Week 6, day 4: What if we think of "sin" as "debt"?

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (NIV)

“Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.” (Good News)

Greg Nixon writes:

I’ve grown up with the version of this prayer “forgive us our sins”, but increasingly I find “debts” a helpful word, as pretty much everyone can relate to being in debt, or to having lent money to someone else. Debt can cripple, and we may have experienced the freedom, the lifting of great weight from our shoulders when a debt is cancelled or paid off, or when we finish making monthly payments.

Which hopefully makes it hit home that bit more, when Jesus calls us to forgive others if they owe us something, or if we feel they owe us something. By forgiving, we lift a double burden – the one we have placed on their shoulders, and the one we have been carrying around with us. I’m also reminded of “let no debt remain outstanding, except for the continuing debt to love one another” (Romans 13v8), and when “if we are at the altar and remember our brother or sister has something against us, we are to go back [miles home from the altar in Jerusalem!] and be reconciled to them, only then returning to offer our gift” (Matthew 5v23-24).

As God’s daughters and sons, we are called both to make peace and to forgive. And as God’s sons and daughters, we realise and celebrate that we ourselves have been released from the greatest debt, into the greatest freedom.