New Year - New Start

“And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Matthew 6:12

It’s a new year. Did you make any resolutions?

New Year’s resolutions for many people are about new starts. Lose weight, exercise, read 30 books, the lists go on – what can I do to be a better me?

Truth is, Christmas is about new starts – as is Easter. In fact the whole Christian Faith is about new starts. But it has nothing to do with what you can do to be a better person. It has to do with what God has done for you, and continues to do for you, in Jesus Christ – namely, forgive your sins.

That’s why Jesus was born; that’s why He lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s Law; that’s why He died on Calvary’s cross; that’s why He rose from the dead on Easter – the forgiveness of your sin, all of your sin.

Whenever you pray to God for forgiveness (and you do need to pray to God for forgiveness.) you’re asking God for a new start. You are confessing that you have failed, that you have sinned, and that there is nothing that you can do to change that or make yourself better. You are confessing that your sin separates you from God, and that you need God to make things right between you and Him.

And for Jesus’ sake God gladly gives you that new start, forgiving your sin, because of Jesus’ holy and sinless life, His suffering, death and resurrection.

But combined with our prayer asking God to forgive us is also the prayer and promise to forgive those who have sinned against us. This is particularly clear in the Lord’s Prayer. That’s not to say that God’s forgiveness is conditioned on our forgiving others; God’s forgiving us is based solely upon faith in Christ, in what He has done for us by His holy and sinless life; by his sacrificial suffering and death; by His resurrection triumph; and by His ascension into heaven.

But what does it say about one’s faith in God’s forgiveness if you refuse forgive someone else? To be certain, we all at times struggle to forgive, but that’s a different matter than refusing to forgive. Refusing to forgive someone who has sinned against us is to put ourselves into God’s place. It is to say that they are unworthy of forgiveness, which in fact they are not – but then neither are we. If we were worthy we wouldn’t need forgiveness.

Thus our Lord teaches us to pray: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Praying in this manner acknowledges the gifts of God’s forgiveness to us in Christ; that we have sinned, that we do not deserve God’s forgiveness, yet we trust in His mercy in and because of Christ Jesus. and because of the mercy we have received from God, giving us a new start with Him, we also ask God to help us forgive others, as we have been forgiven, giving us both a new start. This will at times be quite difficult which is why we continue to pray: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

To God alone be the glory. Amen

In Christ

Pastor Robin Collins