An Alphabetical Analysis
Volume 6 - Doctrinal Truth - Page 145 of 270
INDEX
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forgiveness, which is unconditional, can never be rescinded, and while it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