Forgiveness of Sins

When we repent and believe, turning to Jesus, we are transferred from darkness to light. Paul says in Acts 26:18 that Jesus sent him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” God’s condition for our receiving His forgiveness is that we turn back to Him; that we turn from darkness to light.

In Acts 2:36-38, Peter was proclaiming the good news to the people in Jerusalem saying, “‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Repentance is not only a requirement for forgiveness at the time of our initial salvation, it is a requirement for our forgiveness throughout our Christian lives. Without repentance there is no forgiveness. After we become Christians, whenever we sin, whenever we rebel against God and go our own way, in order to be forgiven, we must repent.

We must stop sinning, stop rebelling, and stop going our own way. We must stop sinning and admit that we are wrong and admit we have sinned and turn around. We must change our mind and change the direction we are going in life and turn back to God. Whenever we do this, trusting in Jesus and the blood that He shed for us as payment for our sins, He is just, He is faithful, and He will forgive our sins (I John 1:9).

There are numerous examples of this in the Bible. Over and over again, God tells His people that if they will stop sinning and turn back to Him, He will forgive them.

God sent Jeremiah to warn His people about the disaster that He was going to bring upon them, in the hopes that, when they hear about it, “every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jeremiah 36:3). This changing the mind about God and how we are living, and turning back to God, is a basic requirement for us to receive forgiveness of sins even after we have been saved. The apostle John reminds believers in I John 1:9 saying: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

There are some within the church today that teach that when you are saved, by trusting in Jesus and in the blood He shed for the forgiveness of sins, that all of our sins are forgiven, past, present and future. However, I challenge you to find one verse in all of Scripture that tells us that all of our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven at the moment we are saved, at the moment we are born again. I have not been able to find a single one. I do not believe there are any.

What is sin? Sin is a transgression of the law (I John 3:4). Romans 14:23 tells us, “Everything that is not of faith is sin.” Whatever we do that is not done through faith, through the conviction that it is what God wants us to do, is sin. I Samuel 15:23 tells us that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Romans 5:19 tells us that through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners.

Transgression, rebellion, and disobedience are all things that we have committed or are committing. Sin is something that has been committed. It is something that we did that was an offence to God.

Sin is something that has been done that needs to be repented of and turned away from. It is the evil that we have walked in or are walking in that is an offence to God. As soon as we become aware of our sin, we must repent. We must stop and turn back to God trusting that the blood of Jesus is sufficient, that His blood is adequate to cleanse us from whatever sin we may have committed.

Paul reminds us in Colossians 2:13, “When you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses” (HCSB). 2 Peter 1:9 says, “The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins” (HCSB).  

Notice Peter does not say the person was cleansed from all his sins, past, present and future. No, Peter says he was cleansed of his “past sins.” The sins, the trespasses, that are forgiven when we first get saved, or born again, are our past sins. These are the trespasses that we had previously committed.

Paul reminds us in Romans 3:21-26, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (KJV).

The precious blood of Christ Jesus that was shed for us is sufficient to cleanse us from all sins, past, present and future. However, we can only receive forgiveness of sins that we have committed and have repented of. We can only repent and turn from something that we have already done. We can not repent and turn back to God if we have not first turned away from Him. If upon believing, all our sins, past, present and future are forgiven, why would God tell us repeatedly in Scripture of believers whose sins will or will not be forgiven?

James 5:15-16 says, “And the prayer of faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”  Why would this sick believer need to have his sins forgiven if all his sins, past, present, and future were forgiven at the time of his salvation? And why should we confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that we might be healed and forgiven?

Colossians 3:12-13 encourages us, “Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive” (HCSB). Why does Paul warn the believers in this passage saying, “So you must also forgive”?

To understand why this is so important, why the believer must forgive one that he has a complaint against, we need to go back to Matthew 6:14-15. In this passage Jesus warns the disciples about the importance of their forgiving one another. Jesus said, “For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.” If all of our sins are forgiven, past, present and future, why would Jesus warn us that we would not be forgiven if we would not forgive others?

We can also see the effect that our refusal to forgive others has on our being forgiven by our Father in heaven. In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells Peter about the slave that was forgiven by his master of a huge debt he could not repay. The slave then laid hold of a fellow slave and insisted he repay a very small debt that the fellow slave owed him. The slave that was forgiven the huge debt was unwilling to forgive his fellow slave his very small debt. When the master heard about it, he became very angry and had the slave that he had forgiven for the huge debt cast into prison until he repaid everything he owed. Then Jesus told Peter, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
How could Jesus say that our Father in heaven would not forgive us if we were not willing to forgive our brother if we had already been forgiven all of our sins, past, present and future?

The incredible danger of this false teaching, that all of our sins, past, present and future have been forgiven, is that it treats the wound of God’s people lightly. It treats the sin of God’s people as though it is not serious. This false teaching comforts God’s people saying, “Don’t worry. You will be okay. Remember, all of your sins have already been forgiven, past, present and future. God still loves you. God is pleased with you because you believed in Jesus!”

However, God warns us in Jeremiah 6:13-15, ‘“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.  They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them,’ says the Lord” (NIV).

Another great danger of this false teaching is that it robs believers of the sensitivity to God’s displeasure with them when they sin. Their consciences become seared. They have become insensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit regarding sin in their lives.

They forget how to blush. They forget how to be ashamed of their sinful, evil ways. Some professing believers have been so deceived by this false teaching that they have become convinced that they never have to repent of sin, ever. Their consciences have become seared.

This teaching deceives them into believing everything is okay. They believe they can have peace with God even if they are living sinful lives, because all sins, past, present and future, have already been dealt with when they were saved.

This false teaching that gives a false sense of comfort to God’s people is straight from the enemy, Satan. It is contrary to the full consul of Scripture and contrary to God’s will for our lives as believers.

“Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be serious and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance. But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:13-16).

God’s will for His people is that we would be sanctified, that we would be holy as He is holy. Paul writes to us in I Thessalonians 4:1-8, “Finally then, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us how you must walk and please God—as you are doing—do so even more. For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

“For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality, so that each of you knows how to control his own body in sanctification and honor, not with lustful desires, like the Gentiles who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification. Therefore, the person who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who also gives you His Holy Spirit” (HCSB).

We are not to treat the wound, the sin, of God’s people lightly.  We are to encourage them and stress to them the importance of how they walk, of how they live in this world. It is God’s will that we live lives that are pleasing to Him. It is only then that we can experience real deep inner peace.

Paul reminds us in Galatians 6:7-9, “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up” (HCSB).

“For the grace of God has appeared with salvation for all people, instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do good works” (Titus 2:11-14 HCSB).

Let us remind one another that every sin must be dealt with seriously and quickly, confessing and repenting, turning from our evil ways back to God that we may receive forgiveness for the sins that we have committed and be restored, by virtue of the power and preciousness of the blood of Christ Jesus our Lord that was shed for us on the cross!