A Joyous Debt

by Robert Mohns

Debt. Over the course of our lifetime, we can accumulate a lot of it. I am talking about our sin and the accumulation of the debt of guilt as a result of it. We have sinned against our God in thought, word, and deed. We have sinned against His name, His kingdom, and His will. The debt owed to God is astronomical, beyond comprehension. 

Likewise, the sin and guilt we have accumulated with one another is incomprehensible. We only need to think of these recent years. We have sinned grievously against one another, and we have accumulated a ridiculous debt of guilt. This is a miserable debt we carry around in us. It is soul-destroying and life-sucking.

Several years ago, I went on a very long walking journey with some friends. At the end of a particularly difficult day, I unpacked and noticed that the heavier items that should have been in my sack were not there. A friend came along and explained that they had noticed I was struggling. At breakfast, while I was eating, they had taken my heavier belongings and put them in their own sack to lighten my load. My friend explained that they knew my pride (stoic nature, I corrected), would get in the way of their being able to provide the help I needed. 

They were right, of course. I didn’t know the danger I was in, but they did, and they did something. They lifted my burden and maybe even saved my earthly life.

This fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, or the “Our Father,” often makes no sense in our day. In our world, when things go badly we seek to hold somebody accountable. But here in this petition we pray that God would not hold us accountable.

Long before we were ever born, our heavenly Father knew our need. He saw the sin and its great weight that would bring about our destruction. In His great love, He sent forth His Son to walk the dusty way of the cross to carry our sin and the burden of guilt and shame. We didn’t even know what He was doing, and in our sinful state our pride would not allow Him to carry it for us, nor would we want Him to remove it from us. 

Yet in spite of us—no, for the love of us—He did it. Our Lord’s passion, His suffering, and death is for us. Good Friday is the good work that Jesus did for us to forgive our sin. He took upon Himself our sin, and bore in Himself the debt of guilt and shame. It was a debt we could never bear.

The Lord taught His disciples to pray: “Dear Father, do not hold us accountable for our debts, as we do not hold our debtors accountable” (Matthew 6:12). This fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, or the “Our Father,” often makes no sense in our day. In our world, when things go badly we seek to hold somebody accountable. But here in this petition we pray that God would not hold us accountable.

In the fifth petition, our loving heavenly Father bids us daily to acknowledge our sin and the debt of guilt, the condemnation of our conscience, and to turn to Him for forgiveness. It is true, we already have the forgiveness of sins, for the Lord has provided Holy Baptism, but He calls us to acknowledge our sin—our great debt of guilt—that our anxious hearts might be comforted and our consciences relived.

In a prayer based on the fifth petition, Martin Luther writes:

“Teach us, dear Father, not to find reliance or consolation in good deeds or purposes, nor in merit, but teach us simply to venture all upon Your boundless mercy, committing ourselves with utter firmness to it alone. Likewise, let not our guilty and sinful life bring us into despair, but may we regard Your mercy as higher, broader, and stronger than anything in our life.

Repay our wickedness with Your goodness, as You have commanded us to do [to others]. Silence that evil spirit—the cruel backbiter, accuser, and magnifier of our sin—now and in our last hour, and in every torment of conscience, just as we, on our part, hold back from slandering and magnifying the sins of others. Do not judge us according to the accusations the devil or our wretched conscience brings against us, and pay no heed to the voice of our enemies who accuse us day and night before You, just as in turn we will pay no heed to the slanders and accusations of others against us.

Relieve us of every heavy burden of sin and conscience so that in life and death, in enduring and in doing we may trust in Your mercy, completely and with a light and happy heart.”

Easter’s proclamation, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” is God’s amen to our Spirit-wrought prayer. Living our lives in Christ and in His resurrection, St. Paul exhorts us: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8). This is the joyous debt we now bear!

God grant His Church to plead for His mercy and in true faith to bear one another up in divine love. Vivit! Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! God grant you a joyous Easter.

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Rev. Robert Mohns is Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC)’s West Regional Pastor.

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