17. Question: If a Christian is forgiven forever by God the second he or she calls upon Jesus to save them, why did Jesus command His believers to pray "forgive us our debts" in the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: When Jesus commanded His believers to pray "forgive us our debts," He never intended for them to mean by this "forgive us for our sins today so we can have a better chance to go to heaven." Matthew 6:12.

The Lord intended "forgive us our debts" to mean "forgive us for the sins we have committed against You today so our relationship can remain strong and so I can have Your power to overcome the temptation to commit this sin in my future." Jesus never commanded that we say this prayer or the entire Lord's Prayer every day. The Lord's Prayer was intended to be a model prayer. The Lord's Prayer is one way to pray to God but not the only way to pray to God.

"Forgive us our debts" is referring only to temporal, relational forgiveness. In other words, we are trusting Jesus to forgive us for the specific sins we confess are wrong so we can restore our close relationship to Him and receive His temporal power to overcome that sin.

Jesus gave us His parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32 to give us an example of "relational forgiveness." The prodigal son was a child of his father from birth. Even while the son was far away from home and deep in sin, the prodigal remained a child of his father. When the son "came to his senses" and returned home, his relationship with his father was fully and unconditionally restored. He received "relational forgiveness" (his "positional forgiveness" as a child of his father was never changed).

We receive "positional forgiveness" when we choose to call upon Jesus to save us (click on the icon to the left entitled "How To Become A Christian"). Positional forgiveness is eternal and there is nothing that can change that. We instantly and eternally become a child of God and our position as a child of God will never change. A person cannot become a child of God until the person believes Jesus to forgive them forever and surrenders to Jesus as Lord, God, Master and Friend.

Read John 3:16 (eternal life is eternal...it begins and can never end). Other passages to provide evidence that the above is true: Mark 1:15; John 6:37; John 10:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 4:10; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 8:33-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 2 Timothy 1:12). 

If our entrance into heaven depended on our memory of all of our sins no one could make it to heaven. It is a wonderful gift and blessing from God that our entrance into heaven fully depends on the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross and nothing else (Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Peter 2:24; John 3:16).

For more information on eternal forgiveness, click on the icon to the left "Eternal Security."