Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Sermon on the Mount

I have heard many people say, “Surely the Sermon on the Mount teaches that we have our sins forgiven only if we forgive others. Doesn’t our Lord say, ‘but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses’” (Matt. 6:15).

Is this true? Is that not law? Where is the grace? Must we forgive others to be forgiven. If you are a “good” theologian, you would know that Salvation and God’s Sovereign Election is unconditional, and that it has absolutely nothing to do with us. It is pure grace. So, what does this passage mean exactly? Well, from reading Lloyd-Jones’ Studies in the Sermon on the Mount I can’t help but refer you to the Doctor Himself.

Lloyd-Jones states that:

“We have to take this teaching seriously, that if I do not forgive, I am not forgiven. I explain it like this: the man who has seen himself as a guilty, vile sinner before God knows his only hope of heaven is that God has forgiven him freely. The man who truly sees and knows and believes that, is one who cannot refuse to forgive another. So the man who does not forgive another does not know forgiveness himself. If my heart has been broken in the presence of God I cannot refuse to forgive; and, therefore I say to any man who is imagining fondly that his sins are to be forgiven by Christ, though he does not forgive anybody else, Beware, my friend, lest you wake up in eternity and find Him saying to you, ‘Depart from me; I never knew you.’ You are misinterpreting the doctrine, the glorious doctrine of the grace of God. The man who is truly forgive and knows it, is a man who forgives.”

Therefore, we see that this verse is talking about the fruit of Salvation. If we have truly tasted and seen the glorious grace and forgiveness through the Cross of Jesus Christ, then we will not be able to withhold such grace from others. We are to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us (Eph. 4:32). But, when we truly face this (myself including), we will not be able to produce such forgiveness by our own will. It will only occur by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. By studying the Sermon on the Mount, and these verses in particular, we can not help but see the absolute necessity of the new birth, and of the Holy Spirit and His work within our daily lives. We fall short so often, but you are not alone. Lloyd-Jones states that the Sermon on the Mount “crushes him to the ground. It shows me my utter helplessness. Were it not for the new birth, I am undone. Read and study it, face yourself in the light of it. It will drive you to see your ultimate need of the rebirth and the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing that so leads to the gospel and its grace as the Sermon on the Mount.”

May it be our prayer today to truly behold the glory of God in the face of Christ, in the Word of God, and see His astonishing love and grace! May that grace compel us to extend it to others.