Enemies Turned Friends

Pray then like this...  forgive us our debts (Mt 6:9, 12)

We are all born the enemies of God (Rom 5:10).  Consider:

  • God is holy, and we are not.  We chaff at the separation from sin we so love that He calls us to.
  • God is omniscient, and knows every sin we do in secret.  Cf. Ps 139:7–8, Mt 12:36.  We chaff that we can’t have a moment to enjoy sin without His eye catching it.
  • God is omnipotent, and can bring us low at any moment.  We chaff because He can destroy our bodies and cast us into Hell for sinning, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
  • God is immutable, and we want Him to move.  We chaff because we have no hope that He will change His mind on sin, or that He will forget what we have done, or that His power would falter. 
We can only have two responses to God.  We can continue to shake our fists at Him, or we can humble ourselves, asking Him to forgive our debts against Him.

Romans 5:10 says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”  Not only does God promise to forgive based on the sacrifice of His Son, but He promises to look at us as though Christ lived our lives in our stead.  Our righteousness will then be found in Him!

(Thoughts based very loosely on R. C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord, [Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust, 2009] pp. 79-82.)

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