Forgiveness – Page 8 – See you in Heaven

I am totally forgiven in Christ

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7

When I believed in Christ, I received “the forgiveness of sins” (cf. Acts 10:43). I want you to think about this for a moment. When Christ died for our sins, how many of them were still future? (Pause). All of them! When Jesus died for us nearly 2,000 years ago, we were not even born yet. So all of our sins in His mind were still future. At the cross, God took every sin that you or I would ever commit and placed them all on Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus paid the penalty for all of our sins so we could be totally forgiven the moment we believed in Christ (Colossians 2:13). Forgiveness means God has removed the barrier of all our sins so we can now enjoy closeness with God.

On what basis did God forgive all our sins? The Bible says, His forgiveness was “according to the riches of His grace.” God’s “grace” refers to His undeserved kindness. The word “riches” (ploutos) refers to an abundance or wealth of grace. We can never exhaust God supply of grace towards us. None of us deserve to be forgiven by God. God did this on the basis of His grace towards us, not our goodness or religious efforts. Since His forgiveness is based on His grace, we can stop punishing ourselves or trying to earn His forgiveness when we do sin.

I can remember when I was a young Christian really struggling with guilt and shame after I sinned. I would try to pray more and read my Bible more, thinking I could some how earn God’s forgiveness. But this kind of response is insulting to God. It’s like I was saying to Jesus, “Your death on the cross was not enough to pay the full penalty for my sins. I need to help You pay for all of my sins.” As I grew in my knowledge and application of God’s Word, I began to realize that Jesus paid it all for me! There was nothing more for me to do but accept or believe His full payment for all my sins.

What this means is that we can never lose our relationship with our heavenly Father. Just as we are born into our earthly families and can never cease to be our parents’ child no matter what we do, so too, when we are born into God’s family, we can never cease to be His child no matter how we live. We can sin as God’s child without ever ceasing to be His child. But our sin will break that closeness with God just as disobeying our parents breaks our closeness with them. Thanks be to Jesus Christ that that closeness to God can be restored on the basis of our own confession of sin (I John 1:9) and the realization that Christ has paid in full the penalty for that sin which otherwise would condemn us (John 19:30).

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You so much for paying the full price for all of my sins when You died in my place on the cross so I can enjoy complete and total forgiveness for all of my sins! Because my forgiveness in Christ is complete, I no longer need to work to earn Your forgiveness. I can now rest in Your finished work on the cross to have peace with God forever! This truth is life changing for me! I now want to live for You as a way of saying, “Thank You for my total forgiveness!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Songs of Deliverance

“You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:7

After confessing his double sin of adultery and murder to God (32:5), King David acknowledged that God was his “hiding place” Who would “preserve” him “from trouble” that had come upon him because of his sin (32:7a). One writer says that before confessing his sin, David was hiding “from” God (32:3-4). But now David was hiding “in” God (32:7). When believers confess their sins to the Lord it makes Him a Refuge to seek rather than a Judge to escape. The sooner we confess our sin to God the more quickly He can lessen the “trouble” our sin has brought upon us.

I was intrigued with the last part of verse 7, “You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.” One of the benefits of confessing our sin is that God encircles us with songs that proclaim the triumph of His mercy and grace. We are encompassed by “songs of deliverance” from our sin and shame, from doubts and despair, and from our enemies. To the right and to the left, above and below, the air is resounding with joyful music for the forgiven sinner! Instead of hearing songs of condemnation and accusation, the forgiven believer is surrounded by songs about God’s amazing love!!

Who is singing these “songs of deliverance”? Of course, it could be the repentant sinner whose dread has turned to joy. He breaks forth into songs of praise toward his merciful God who has replaced his guilt with His amazing grace! It is also possible that “the angels of God” are expressing their “joy… over one sinner who repents” by singing praises to the Lord (Luke 15:10). Do you ever get the sense that heaven is rejoicing when you are restored to fellowship with God after confessing your sin? Perhaps that is what is meant here. Regardless of who is singing these songs, the main point is that joy surrounds the forgiven sinner.

How can we overcome condemnation?

Are you living under condemnation? Are you weighed down by guilt and anxiety about your past? Maybe you have done things which would embarrass you if they became public knowledge. You may have a criminal record or a moral charge or a domestic conflict that, to this moment, is private information. You may wrestle with a past that has been fractured and wounded by a mental or emotional breakdown. Futile attempts at suicide may add to the previous scar tissue and increase your fear of being labeled “sick” or “nervous.” It’s possible you live with memories of an immoral relationship, a financial failure, a terrible habit, a divorce or a scandalous involvement. You may be your worst critic of your past.

From John 7:53-8:11, we can learn how to overcome condemnation.

1. REST UNDER CHRIST’S GRACIOUS TEACHINGS (7:53-8:2). The day after the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus went into the temple and “all the people came to Him” (8:2). Why did all the people come to sit under Jesus’ teaching? Was it because He beat them up spiritually and emotionally? No. I believe these people were tired of the demands of the religious leaders, and they were drawn to the gentle and forgiving grace of Christ (cf. Matthew 11:28-30; 12:20).

As they sat under His teaching and discovered the magnificence of His grace, they were healed from the malignancy of their guilt! How precious and broad is Christ’s love they found, yet how petty and narrow is man’s legalism (trying to keep the Law to gain God’s acceptance). How refreshing is the Lord’s grace! Yet how rigid is the legalist’s guilt! Christ’s grace was setting them free from their guilt and shame. And He wants to do the same for you. “For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). Christ did not come into the world to condemn you, but to cleanse you.

