AndyBern
Member
God freely forgives the repentant sinner. And He does so without making Himself less righteous, holy, and just, because Jesus Christ paid the full penalty for our sin. God did not ignore our sin when He forgave us. If that were the case, He could just as easily bring our guilt back upon us. No, He dealt with it permanently by laying it all on His Son, Jesus Christ. Our redemption is secure.
This forgiveness that God freely offers us is deserving of further examination. I don't think we appreciate it enough. Jesus told us to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”. From the way we sometimes forgive those who offend us, either we're blatantly disobeying our Lord, or we have a poor concept of God's forgiveness of our sins.
I'd like you to think about seven characteristics of God's forgiveness of our sins. These are qualities that we don't typically find in man's forgiveness of man, but we do need to emulate.
1. God forgives any sin. In Luke 6:37, Jesus said, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” There's no mention of God limiting forgiveness to only “minor” sins. Just forgive others and you will be forgiven. No sin is too great. You have God's promise.
When Manasseh, Judah's most wicked king, humbled himself and repented, God forgave him, returning him to Jerusalem and restoring his kingdom (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). King Manasseh didn't have to make up for what he did. All he had to do was repent. If God can forgive Manasseh, He can forgive any sin. If God can forgive the murderer Paul who considered himself the “chief” of sinners, He can forgive any sin. He can do so because Jesus paid for our sin “in full”.
2. God forgives all sin. God does not forgive partially. Remember Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. The servant had a huge debt that he could never repay. His lord did not just reduce the debt to a more manageable size. No, he forgave the entire debt so that the servant would not have to pay any of it. That parable is a picture of God's forgiveness of our sins. We had a huge sin debt that we could not repay – incomparably more than that servant had. But God forgave our debt completely. Jesus' last word was “paid in full”. We have nothing left to repay.
3. God forgives repeated sins. One thing you'll notice if you read through the book of Judges: Israel sinned over and over again. They repeatedly worshiped idols. They intermarried with the nations that God commanded them to destroy. Like a broken record, the book of Judges records Israel “again did evil in the sight of the Lord.” God would punish them when they did, but He did not abandon them. When the people called to God for relief from their punishment, God would send them judges to save them. He never said, “I've had it with you! You don't want to obey me? Fine! You're on your own! I'll never save you again!”
In Matthew 18:21-22, when Jesus told Peter to forgive seventy times seven, He was not just telling Peter how often he should forgive his brother. He was describing God's own forgiveness. God forgives us over and over again, without keeping count. Aren't you grateful for that?
4. When God forgives, God forgets our sins. It is as if the sin never happened. Isaiah 43:25 says God blots out our transgressions and does not remember our sins. In the heavenly record of your life, the sins that God has forgiven are completely erased – just as if they never happened. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
When God forgives us, He treats us as if the fellowship was never broken, just like Joseph did with his brothers in Genesis 50:15-21. He continues to provide for all of our needs. He continues to love us just as much as before we sinned. How amazing is that?!?
5. God forgives at His own expense. Forgiveness isn't cheap. Somebody has to pay. If I forgive someone for setting fire to my house, the burden of paying for a new house is no longer on that person because I forgave him. The burden is now on me. I have to buy a new house. (If I say I forgive him but make him pay for some or all of the rebuilding of the house, then I haven't truly forgiven him.) James Buswell Jr. said, “All forgiveness, human and divine, is in the very nature of the case vicarious, substitutional, and this is one of the most valuable views my mind has ever entertained. No one ever really forgives another, except he bears the penalty of the other's sin against him.”
God's forgiveness of our sin is not like the cheap imitation that we offer those who offend us. It didn't just inconvenience Him. It cost God tremendously. It cost His Son for us to restore us to Himself. He held nothing back in doing what was necessary to obtain our complete forgiveness and complete redemption. We must not make light of the cost of this forgiveness!
6. God takes the initiative to make forgiveness possible. We know that God forgives the repentant. But the truth is that if God had to wait for us to repent on our own before He would do anything to secure our forgiveness, He would never have sent Jesus, and we would have no hope of getting out from under the burden of our sins. Psalm 53 says there are none who seek God. We have all turned after our own way. But Romans 5:8 says:
God did not wait for man to repent before sending His Son Jesus to die for us. While we were still sinners, enjoying our sin, God took the necessary steps to secure our forgiveness. A few verses later in verse 10, Paul says that we were still enemies of God when Jesus died for us. God, the one we offended, took the initiative to restore us to Himself.
Which brings us to the last point… Why would God do this? Why would a holy, righteous God go through all this trouble and expense to let us poor miserable sinners off the hook?
7. God forgives us because He loves us and wants to forgive us. God doesn't forgive us because He's sick and tired of holding a grudge and wants to feel better. He does so because He loves us and genuinely wants us to have fellowship restored with Himself. 1 John 4:10 says: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins."
God doesn't love us because He forgave us. He forgave us because He loves us! (How different than the way we treat those who offend us!) God wants us to be reconciled to Himself as soon as possible. Those He has reconciled are to go tell others they can be reconciled, too. As Paul told the Corinthian believers, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, proclaiming the good news of God's reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). We need to take that responsibility – our ambassadorship – seriously.
