18:9–14

As we continue our walk through the Lord’s Prayer, we come to a major turning point. The focus of the prayer shifts—from our physical needs to our spiritual needs. Last week we prayed for daily bread; today we pray for the healing of the soul. Jesus structures this prayer around six specific petitions. The first three are vertical—they look upward and are centered on God: His name, His kingdom, and His will. The final three are horizontal—they speak directly to the human condition: our need for provision, forgiveness, and deliverance.

Last week we talked about the stomach; today we talk about the soul. The problems of the flesh seem so pressing that many of us neglect the needs of the soul—our connection to our Creator and Redeemer. Eternal things get pushed to the back burner because immediate, physical concerns feel more urgent. Many people carry the weight of guilt, shame, and unresolved sin for years—even to their deathbeds—without realizing that they don’t have to. Forgiveness is available, but it is often postponed, ignored, or avoided.

It’s a bit like my own experience when I was overweight at 137 kilograms. I got used to carrying extra weight. It became normal. I didn’t realize how heavy I really was—or how much better life could be—until the burden began to lift. And the same is true spiritually. Life can be lighter. But it begins with honesty—first with ourselves, then with God, and then extending toward others.

David describes this weight in Psalm 32. This psalm is called a Maskil, meaning it is written to teach. Many believe David wrote it after his sin with Bathsheba. As a reminder, King David took another man’s wife. Uriah was one of his loyal soldiers, a man who would have died for him. To cover his sin, David arranged for Uriah to be placed on the front lines of battle and abandoned so he would be killed (2 Samuel 11). This is the kind of guilt David is describing—the kind of guilt that can destroy a person.

And this is the same David the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart.” If a man like that could fall so deeply and be forgiven so completely, there is both a warning and a hope for all of us.

David writes: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.” (Psalm 32:3–4) I will read it again and let the cost of an unrepentant heart seep into your soul.

Then comes the turning point: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you… and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

Unconfessed sin is heavy. Forgiven sin is freedom. Brother Foster reminded me that one of the clearest signs of the Holy Spirit at work in us is a tender conscience, the easy the Holy Spirit has in convicting us of our sin and how easy it is to be drawn back to God instead of growing comfortable in our sin. It is the frog and the hot water experiment. If you put a frog into very hot water it will quickly jump out of the pot. But if you put a frog into cool water and just turn the temperature up it will stay in the pot until it dies. A sensitivity to the God gives us the instinct is to jump out.

In Scripture, our brokenness is described in several ways. Depending on your church background, you may be used to praying, “forgive us our sins,” or “forgive us our trespasses,” or “forgive us our debts.” These are not random word choices Jesus makes. Each one shows us a different angle of our need—and a different glimpse of God’s grace.

Sin

Sin means missing the mark. Not just missing the mark by accident, but choosing to aim at a different target—turning from God’s will to our own. In the Bible, sin is rarely just a mistake. More often, it is a deliberate turning.

We may agree that God’s commands are good—good for society, good for our neighbors, good in theory. But when those commands press into our own lives—our time, our money, our pride, our habits—we quietly start making exceptions for ourselves. “Yes, but this situation is different.” “No one is perfect.” “God will understand; I’m just human.” And just like that, we move the center of authority from God to ourselves.

This goes all the way back to Eden. Adam and Eve were not confused when they ate the forbidden fruit. God had been clear. They could eat from every other tree—just not that one. Their problem was not information; it was submission. They knew God’s will, and they chose against it. And I don’t pin this just on Eve. They both ate. They both chose their way over God’s way. Isaiah says it plainly: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.” ( 53:6)

Sin is not just breaking a rule. Sin is choosing self over God.

And if we are honest, we recognize that spirit in ourselves. We want God as Savior, but we struggle to let Him be Lord. We want forgiveness, but not always surrender.

