Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray:
Mat 6:12 And remit to us our debts, as we also remit those of our debtors.
Then he adds at the end of the little lesson, this:
Mat 6:14 "For if you should be forgiving men their offenses, your heavenly Father also will be forgiving you.
Mat 6:15 Yet if you should not be forgiving men their offenses, neither will your Father be forgiving your offenses.
Debts are real. They must be paid by the debtor, be "forgiven", or paid by another.
Offense=(KJV) Trespasses=Lapses, mistakes, unintentional slights.
All this in the context of "comparing" His disciples to the Scribes and Pharisees (for many are called, but few chosen).
(The very next verses continue this "comparison"...
Mat 6:16 "Now whenever you may be fasting, become not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disguise their faces so that they may appear to men to be fasting. Verily, I am saying to you: They are collecting their wages.
Mat 6:17 Now you, when fasting, rub your head with oil and wash your face,
Mat 6:18 so that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father Who is in hiding, and your Father, Who is observing in hiding, will be paying you.)
So what's the comparison in the previous "verses"?
Mat 6:14 "For if you should be forgiving men their offenses, your heavenly Father also will be forgiving you.
Mat 6:15 Yet if you should not be forgiving men their offenses (like the hypocrites who tithe mint and cumin but leave out the weightier matters), neither will your Father be forgiving your offenses.
Just to add, to the extent and at the same time we forgive men their slips, lapses, mistakes God is forgiving us ours likewise. Does that sound familiar in your own life, regardless of any "theological" understanding you may have? Or are you going through life like a prosecutor/over-zealous cop/pharisee or scribe?