Together, we have faith
Dec 15, 2025
Week #50 — Day 2
Only God Forgives Sin
Q. 105. What do we pray for in the fifth petition?
A. In the fifth petition, which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we
pray, that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather
encouraged to ask, because by his grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.
Matt. 6:12; Ps. 51:1-2, 7, 9; Dan. 9:17-19; Luke 11:4; Matt. 18:35.
“and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors”
“It is important to recognize that He is the One to whom we are indebted. In the words of Thomas Cranmer’s famous prayer, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.” We owe God our fidelity, our obedience, our hearts—and yet we haven’t given them fully over to Him. Because of our sin, we have “become debtors to the justice of God.” He would be entirely just to take our lives this instant because of our rebellion, since “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). This is why it is so crucial we earnestly pray this petition”
Excerpt From Glorifying and Enjoying God: 52 Devotions through the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Boekestein & Cruse & Miller)
Only God forgives sin. Watson puts it this way — “It is God alone, who forgives sin. To pardon sin is one of the royal prerogatives; one of the flowers of God's crown. "Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" Mark 2:7. It is most proper for God to pardon sin; only the creditor can remit the debt. Sin is an infinite offence, and no finite power can discharge an infinite offence. No man can take away sin, unless he is able to infuse grace; for, as Aquinas says, with forgiveness is always infusion of grace; but no man can infuse grace, therefore no man can forgive sin. He alone can forgive sin, who can remit the penalty—but it is God's prerogative only to forgive sin.”
But, aren’t we supposed to forgive others? Yes, indeed, but “Our forgiving others is not a cause of God's forgiving us—but it is a condition without which he will not forgive us.” God alone holds us accountable for all sins. This does not mean we don’t sin against others, but rather those sins are really against God as Creator and Lord of all. When David sinned against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah in the Old Testament, it was to God he offered the prayer of confession — Psalm 51:4 “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”
A Puritan Prayer —
“MERCIFUL LORD,
Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year,
all the sins of my life,
sins of early, middle, and advanced years,
of omission and commission,
of morose, peevish and angry tempers,
of lip, life and walk,
of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride,
of unfaithfulness to the souls of men,
of want of bold decision in the cause of Christ,
of deficiency in outspoken zeal for his glory,
of bringing dishonour upon thy great name,
of deception, injustice, untruthfulness
in my dealings with others,
of impurity in thought, word and deed,
of covetousness, which is idolatry,
of substance unduly hoarded, improvidently squandered,
not consecrated to the glory of thee, the great Giver;
sins in private and in the family,
in study and recreation, in the busy haunts of men,
in the study of thy Word and in the neglect of it,
in prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld,
in time misspent,
in yielding to Satan’s wiles,
in opening my heart to his temptations,
in being unwatchful when I know him nigh,
in quenching the Holy Spirit;
sins against light and knowledge,
against conscience and the restraints of thy Spirit,
against the law of eternal love.
Pardon all my sins, known and unknown,
felt and unfelt,
confessed and not confessed,
remembered or forgotten.
Good Lord, hear;
and hearing, forgive.”
Excerpt From
The Valley of Vision
Edited by Arthur Bennett