When Christians pray the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, some say “Forgive us our trespasses” or “Forgive us our sins”. The Heidelberg Catechism doesn’t use the word ‘sins’ or ‘trespasses’ but chooses the term debts, offering a deeper meaning into what we are truly asking of God. This article draws on a sermon by Dr Klaas Schilder and explores the profound meaning behind the word “debts”, examining its implications for worship, repentance, and gratitude in the life of the believer.
Debts as Divine Obligation
Schilder says that, to understand what is meant by debt in the context of this prayer, we must move beyond the language of wrongdoing. A debt is not simply a moral failure or an act of transgression—it is the absence of obedience, gratitude, and reverence. It is the good that was owed and left unpaid.
In Paradise, mankind had a duty to live every breath in praise of the Creator. This obligation was not cancelled by the fall; rather, it was magnified through redemption in Christ. Through that redemption we have even more reason to praise God. The one who prays “Our Father” does so as a child reconciled and re-created, bearing an even greater duty to honour the Father—not only the God of creation, but of our re-creation.
Hence, our debt is not only the transgression of commandments, but the neglect of our responsibility to love and praise and thank Him in all we do. It is the missing confession, the silence where truth should speak, the chorale of praise never sung. It is not about two ill-spoken words, but about the countless right words we never uttered.
The Depth and Scale of Spiritual Deficiency
What makes the concept of debt so sobering, says Schilder, is its immeasurable scale. We often come to God with a mental tally of sins, eager to present our spiritual notebook for review. But God’s interest is not in the few visible faults we managed to record. He looks to the empty pages—the ones that should have been filled with worship, witness, and gratitude.
This realization strikes at the heart of genuine repentance. Even the most earnest believer, with trembling hands and faltering zeal, has barely begun to write the book of divine praise. Our best efforts amount to a “very small beginning” of the holiness and obedience that God deserves.
The fifth petition, then, is not about asking forgiveness for a few select faults—it is a humble confession that we have failed to give God the fullness of our lives, and that this failure itself is the true depth of our debt.
Forgiveness as Real Engagement
The idea of forgiveness is often misunderstood as God pretending not to notice our sins, says Schilder. But the biblical and theological reality is far different. Forgiveness, in its original sense, means to send away. And something cannot be sent away unless it is first fully grasped and acknowledged.
This is no superficial dismissal. It is Moses lifting the scapegoat before the people before releasing it into the desert. It is the careful handling of a carrier pigeon before letting it fly. God does not ignore our debt—He sees it in all its breadth, confronts it, and then, in mercy, through Christ, lets it go.
Prayer, therefore, is not an act of evasion. It is not an “as-if theology” that asks God to pretend all is well. It is a confrontation with the truth: Father, You see my debts—now let them go.
An Echo of Psalm 51
This depth of confession echoes the cry of Psalm 51: “Let the bones rejoice which You have shattered”. It is the plea of a soul that understands its debt not in measurable terms, but in spiritual poverty—a soul that longs for restoration, not merely forgiveness of certain sins.
The fifth petition is not a checklist. It is an encounter with grace. It is the admission that our spiritual debt is beyond calculation, and our hope lies in the mercy of the One who sees all and forgives all—not because our wrongs are few, but because His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ is infinite.
Very briefly summarised from “De vijfde bede van het allervolmaakste gebed” (sermon on LD 51) in K Schilder Preken 3, Oosterbaan en Le Cointre, Goes, 1955, pp. 430-442