Will God Forgive Me?

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for..." Isaiah 40:1-2 

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." Rev. 3:19

"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after  that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." Jer. 31:33-34 

 So many people think they have committed the unforgiveable sin or that they have gone to far and there is no hope for their souls that it is necessary to make a study on God's mercy. Truly, we cannot limit the mercy of God any more than we can put God in a box. It wasn't long ago that the Roman Catholic Church taught that if you committed suicide you automatically went to hell because you couldn't repent, but has since reversed itself saying this is limiting God and God decides who is forgiven, not us. 

Actually, the only unforgiveable sin is "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit," as delineated in Matt. 12:31ff. In Jesus's day, the Pharisees went so far that they attributed the works Christ had done by the finger of God to the devil himself. They didn't just think it but proclaimed it verbally and impenitently to overthrow the ministry of Christ. That is a pretty hard sin to do in this day and age even though it is theoretically possible.  

The point is that the person never repents and God sees this heart that we don't. Only God can judge that one has done this sin.  No matter what sin you have committed, you can be forgiven if you repent!  Israel had done every evil in the book but God didn't throw the book at them but told them even then He would not utterly cast them out and would forgive them (cf. Lev. 26:44). If you think you cannot be forgiven, you are already showing remorse and cannot be unredeemable or have gone too far; those people don't care and are impenitent. 

We must realize that even Christians do not get away with sin though God does not punish them per se. He chastises and disciplines or even prunes them that they may learn their lesson. In faithfulness, He has afflicted us that we may gain a heart of wisdom and for our own good (Psalm 119:67,71). They rod and staff of God is meant to comfort us. It is good to be taught by God. Some need to learn the hard way, the school of hard knocks. Guilt complexes are of Satan, but conviction of sin is the job of the Holy Spirit and God performs an open and shut case and doesn't just give us a vague feeling of shame or guilt--Satan does!  We all have a God-given conscience to listen to, but it can be wrong if not enlightened by the Word. 

When God forgives us, He deletes the file on us and keeps no permanent file or record (Isaiah 38:17); He blots them out for His own sake (Isaiah 43:25). He has swept them away like a cloud (Isaiah 44:22). He also casts them into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19).  What God does is throw them into the sea and puts up a sign: no fishing!  God can utterly forget and delete memories!  If we confess the same sin over and over, we are dredging up old sins and God says, "What sin?" We cannot be forgiven too many times and even if it's the same sin. Do you want new sins?  We may have an easily besetting sin that overcomes us and we need special intercession or confession. Remember, "Sin is crouching at the door and wants to destroy you and you must not let it." Gen. 4:7 

He only forgives those with faith in Jesus and have repented of their sins. True repentance is without regret. (2 Cor. 7:10).   That means being sorry enough to stop them. If there is no remorse, there can be no forgiveness. The Christian may sin, but he doesn’t desire to and wants to live a holy life and has made the decision to follow Christ. The point of conversion is that God changes a person from the inside out and makes them a new person willing to do God’s will.

God forbid that we should take advantage of grace and go on sinning once forgiven. That would be a sin of presumption. No believer is without sin but is at the same time justified before God and a sinner saved by grace, not his conduct. God doesn’t hold our sins against us (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19; Psalm 32:2). But only Christians have power to overcome sin and it has no dominion over us. (Romans 6:14). 

In sum, when the believer sins, God doesn't hold it against them (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19) but disciplines them that they may grow spiritually and in maturity and faith.  "O what joy for those whose record has been cleared of guilt...." (Psalm 32:2).   Confession is not a matter of getting saved again, but of restoration to fellowship with the Father, the Son, and other believers as 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness."   Soli Deo Gloria! 

The Sacrifice Of Contrition

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hos. 6:6, NIV).   "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise" (Psalm 51:16-17, NIV).   "... 'Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams'" (1 Samuel 15:22, NIV). 

 "... All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife..." (hymn by Bill Gaither--Maranatha Music: "Something Good").  