I’ve shared this story before, but it stayed with me. When I was five or six years old, I stole a Snickers bar while shopping with my mom. No one caught me. I hid it under my bed. But God had given me a conscience, and I could not sleep. I confessed it to my parents, and they told me I not only needed to return it, but confess to the store manager. I won’t get into the age of accountability, but it is when you know something is wrong and yet you do it anyway. I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I willingly did it. It may have only harmed the store a little, but it injured my soul.

Sin is not just weakness. It is willfulness. That is why this part of the Lord’s Prayer is so important. When we pray, “Forgive us our sins,” we are not offering excuses. We are not comparing ourselves to others. We are not minimizing. We are agreeing with God about the truth of our hearts. We are saying, “Lord, I have tried to run my own life. I have chosen my way over Yours. I need mercy.”

And here is the hope: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Everyone who has sinned can be forgiven. The weight David described can be lifted. The silence can turn into confession. And confession can turn into freedom.

Debts

We all have debts. Some debts come from something good. In the 1990s, a friend from church recommended me for a job I did not yet have the résumé for. He did more than suggest my name—he put his own reputation on the line for me. My boss hired me not because of my résumé, but because of his recommendation. I owed my friend a debt, and the only way to repay it was to do good work.

Other debts are far less positive. Many people carry credit card debt, and we know how debilitating high interest can be to our financial health. I have a credit card, but I prefer to pay cash so I can physically feel how much I am spending. I also know people who can only afford to pay the interest, not the principal. The debt never really goes away.

A debt is something owed. Spiritually, debt is the weight not only of what we have done wrong, but also of what we have failed to do. The word Jesus uses in the Lord’s Prayer is the Greek opheilēmata, which literally means obligations—things owed. It comes from a word meaning “to be bound to pay.”

Spiritually, it points to our moral and relational obligations before God: what we owe Him in love, obedience, trust, and worship—and what we have withheld. “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17) Debt accumulates not only through bad actions, but through good actions we never took.

“The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) That is a debt we cannot settle with extra effort or better intentions. Jesus illustrates this in the story of two men who go up to the temple to pray. One is a Pharisee, confident in his goodness. The other is a tax collector. While the Pharisee stands tall, the tax collector cannot even lift his eyes. He prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)

Jesus says that the tax collector went home justified before God.

Grace means the King absorbs the loss so the debtor can walk free.

Trespasses

Trespass is boundary language. It means crossing a line that should not be crossed. The word Jesus uses here means a false step, a deviation from the right path—stepping where we do not belong. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He said: “Do not come any closer… Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

We trespass with gossip, broken trust, withheld love, careless words, and neglected prayers. Trespass leaves wounds. Wounds create distance.

“With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” (James 3:9)

Forgiveness is costly because someone must bear the cost of repair.

Forgiven

David writes,“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” (Psalm 32:1) God does not forgive reluctantly. He does not keep a record. When we come honestly, He forgives fully.

Forgiveness is not just release from guilt; it is restoration to relationship.

Jesus says: “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you… first be reconciled.” (Matthew 5:23–24). The idea here is that when we give the Lord he will bless us. And Jesus does not want anything to get in the way of that blessing. Because forgiveness received becomes forgiveness practiced. Grace given becomes grace shared.

So we come to the Father not pretending, not hiding, not bargaining—but asking. Asking for mercy. Asking for cleansing. Asking for hearts that forgive as we have been forgiven. And in Christ, that is exactly what He delights to give.

Let us pray.

Discussion Questions 

1. Feeling the Weight Have you ever felt a heavy feeling inside because of guilt or something left unresolved? What do you think causes that feeling?

2. Staying Silent or Speaking to God Why do you think it can be hard to admit our sins to God? What do you think changes when we are honest with Him?

3. Different Ways the Bible Describes Sin The Bible talks about sin as missing the mark, owing a debt, or crossing a line. Which one do you understand the most, and why?

4. Forgiveness and Our Relationships How does knowing that God forgives us change the way we treat people who hurt us?