The Fifth Petition

This petition speaks to the poverty and wretchedness woven into our daily lives. Even when we have God's Word, believe it, do His will, submit to it, and receive His gifts and blessings with gratitude, our lives are still not free from sin. We stumble and fall every day, because we live among people who trouble us deeply and give us constant occasion for impatience, anger, and the desire for revenge. On top of that, the devil is pursuing us relentlessly, attacking from every direction and fighting against everything addressed in the earlier petitions. Given that kind of relentless conflict, it simply isn't possible to stand firm at every moment. So here again we face a pressing need to pray and cry out: Dear Father, forgive us our debts. This isn't because God refuses to forgive sin until we ask, or that He withholds forgiveness before we pray. In fact, He gave us the Gospel, which is nothing but forgiveness, long before we prayed for it or even thought to ask. The real point of this petition is that we need to recognize and receive that forgiveness. Our flesh, in which we live out each day, is so deeply corrupted that it neither trusts nor believes in God, and it is constantly stirred up by evil desires and wicked impulses, causing us to sin daily in word and deed, both in what we do and in what we fail to do. As a result, our consciences grow restless, we begin to fear God's wrath and displeasure, and we lose the comfort and confidence that the Gospel is meant to give us. That is precisely why we need to keep returning to this petition, so that our consciences can be steadied and reassured.

This should shatter our pride and keep us humble. When someone boasts about their own piety and looks down on others, God will bring them face to face with themselves, if they will honestly examine their own heart and hold this petition up before their eyes. They will reach the inevitable conclusion that they are no better than anyone else, that there is no room for strutting before God, and in that moment they will genuinely rejoice that the way to forgiveness stands open. No one should ever imagine that they will outgrow their need for forgiveness in this life. Simply put, without God's constant forgiveness, we are lost.

This petition is therefore a genuine appeal to God not to notice and punish our sins as we deserve each day, but to deal with us graciously, to forgive as He has promised, and in doing so to give us cheerful and confident consciences when we stand before Him in prayer. A heart that is not right with God and has not received that confidence will never dare to pray at all. But that confidence and that joyful heart can never be ours until we know with certainty that our sins are forgiven.

The clause that follows is both necessary and deeply comforting: "As we also forgive our debtors." God has promised us full and complete forgiveness of sins, but only insofar as we extend that same forgiveness to our neighbors. Since we sin greatly against God every day, and He forgives us all through grace, we are likewise called to forgive those who wrong us, harm us, treat us unjustly, or bear us ill will. If you refuse to forgive, don't expect God to forgive you. But if you do forgive, that very act becomes your comfort and assurance that you are pardoned in heaven. This isn't because your forgiveness of others earns anything; God forgives freely and without cost, out of pure grace, because He has promised it, as the Gospel makes clear. Rather, your act of forgiving serves to strengthen and confirm your confidence, adding a tangible pledge to the promise that aligns with this prayer: "Forgive, and you will be forgiven" (Luke 6:37). This is why Christ restates the promise after the Lord's Prayer, saying, "For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you" (Matt 6:14).

This token, then, is attached to the petition to remind us, in the very act of praying, of God's promise and to give us something concrete to plead: Dear Father, I come to You asking for forgiveness; not because I can make satisfaction or earn anything through my own works, but because You have promised it and set Your seal on that promise, making it as certain as an absolution spoken by Your own lips. Everything that Baptism and the Lord's Supper accomplish through their role as outward signs, this sign can also accomplish: strengthening our consciences and filling us with joy. And there is another reason it was appointed, namely that it is something we can make use of and carry with us at all times.