A Biblical Study of “Forgiveness” in Matthew 6:14-15 and its Implications for Christians

Abstract

Sin which is a violation of God's law, makes humans stray away from God and causes damage to the relationship between them and God. Humans can't get back in touch with God unless they have received forgiveness from God. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the meaning of forgiveness as it is expressed in the Gospel of Matthew 6:14-15, through a biblical study based on the Byzantine Greek text of the Bible. The approaches taken were an exegesis and a descriptive literature methodology approach. The result obtained in this limited study is that the meaning of forgiveness in the Gospel of Matthew 6:14-15 is that there is a connection between the first clause and the second clause used which is a conditional sentence along with its negation. Based on the grammatical and lexical structure of Matthew 6:14 the second clause is an apodosis of the first clause, where the second clause is the answer to the first clause which is the prosthesis. So the sentence apodosis will apply if the prosthesis is fulfilled, as well as in the next paragraph which is the sentence negation. When the prosthesis in Matthew 6:15 is not performed, then the apodosis in Matthew 6:14 becomes invalid. Also, Matthew 6:14-15 cannot be separated from Matthew 6:12, where the translation of this verse grammatically states that God has forgiven humans first, and this is the basis for Matthew 6:14-15. This was emphasized by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:35. Christians in Indonesia should understand the meaning of forgiveness that the Lord Jesus taught, so that after a person has repented and become a Christian, he or she remains in Christ and keeps their life holy and forgive others, as a form of response to God, for the forgiveness that the Lord Jesus has given to them. Thus there must be repentance including a change of heart about one's actions or one's whole life. Atonement is needed as well which is making reparation after one has committed an offense.