Editorial June 15, 1929 Issue

On the Forgiving of Trespasses

Albert F. Gilmore

In the Gospel of Matthew, two of the Master's teachings relative to the forgiving of our trespasses stand out in bold relief; and both convey lessons of signal moment for all striving to conform their lives to the Christ-ideal. The first lesson pertains to one who in seeking forgiveness follows the ancient custom of going to the altar to offer a gift. Jesus taught that to be forgiven one must make sure that he is not holding aught erroneous against his brother; that is to say, in order to secure his own forgiveness he must have ceased to hold another in error and, likewise, to cherish the thought of injury or wrong imposed upon him by another. This in substance accords perfectly with the conditions of forgiveness for which we petition in the Lord's Prayer: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." We ask divine Love to forgive us through removing from thought all belief in evil as having reality and power; and forgiveness is thus conditioned upon the forgiving on our own part of all enmity, all ill will, all unfriendly thoughts regarding another, and of like thoughts possibly held by another regarding ourselves.

Our debts to divine Love must be canceled before we ourselves may receive forgiveness. Could law be more just and scientific? Forgiveness of sin—and sin in the ultimate analysis includes all types of false belief—is accomplished only as we ourselves cease sinning, and only as we cease to hold our brother in bondage to evil influence, rather seeing him in his true character as the son of God, free from every evil trait.

When we see man as he really is, we shall cease to believe in a mortal as man, subject to material claims and sinful conditions. Then our trespasses will indeed be forgiven. Then shall we fulfill the conditions which Mrs. Eddy laid down in the tenets of Christian Science (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497, Church Manual, p. 15), "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal." And she adds a sentence which plays a most important part in this problem of freeing ourselves from all sinful beliefs: "But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts." Here sin is seen as false belief; and it is destroyed by the abandonment of the false belief; that is, by putting truth in place of the error which encumbers and misleads. Since our trespasses are transgressions of divine law, they are forgiven as sinful beliefs are destroyed.

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