2. REDIRCT THOSE WHO CONDEMN US TO THEIR OWN SIN (8:3-9). Jesus’ gracious teaching was rudely interrupted by the religious leaders who caught a woman in the act of adultery during the Feast of Tabernacles when people were living in close quarters (8:3-4). For this woman to have been caught in adultery, the leaders must have set it up. They now set her in the middle of a crowd where everyone could see her and what Jesus would do with such a case. This was unlawful because they had a court to try such cases. But where was the man? The leaders set this whole thing up so the man could escape. They seemed to have a personal vendetta against this woman.

The law of Moses said to stone an adulteress and adulterer (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22-24)). But the leaders weren’t concerned with justice, but with trapping Jesus (8:5-6a). If Jesus says not to stone her, He is in conflict with the Mosaic law. If He says to stone her, He is in conflict with the Roman Law – for only the Romans had the right of capital punishment, not the Jews. Christ responded to the religious leaders’ attempt to condemn Him by stooping down and writing “on the ground with His finger” (8:6b). Much speculation has centered around what Jesus wrote. But the Bible is silent on this point! The act of writing – not what was written – is what is most important.

The leaders thought Christ was stalling so they persistently questioned Him (8:7a). Jesus was more than a Teacher of the Law (8:4). He was also the Giver of the Law. He was the Son of God (20:31), God in human flesh (1:1, 14), the Creator of all things (1:3). The same finger that wrote the Law in the tablet of stone on Mt Sinai (Exodus 31:18), is the same finger that wrote on the ground. If Jesus was the Law-Giver (and He is), then He could forgive this woman like He had forgiven Israel at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 33:12-34:9).

Then Jesus says, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” 8:7b). Christ is not referring to sinlessness here because in the original language it literally says, “He who is without the sin [of adultery]…” Christ is referring to a specific area of sin. Then Jesus “stooped down and wrote on the ground” a second time (8:8). Perhaps Jesus wrote down the names of the women the Pharisees slept with. The Law required the man and woman be stoned. Where was the man? Was he one of the leaders or a friend of the leaders? There would have been ample opportunities for the leaders to commit adultery during the feast.

As the truth began to sink in, “those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last” (8:9). The older ones left first because they had more guilt since they had been committing adultery longer. Instead of focusing on the woman’s sin or on trapping Jesus, the leaders were now forced to look at their own sin.

When people are quick to condemn us or criticize us, set a boundary with them. Ask them, “Have you ever committed a similar sin? How did you feel? Would you have wanted them to remind you of that or put you down in front of others?” When you are being attacked, it’s better to take the offensive than be defensive.

3. REPLACE OUR GUILT WITH CHRIST’S FORGIVING GRACE (8:10-11a). The woman could have slipped away with the rest, but she remained with Jesus (8:9b). The leaders had felt the merciless exposure by the Son of God, but the woman had felt His warmth. Jesus asks her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you” (8:10b). She said, “No one Lord” (8:11a). The leaders condemned themselves now instead of the woman. Now that the jury is gone, so the woman awaits her verdict. And the One who can condemn, does not. Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you” (8:11b). Jesus wants to replace our guilt with His forgiving grace. It’s a gift. God doesn’t give us what we deserve, but He does give us what we need. We deserve to be condemned, but we need His cleansing forgiveness.

We have such a difficult time understanding this as humans because this is not how we treat one another. This is not how we live in society. You mess up, you pay for it. In the States where you deserve death, you will be put to death in many states where they still have the death penalty.

But not in the state of Gods’ grace. In the state of grace, it’s already been paid for you. The courtroom was a wooden cross and the debt that was paid was suffered by Jesus Christ. When He hung on the cross it was if He was saying, “Jeff, you deserve to be here because of your sin but I’m going to die in your place because I love you and I don’t want you to die eternally. I want you to have a relationship with Me so I’m going to pay for it so I can look at you and say, ‘Not guilty.’” That’s grace. And He wants to take our guilt and give us grace. All He asks is that we believe in Him alone for His gift of eternal life and forgiveness (John 3:16; Acts 10:43).

If you have already done that, but are still struggling with guilt, ask the Lord to show you if you have any unconfessed sin in your Christian life. If you do, confess it to Him, and the Bible says God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse of from all unrighteouness” (I John 1:9). If you still have guilt, then you are probably being accused by Satan who wants to plague you with false guilt. Dismiss his lies and claim God’s truth to have completely forgiven you!

4. RELY ON CHRIST TO OVERCOME SIN (8:11c). After forgiving the woman’s adultery, Jesus said to her, “Go and sin no more” (8:11c). Is Jesus talking about sinless perfection here? No, because that would contradict other Scriptures (cf. I John 1:8, 10). He is not referring to sin in general or to sinless perfection, but He is referring specifically to the sin of adultery. Jesus forgives and forbids in the same breath. Christ did not condone, rationalize, or excuse her sin. He forgave her so she could live the way she was created to live…for God’s glory. This was probably the first man who was more interested in saving her than exploiting her, and in forgiving her than condemning her. Jesus provided the assurance and motivation she needed to live for Him now.

And He does the same with us. Christ did not forgive you so you could continue in your sin. He forgave you so you could live for Him now (2 Corinthians 5:15). You must rely on His Spirit and Word to resist temptation and obey His commands (Matthew 4:1-11; 26:41; John 8:31-32; 16:13-14; Romans 8:11; I Corinthians 10:13; Galatians 5:16-17).

You know, none of us deserve to be forgiven. We haven’t earned it. Nor have we paid the price ourselves. Yet, in His grace, when Jesus forgives our sin, He forgets (Hebrews 10:17). Our past ended one second ago. Once you have experienced grace, it is now time to show it to others. We are to be gracious with others as Christ has been gracious with us (EpheFsians 4:32).