Christians offer multiple sacrifices:   of thanksgiving, of praise, of doing good and sharing, of a broken heart, and even of offering themselves as living sacrifices; however, "to obey is better than sacrifice" (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22).  Jesus came to be the fulfillment of all sacrifices; i.e., the law's demands.  He did this by fulfilling the law and doing everything it required on our behalf--He not only died for us but lived for us as well!  Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered (cf. Heb. 5:8) and feels our pain because He's been there; however, we are completing the suffering of Christ and living out His life in our adversities (cf. Col. 1:26).  Could you trust in a God who didn't understand suffering and couldn't identify with us and know what we are going through?

We must bear in mind that there is always light at the end of the tunnel and "this too shall pass!"   We experience brokenness so that we can be patient with others in the same boat and witness or minister to them in their pain.  We can thus comfort others with the same comfort we have known in Christ.  God knows everything about us and always did!  He is not surprised by our failings and shortcomings.  He knew of them before our salvation.  There is a reason for suffering, but God isn't obliged to explain Himself: He's too deep to understand, too wise to make a mistake, and too kind to be cruel.  We are not to think like Job's friends that we are only getting punished for our sins and aren't even getting what we deserve.  Jesus paid the full penalty for our sins, and we are not punished for our sins, but by them!  By and large, we don't break God's laws; they break us!  What we do is break God's heart and that's why He knows what hurt is and wants to heal us of our suffering.

Christ's legacy to be gained is a peace that passes all understanding and cannot be taken away. We can experience this legacy in the midst of suffering and find out it works by experience--the proof of the pudding is in the eating!  We can become seasoned believers having been trained in the trenches of the warfare of life and having had O.J.T. in battling the enemy.  Thank God, His mercies are new every morning and they never come to an end for us--He never gives upon us and we are just "works in progress" no matter how mature we are and should not assume we are always good soil or that we've arrived--even Paul didn't claim to have laid hold of it yet.  There are no hopeless believers, only those who've given up hope!

This is precisely why we must localize or tailor the gospel to the recipients. Paul was the evangelist to the Gentiles while Peter was to the Jews, but Paul strived to be all things to all men so he could, by all means, save some!   Not everyone is on the same page and God must use different strokes for different folks. Some water, some plant, some reap!  But God gives the increase!  God is only using us as honorable vessels or servants to do His will, we can only venture to boast of what He does through us, not what we do for Him, but what God does through us is what counts.

We need to know about the prowling of Satan to devour us in our weak spots because he knows our vulnerabilities.  The danger we must beware of is Satan using us for his schemes or giving us temptations and thoughts that we carry out, like when Peter was rebuked by the Lord to get behind Him.  Satan can put thoughts into our minds and can distract us from the Word.  Winning entails knowing our enemy as well as knowing ourselves.  Shakespeare (Polonius in Hamlet) said, "To thine own self be true"!  The Greeks of antiquity said, "Know thyself!" and Sun Tzu, the Chinese author of The Art of War,  said, "Know your enemy!"   But the Bible says "Know God!"  All three are necessary to mature in Christ and to engage in the angelic conflict with all the onslaught of Satan known as the Anfectung (attack in German) by Martin Luther in order that we do not succumb to the schemes of the devil.

Only when we realize our sinfulness and realize that we are no better than sinners are we grace-oriented.  George Whitefield was asked what he thought of a man going to the gallows:  "There but for the grace of God, go I."  We must come to Paul's awakening when he said, "I am what I am by the grace of God."  William Jay of Bath said, "I am a great sinner, and I have a great Savior."  We are in essence just beggars tellers other beggars where to get a meal, it's been put.  Peter realized his unworthiness and said, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinner."  It's a fact that the closer we get to God, the more we become sensitized to sin and aware of our failures.  Samuel Rutherford said we should pray for a lively sense of sin, "the greater sense of sin, the less sin!"

