| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 12 |
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One of the most wonderful beatitudes in the Bible is that for the forgiven man, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” If we had written that beatitude, we would have put it, “Blessed is he who never has sinned, whose life is spotless and pure.” But then it would have excluded all of our race, for there is not one who has not sinned. Only one Man in all the roll of the ages could have come under the bright white wings of the beatitude. As it reads, however, there is not one, however stained his life may be, who cannot claim and receive the benediction: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
“Father, forgive us our debts.” In Luke the petition reads, “Forgive us our sins.” The word for sin means missing the mark. The mark is perfect obedience and we all miss it. Sin missed another mark, too, — the blessedness of eternal life. God made us to live with himself, but through our failure we all come short of the divine glory. Sin brings ruin. “Thou hast destroyed thyself.”
The word for sins used in Matthew’s form of the Lord’s Prayer is “debts.” Our sins are debts. A debt is something we owe to another. Debt is a fearful burden which brings untold misery upon those who find themselves in its power. But worst of all debts are our sins.
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