Forgiveness

I came across a Christian friend the other day and he was just about paralyzed with fear about the sin in his life. I do not think I have seen someone as bad off as he was, but I have seen this before. Therefore, I really thought it would make a good blog and hopefully relive some of the fear out there among my readers. 

 

First, we have to go back to the basics, which is the very nuts and bolts of the Gospel and that is

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (King James Version)

 ³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

 ⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Jesus died for our sins. That means ALL our sins; past, present and future not just ours but everybody’s. God also says

Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

I love using this verse to demonstrate that our sins are gone. I know I have used this before in a blog, but it really shows God’s point. Go get a globe of the world and take your finger, put it on the North Pole, and run it south to the South Pole. Now to keep going you must run your finger north. Therefore, North and South meet at the poles. Now, take your finger and put it on the equator in South America and spin the globe so your finger goes east, keep going until your finger comes back to South America. You always went east. Not once did you go West in your whole spin around the globe; therefore East and West never meet. Take this one-step further; God removes your sins in ways so that they never touch you again. Bottom line, God has completely removed your sins.

The next thing is that we know sin in our life that is not confessed puts a block between God and us. This is why it is so important to confess our sins.

James 5:16 (King James Version)

 ¹⁶Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

I like to look at the Amplified Bible sometimes, because it uses a lot of synonyms for important words to really bring out the meaning, so here is the same verse from the Amplified Bible.

James 5:16 (Amplified Bible)

    ¹⁶Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].
 

I like this because when it says healed, most people think of a bodily healing; but I think the better meaning is as this version brings out, to restore a spiritual mind. Sin can block your thought processes toward God, but confession of the sin and prayer will restore you, not save you, you are already saved, sinning does not make you lose your salvation. 

 

What happens is Satan likes to use this trick of remind you of your past sins, some that you have already confessed, and some that you have not yet confessed. What you need to do if it is a sin that you have already confessed, is tell Satan that it is already confessed and it is covered by the blood of the Lamb. That will give him a black eye as they say, because what he tried to do backfired. If it is a sin that you have not confessed, immediately confess it so you can be restored to a spiritual tone. This happened just last week to me at work, while I was working I just remembered something I had done as a child, I have no idea why it came back, but I right there confessed it and now it is over.

Some people will tell you to pray that God will show you all your sins so you can confess them. I not sure that is good idea; a person can get overwhelmed with their sin, especially a new Christian, which may be part of my friend’s problem. I prefer to tell people to ask God to show them their sin in His timing, so they can confess it and handle the weight of their sin.

 

One last verse I would like to point out is

1 John 1:8-10 (King James Version)

 ⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 ¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

There are two points to this verse; one, that some people are the exact opposite of my friend in that they think they do not sin. That in itself is a sin. The point is, we are all still sinning even after we are saved. However, as the next verse says, and my second point, God is faithful and will forgive our sins and clean us up from our sin. 

That we have been forgiven and will continue to be forgiven is the point; there is no need to be paralyzed in our sin, we must give it to God to forgive.