We must realize our sinfulness in toto and not cling to any self-righteousness, fully repentant and willing to change our ways exhibiting it by a change in behavior to be saved--believing repentance or penitent faith is necessary for salvation.  A person who feels he is righteous or has no sin cannot be saved, and Christ and His gospel have nothing to say to those unwilling to confess and repent of their sins.  If we feel no brokenness for our own sin (contrition), how can we feel brokenness for the lost and feel their pain knowing and feeling their despair?

In sum, we must be reassured and comforted in knowing that Jesus was indeed a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" and was "tempted in all ways like we are, yet without sin."    Soli Deo Gloria!

Rules Of Engagement

"... This cup is the new covenant in My blood.  This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me"  (1 Cor. 11:25, NKJV). 

God is a God of order and design, not the author of confusion and chaos ("Let everything be done decently and in order," 1 Cor. 14:40), and everything He plans comes to pass, and everything that comes to pass, does so of necessity, according to John Wycliffe's tenet--God wastes no time and resources and leaves no margin of error; He doesn't play dice with the universe.  God's Plan will be accomplished according to the good pleasure of His will and glory; with or without our cooperation.  God has no Plan B or no backup!  He cannot fail, for He is sovereign as His prerogative is due to His omnipotence and omniscience, even knowing the future.  We have the privilege and honor to share in His glory and work, which we do as vessels of honor doing His will.

God is not arbitrary, capricious, nor whimsical, but methodical and orderly in all He accomplishes and desires.  His election of us was not random as if we got lucky!  It was according to His purpose, good pleasure, foreknowledge, and will.  God is sovereign because He has all power over His creation, and our freedom doesn't limit His sovereignty, and His sovereignty is not limited by our freedom!

Communion is the opportunity to represent our union and solidarity with the body of Christ and to share in His presence as a fellowship, restoring fellowship and keeping us focused on His death on our behalf till He comes for us in glory.  We must share in Christ to be one with Him and to have communion with Him.  Everything, including the Lord's Supper, is to be done properly, in order, and decently as if there were a protocol of good manners in His presence.  Communion requires faith and faith is what pleases God, not our feelings, which can vary like a weather vane in a whirlwind. It doesn't really matter what dogma you hold concerning the Lord's Supper, because it merely is a symbol of the New Covenant Christ made by shedding His blood, and the body that was bruised and striped on our behalf and given for us!

Christ gave His ALL, and He demands that we take up our crosses, which pale in comparison, and follow Him in obedience.  He doesn't expect of us anything He didn't do Himself!  Christ certainly doesn't expect our pity and isn't looking for sympathy for His passion, and He didn't exempt Himself from suffering either, though He didn't deserve any.  It wasn't karma He was suffering, but unjust and cruel treatment He didn't deserve, but it wasn't the nails that kept Him on the cross; His love for us kept Him nailed and on the cross, though He could've saved Himself, we wouldn't be saved then.

In celebrating the Lord's Supper we reflect on the forgiveness and mercy of God in sending the Passover Lamb, Jesus, to make propitiation for our sins, we also realize His omnipresence that He is with us as His name implies (God is with us!).  We get convicted by the Holy Spirit of our sins but realize that if we confess them He is ready to forgive and forget them.  God's mercies never end! As we partake of the emblems we are admonished to examine ourselves and our walk with the Lord, and this is something we should learn to do on our own as we mature in the faith--to constantly practice the presence of God, not just in church or during the Lord's Supper.  Confession should be a matter of keeping short accounts, not saving them up for communion!  But we are to tarry for one another and be patient with the weaker brother or newborn believer, reflecting on God's patience and long-suffering for us!

