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NASB | Matthew 6:12 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 6:12 'And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment]. |
Bible Question: Brothers and Sisters, Matthew 6:12 and other verses show that we must forgive in other to be forgiving. My question is, does it mean that salvation is by works? because i know salvation is not by works. |
Bible Answer: Hi, Bill... You correctly know from a broader reading of Scripture that salvation is not acquired by what we do, but rather by what God has done. On the other hand, we know that the Sermon on the Mount is Christ instructing His church. The passage you mention is what is called a model prayer. We know that this particular verse cannot mean that our forgiveness of others is the basis on which God forgives us (Matthew 5:7). On the contrary, a person cannot believe that he is the recipient of divine forgiveness if he is withholding forgiveness of others. (Think about the other teachings of Christ, and see if you can find additional reasons for this.) What a blessing, therefore, is teaching the disciple of Christ to seek a daily forgiveness of our failings, along with the reminder that we are to extend no less to those who have wronged us. Remember, we are made in the image of God. Someone once said that God sees His own image reflected in us when we forgive and forebear as He has done with us. Consequently, Christ instructs us elsewhere to resolve our differences with men even before we come to the Lord to resolve our differences with Him (Mark 11:25). Perhaps one way of thinking of it is that we are seeing a description of the disciple of Christ rather than a prescription of how to become a disciple of Christ. People are always getting the two mixed up, and it is that sort of confusion on which many cults are based. A true disciple of Christ recognizes the debt forgiven him by God, so he finds it easy to forgive the debts of people. Thus we make an effort to insure that the description fits, not because it makes us right with God, but because God has already done the work. We bear the fruit of righteousness, because God has changed our very DNA -- so to speak (Matthew 7:17-18). In Him, Doc |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Matt 6:12 | Author | ||
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FMI | ||
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LEXIPOO | ||
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humility | ||
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Finder | ||
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Jim the deacon | ||
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bill1973 | ||
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DocTrinsograce | ||
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bill1973 |