If you have attended our Sunday Morning services or watched us online over the past few weeks, you have heard a lot of conversation about the importance of forgiveness. It is vital for us to forgive others who have offended us to free us from the bitterness and anger that will erode our physical, mental, and spiritual health. It is also important to offer forgiveness to those who seek it from us to allow them to have peace in their own lives.
As critical as forgiveness is in maintaining our human relationships, it is even more essential in our relationship with God. The good news is that receiving forgiveness from the Creator of the universe is easier than achieving this goal in our human relationships. We tend to hang on to past hurts and offenses. All God needs from us is faith to believe that the death of Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and that his resurrection provides the hope of our eternity in his presences. We then come humbly before our Lord and agree that our sin has separated us from him. In an act of repentance, we ask for his forgiveness. In that moment, we are forgiven.
The guarantee of God’s forgiveness is not based on how good we have become, nor is it withheld because of how bad we have been. This is an essential truth that must be accepted. God does not have a measuring stick for sin. He does not require the murderer or adulterer to do anything more than the child that disrespects his parents. We are all born in sin because of the fall of Adam, and it is this that God wants to forgive. Our sinful actions are the outgrowth of our sin nature. Forgiveness is granted to all who ask, not based on our past worthiness but on God’s immeasurable grace.
God’s forgiveness comes with the added benefit of his forgetfulness. Forgivenessis the sending away, or removal, of the sin barrier from between God and man. Like redemption it is in Christ, and it is through his blood. This sending away or removal of sin means that neither sin’s guilt nor sin’s penalty is ever again part of the life of the person who is in Christ. Sin cannot condemn us or cut us off from God. Why? Because Christ bore both the guilt and penalty of sin.
How big is our forgiveness? As big as the grace of God. How complete and extensive is our forgiveness? As complete as the grace of God. Is there any limit to this forgiveness? No, because there is no limit to God’s grace. In other words, the forgiveness offered by God is perfect. When forgiven, our sin is buried in the deepest sea, as far as the east is from the west.
Once we have received the gift of forgiveness from the all-powerful God, the only thing left for us to do is accept that we are forgiven. I mention this because we have an enemy who Scripture calls the Deceiver of the Saints. Satan tells us that our sin is too ugly, or we are unworthy of the forgiveness offered by God. However, God gives us this truth in Hebrews 9:14, How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! In 1 Peter 2:24, reveals the foundation of this truth, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
As those redeemed by faith in Jesus alone, we are perfectly forgiven because our sin has been completely removed. There is nothing that stands in the way of our relationship because of the power of God’s grace. We will spend some time in this post next week looking at how extensive God’s grace is. In the meantime, offer praise to our Lord for the freedom we enjoy because of his forgiveness.