This forgiveness that God freely offers us is deserving of further examination. I don't think we appreciate it enough. Jesus told us to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”. From the way we sometimes forgive those who offend us, either we're blatantly disobeying our Lord, or we have a poor concept of God's forgiveness of our sins.
I'd like you to think about seven characteristics of God's forgiveness of our sins. These are qualities that we don't typically find in man's forgiveness of man, but we do need to emulate.
1. God forgives any sin. In Luke 6:37, Jesus said, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” There's no mention of God limiting forgiveness to only “minor” sins. Just forgive others and you will be forgiven. No sin is too great. You have God's promise.
When Manasseh, Judah's most wicked king, humbled himself and repented, God forgave him, returning him to Jerusalem and restoring his kingdom (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). King Manasseh didn't have to make up for what he did. All he had to do was repent. If God can forgive Manasseh, He can forgive any sin. If God can forgive the murderer Paul who considered himself the “chief” of sinners, He can forgive any sin. He can do so because Jesus paid for our sin “in full”.
2. God forgives all sin. God does not forgive partially. Remember Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. The servant had a huge debt that he could never repay. His lord did not just reduce the debt to a more manageable size. No, he forgave the entire debt so that the servant would not have to pay any of it. That parable is a picture of God's forgiveness of our sins. We had a huge sin debt that we could not repay – incomparably more than that servant had. But God forgave our debt completely. Jesus' last word was “paid in full”. We have nothing left to repay.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
- 1 John 1:7 (WEB)
3. God forgives repeated sins. One thing you'll notice if you read through the book of Judges: Israel sinned over and over again. They repeatedly worshiped idols. They intermarried with the nations that God commanded them to destroy. Like a broken record, the book of Judges records Israel “again did evil in the sight of the Lord.” God would punish them when they did, but He did not abandon them. When the people called to God for relief from their punishment, God would send them judges to save them. He never said, “I've had it with you! You don't want to obey me? Fine! You're on your own! I'll never save you again!”
In Matthew 18:21-22, when Jesus told Peter to forgive seventy times seven, He was not just telling Peter how often he should forgive his brother. He was describing God's own forgiveness. God forgives us over and over again, without keeping count. Aren't you grateful for that?
4. When God forgives, God forgets our sins. It is as if the sin never happened. Isaiah 43:25 says God blots out our transgressions and does not remember our sins. In the heavenly record of your life, the sins that God has forgiven are completely erased – just as if they never happened. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
When God forgives us, He treats us as if the fellowship was never broken, just like Joseph did with his brothers in Genesis 50:15-21. He continues to provide for all of our needs. He continues to love us just as much as before we sinned. How amazing is that?!?
5. God forgives at His own expense. Forgiveness isn't cheap. Somebody has to pay. If I forgive someone for setting fire to my house, the burden of paying for a new house is no longer on that person because I forgave him. The burden is now on me. I have to buy a new house. (If I say I forgive him but make him pay for some or all of the rebuilding of the house, then I haven't truly forgiven him.) James Buswell Jr. said, “All forgiveness, human and divine, is in the very nature of the case vicarious, substitutional, and this is one of the most valuable views my mind has ever entertained. No one ever really forgives another, except he bears the penalty of the other's sin against him.”
God's forgiveness of our sin is not like the cheap imitation that we offer those who offend us. It didn't just inconvenience Him. It cost God tremendously. It cost His Son for us to restore us to Himself. He held nothing back in doing what was necessary to obtain our complete forgiveness and complete redemption. We must not make light of the cost of this forgiveness!
6. God takes the initiative to make forgiveness possible. We know that God forgives the repentant. But the truth is that if God had to wait for us to repent on our own before He would do anything to secure our forgiveness, He would never have sent Jesus, and we would have no hope of getting out from under the burden of our sins. Psalm 53 says there are none who seek God. We have all turned after our own way. But Romans 5:8 says:
…But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (WEB)
God did not wait for man to repent before sending His Son Jesus to die for us. While we were still sinners, enjoying our sin, God took the necessary steps to secure our forgiveness. A few verses later in verse 10, Paul says that we were still enemies of God when Jesus died for us. God, the one we offended, took the initiative to restore us to Himself.
Which brings us to the last point… Why would God do this? Why would a holy, righteous God go through all this trouble and expense to let us poor miserable sinners off the hook?
7. God forgives us because He loves us and wants to forgive us. God doesn't forgive us because He's sick and tired of holding a grudge and wants to feel better. He does so because He loves us and genuinely wants us to have fellowship restored with Himself. 1 John 4:10 says: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins."
God doesn't love us because He forgave us. He forgave us because He loves us! (How different than the way we treat those who offend us!) God wants us to be reconciled to Himself as soon as possible. Those He has reconciled are to go tell others they can be reconciled, too. As Paul told the Corinthian believers, God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, proclaiming the good news of God's reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). We need to take that responsibility – our ambassadorship – seriously.
