It is this feature that makes the prayer of Matthew 6:9 -13 impossible

for the dispensation of grace:

'And forgive us our debts, As We forgive our debtors' (Matt. 6:12),

and lest we should soften down this comparison, the Lord picked out from this

prayer this one clause which He expands along the lines of the parable of the

eighteenth chapter:

'For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also

forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will

your Father forgive your trespasses' (Matt. 6:14,15).

This is explicit, uncompromising and final.  If this kingdom principle

be carried over into the dispensation of grace it will work havoc.

On one occasion, it was our privilege to hear Archibald Brown preach on

the parable of the unforgiving servant.  Or perhaps we ought to say, he

thought he was preaching on that subject.  His theology and his conception of

grace, however, prevented him, and we had the joy of hearing this fine

preacher continually referring to Matthew, chapter 18, but preaching from his

own heart acquaintance with Romans and Ephesians.  In Matthew we have the

royal pardon, the pardon of a king, and in many cases, if not in all, it is

conditional.  In the present dispensation of grace we have Divine

forgiveness, which is unconditional, can never be rescinded, and while it

should lead all who are so freely forgiven to extend a similar forgiveness to

their fellows, this extension is by no means a condition as it was in Matthew

6 and 18:35.

'"God in Christ" (ho Theos en Christo, not as in the Authorized Version

"for Christ's sake") "forgave you" (echarisato humin not as the A.V.

"hath forgiven you")' (Eph. 4:32).

'It is the historical fact of Christ once for all putting away sin by

the sacrifice of Himself, which is alluded to, so that we are not to attempt

to change the meaning into a future event as Thou, Lord, for Christ's sake,

hath promised to forgive us' (Family prayers by the Bishop of London, p. 43,

Alford).  In Colossians the case is stated with similar precision:

'And you ... hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you

all trespasses' (Col. 2:13).

Here again the aorist participle looks back to an act of God wrought

once and for all in Christ.  The atmosphere of the Gospel according to

Matthew is that associated with a royal throne and with clemency extended by

royal prerogative, whereas, in the great Epistle to the Romans, upon which

the present dispensation is erected, the atmosphere is that of a court of

law; the one forgiven is not simply discharged as an act of clemency, he goes

out Acquitted, he is Justified, he has a Standing before God in Christ, and

these are priceless, fundamental and radical differences which no amount of

pleading can alter, or zeal exonerate.

The following words are translated 'forgive', 'pardon' and 'remission

or remit' in the Scriptures.

Kaphar.  'Forgave their iniquity' (Psa. 78:38).  The first occurrence

of kaphar is in Genesis 6:14, where it is translated 'pitch', the second is