RAGS OR ROBES
5
who was possessed of nothing more than a natural ability to read English, whether it be in the Bible or any printed
page, if given Romans 8:1, 31-39 to read and was asked `Can THAT position ever be forfeited?' would be obliged
to admit that forfeiture in such a context was impossible.
WHERE THEN IS THE SANCTIFIED LOGIC OF THE REGENERATE READER OF MATTHEW 6:12-
15
How can he place himself in BOTH Matthew 6 and Romans 8? The prayer which our Lord taught His disciples
contains a number of clauses, but only one is lifted out for fuller expansion and explanation, that is the clause
dealing with forgiveness. How many who pray:
`And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors',
really pause to consider what they ask or go on to ponder the Lord's own interpretation of these portentious words?
`For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
ye forgive
men
BUT IF
NOT
their trespasses, NEITHER will your Father forgive your trespasses'.
Such conditions are foreign to the testimony of the epistles.
the position is: `You are freely forgiven, won't
THERE
you forgive others?'
`Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
God for Christ's sake
forgiven
EVEN AS
HATH
you' (Eph. 4:32).
The matter was evidently so vital, and so likely to be misunderstood, that later in the same Gospel the Saviour gives
the parable of the unforgiving servant, making explicit what is implied in Matthew 5:24-26, where not being
reconciled to one's brother, makes one liable to imprisonment,
`Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the
UTTERMOST FARTHING'
(Matt. 5:26).
We have heard some extravagant claims and statements about the Sermon on the Mount, but the `danger of hell
fire' and `the uttermost farthing' seems to be passed over without comment.
THE PARABLE OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT
`Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king...' (Matt. 18:23).
The unforgiving servant finds himself in the exact position that the Lord's prayer envisages:
`His lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. SO
LIKEWISE (and do not shirk the issue) shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, (you believers, not the
ungodly), if ye from your hearts forgive not every one ... their trespasses' (Matt. 18:34,35).
There is a vital and fundamental difference, between the pardon of a king as seen in the Gospels, and the
justification of a sinner as seen in the epistles. The pardon of a king can be withdrawn, the forgiveness that is
founded on redemption, atonement, justification, imputation, acceptance and access, can never be rescinded. The
forgiveness of the Lord's prayer is related to the kingdom to be set up on earth, is an echo of the cancellation of
debts at the recurring day of Jubilee, and has no possible issue in `No condemnation' as the parable of Matthew 18
most clearly reveals. Why, O why do earnest believers pray again and again in terms that are completely
antagonistic to all that has been revealed since Jesus Christ died because of sins and rose again because of our
justification? Thank God no believer today will ever be put back into prison and kept there until he has paid the
uttermost farthing, and those who use the Lord's prayer know that in their hearts.
Many years ago we heard Archibald Brown preach on the unforgiving servant at Spurgeon's Tabernacle, but
blessed be God, although he ANNOUNCED his text from Matthew 18, he knew the grace of God too well to preach
from it, but to our delight broke all rules of homiletics, and ranged through Romans, Galatians, Ephesians and
Colossians and preached forgiveness of sins based upon the precious blood of Christ, in spite of his adoption of
Matthew 18 as his text.