Forgive us our debts... as we ought to have forgiven our debtors?

"Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"

When you really think about it, this is a scary line to pray (well OK, most of the prayer is, when you really dig into it) If God actually forgave us as much as we forgave our debtors - those who sin against us - then we're all in a lot of trouble.

I've been thinking on forgiveness a lot recently. I think we tend to refuse to forgive others to the extent that we are oblivious (and usually intentionally so) of our sinfulness. And vice versa. Find a former drug/alcohol/anything addict - someone who conquered (via God's grace) that addiction. You'll be hard-pressed to find people more forgiving and easygoing and open than them. They know very well how much sin they've boiled in for years. Their eyes are often quite open to the wrath averted. Unrepentant sinners and those born without, or with "less" sin, have a much harder time with grace and forgiveness.

Suppose Bob stole thousands of dollars and ruined someone's life (or owed the equivalent of billions, to borrow a parable). Suppose when he was caught and came before his accuser, he was told that he had been forgiven it. One would think Bob would be extremely relieved. He would realize the sheer weight of punishment that he was just spared. And if he really, truly realized his sinfulness in stealing, and really was sorry, and really realized the judgment he avoided in being forgiven...he would be more forgiving and more gracious and more willing to show love when people sin against him.

Suppose however that Bob goes to a friend who called him a name, or punched him in anger. Let's up the stakes: Suppose Bob refuses to forgive or talk to or have anything directly or indirectly or by hearsay to do with someone who had not even sinned against him, but had sinned against someone he knew. Let’s make it even crazier: suppose that someone wronged his friend years ago, and has repented, been forgiven by God, and lived an upright life since and is striving to be a good Christian as are we all. Can Bob pray that night, "Forgive me my debts, as I have forgiven my debtors?"

Is he willing to risk that?

It is my honest and personal opinion that we are only unwilling to forgive others their sins when we're blithely ignorant of our own. Mind you, blithe ignorance of sins is one of Satan's favorite ways to mislead us, and we all prefer to ignore our evilness, so it's not like I'm laying insults or making a larger deal out of this than I ought to. What I say is what I have observed in myself, from both sides: either being very ready to forgive, or being very reticent. As my knowledge of my guilt and sinfulness and the relief of forgiveness is; so is my forgiveness of others.

The point, plainly spoken, is this. We are all utterly, totally sinful. There is not a day in which we don't heap new mountains upon the pile. And yet, we are forgiven. It has been wiped clean in Christ - we have been made new. We have been washed clean so that we are whiter than snow. The old man is gone, and by the grace of God we are putting the new man on.

Who are we to NOT forgive another man's sin?