Caveat:  Just like it was a serious breach of holy protocol for the High Priest to enter the Holy of Holies with unconfessed or unrepentant sin under penalty of death; so God must bring judgment on any individual who doesn't regard or discern the body of Christ and partakes of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, showing no respect because God is holy and we are to treat Him with all regards to His presence with us in the person of Christ at communion to illustrate our direct access to His throne room.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Repentance And Confession

"Therefore, repent and turn from all your sins, that you may be forgiven and times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Acts 3:19

When we get saved, it's by penitent faith, or believing repentance, because they go hand in hand as the Bible says, "Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" in Mark 10:9. ("[Testifying] both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," says Acts 20:21).  The first of the Ninety-five Theses that Martin Luther made was that our penitence is a continual thing and renewed, an ongoing resolution it's not just a one-time event.  It is a mockery of repentance to confess without turning from the sin and not being sorry enough to quit.  As Job said, "... I will wait till my renewal comes" (cf. Job 14:14).  Indeed, even Job did find repentance: "[Therefore] I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes"  (Job 42:6, ESV).

Some believers are concerned that they confess the same sins over and over (this is called the "sin which easily besets [or ensnares] you" per Heb. 12:1).  "... And let no iniquity have dominion over me"  (Ps. 119:133, NKJV).  David says, "Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me...."  What do they want?  New sins?  God is able to make grace abound toward us and give us the victory over sin because we are no longer "under the law" and "sin shall have no dominion over you" per Romans 6:14.

When we become believers we do not have permission to live in the flesh or become Antinomians living as our flesh desires, but we have the power to live in the Spirit.  As David says in Psalm 18:23 that he has "kept [himself] from [his] sin." We cannot achieve sinless perfection but we can overcome our easily besetting sin and not let it hinder our walk.  "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin [sinful nature]?'"(Cf. Prov. 20:9).   Note that the psalmist said in Psalm 119:96 that he had seen the "limit of all perfection."

We have to be on the alert, because "sin wants to destroy you, but don't let it [it's crouching at the door!]"  (cf. Gen. 4:7).  Hosea says that sin has been Israel's downfall (cf. Hos. 14:1).  Repentance was demanded of the woman caught in adultery:  "Go and sin no more!"[i.e., live in sin] (Cf. John 8:10ff).  Salvation is more than mere forgiveness at the point of salvation--it covers all sin, past, present, and future, but is not an easy believism or cheap grace that grants forgiveness without repentance.

We must confess and admit our faults and sins to God, calling a spade a spade, naming sin as God does and  calling it out, making no excuses, nor trying to justify ourselves.  "No one who abides in him keeps on sinning..." (1 John 3:6, ESV).   If we go on in our sin we will be disciplined or chastised of the Lord and we can be sure "our sin will find us out" per Numbers 32:23. Jeremiah writes:  "Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?"  (Lam. 3:39, NKJV).   

Remember, to feel remorse or regret is only half the formula; we must have faith and accept God's forgiveness, not living in guilt. It must be matched with faith.   Peter was forgiven, Judas wasn't because Peter had penitent faith/believing repentance and Judas just felt sorry for what he'd done or had remorse but lacked faith, his missing ingredient.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Can God Forget?

It is said in Holy Writ that God forgives and forgets. He wipes the slate clean. Like an Etch A Sketch's slate being cleaned, or a computer memory being erased, or a file deleted, giving us a fresh start. He puts our sins into the bottom of the sea, as it were, and puts up a no-fishing sign. "Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions" ( Ps. 103:12).

We shouldn't keep "dredging up" old sins (as Rick Warren says) and reminding God of what He has forgotten. If we do confess a sin again and remind Him of it, He says, "What sin?" "For You have cast all my sin behind Your back" (Isa. 38:17). "...[H]e canceled every record of the debt we had to pay..." (Col. 2:14).

God doesn't hold any of our confessed sins against us, but we still may suffer the consequences of our actions (reaping what we sow). Sometimes we cannot forget, and we must learn to forgive ourselves. "I, even I, am He who blots out your sins for My sake, and will not remember your sins" (Isa. 43:25). "I have blotted out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist..." (Isa. 44:22). "...For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:34; Heb. 8:12).

Yes, God does forget, and we should, too. Even if we have terrible sins, there is hope: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, and though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18).   Soli Deo Gloria!