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ARE OUR SIN(S) REALLY GONE, FORGIVEN, AND FORGOTTEN BY GOD?
Under the Old Covenant days when John the Baptist was sent to Israel to announce the coming of the Promised Messiah notice what John said when he saw Jesus: “Look, the Lamb of God, who TAKES AWAY the sin of the world (those of course who are called and chosen)!” – John 1:29
Even Peter speaks about how we are to depend upon and trust in the ONETIME Sacrifice as the means to LIFELONG forgiveness without any strings attached. Notice: 1 Peter 3:18 – “Christ died for sins ONE FOR ALL, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
The Old Covenant Priests never could say their sin(s) were totally forever removed by the sacrifices of a animal. It just did not happen. They had to keep sacrificing animals each year of their life on earth. But with Jesus ONE TIME sacrifice guilt, condemnation, wrath, forgiveness, deliverance from sins power took place! The NEW PERSON is really FREE. This revolutionizes our perspective on how we really stand before God today and I mean 24/7 throughout our entire life on earth and into the presence of God when we pass away! The blood of Jesus’ atonement did that for us! I really worked! God is and was satisfied both now and in eternity.
I can hear voices saying now after reading these words a usage of terms like Positional truth, and heavenly bookkeeping and cleansed in God’s eyes only etc.! But then we claim that Christ’s death does NOT translate into “once for all” forgiveness in the here and now which is really what God has stated about us and sin.
Some exhort a believer to do something, such as, asking for forgiveness, to impel God so that He will ACTUALLY forgive and cleanse them. This then will satisfy them, for there is nothing like a daily list of sins to pore over and over again to relieve us from our guilt. They say things like we ned to “keep short accounts” of our sins and ask God to forgive and cleanse us in order to “make it real in our own experiences,” but didn’t God say that ONLY ONE THING — Blood –brought forgiveness and cleansing?” WE somehow think that the new birth only brings results for when we get to heaven, not really down here. WE must do something, some work, where we can initiate through remembering, confessing, asking, pleading, with tears and great sorrow claiming that forgiveness which God had stated was DONE ONCE and was Finished on the Cross for us. The deal is we think we have to do this work and it is our responsibility to make the Cross carry real benefits into the present moment and time.
By developing this approach, we fail to recognize that the cross of Jesus Christ is a Historical even, a One-time Event. Its effects are completed no matter whether what we may believe and claim. We must realize we cannot initiate Forgiveness, because we are not able to do that. Only the Blood of Jesus can bring forgiveness and God does that when we get Saved and that is it! Our activities of remembering, confessing, asking, claiming, does not cause More blood to be shed, for it was already done and it was over! Now we know Jesus is interceding for us 24/7 but it is based on the One Time Act of His on the Cross. There are no Masses nor are there any Last Rites, etc., to be done. So, the facts are: (1) We accept as fact the complete, unconditional forgiveness that God purchased when He crushed His Son on the cross at crucifixion, or (2) create some type of system we design on our own to Feel better about our sins and our guilt.
So, what are we saying and thinking about the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross when we insist that something further be done to “activate” it? In essence, we are insulting the work of Calvary, we are valuing the Son’s sacrifice even less than the people of the Old Testament days valued their animal sacrifices. We are really no better than the Roman Catholics in their crucifixion of Jesus at the Mass every time they do their Mass. That is what they are doing killing Christ all over again. Why? Because they do not consider the Cross sufficient in terms of a ONE TIME even and Work! They reject the word of God. Are we not doing something like when we begin screaming, crying, and praying for God to “forgiven us for our sins and wash us in His blood, etc.?
I know what is being thought when I reveal this. Folks are thinking about the sin(s) they have committed since being saved and it makes them feel guilty, makes them feel something is wrong, makes them feel like they are vile, wicked, evil, and not really right with God, etc.! So, they go through the process of what they did when they were saved or born again! I will argue the problem is if we follow this line of reasoning, we are saying very loudly we do not recognize who we really are. What our identity really is IN CHRIST JESUS! We become so focused on our struggles and failures that we cannot believe God wants us to look elsewhere. We become convinced that our Sins are different somehow—–that somehow God hasn’t forgotten them and asked us to move on. As we wallow around in all of our failures, we miss the privilege of celebrating. We miss the reason for the great party we should be having! We should be focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ rather than on our failures and sins. Fixing our eyes on Jesus is the answer as we remember HE has paid for our sin(s) and He holds them no longer against us. Yes, we seek to move on and overcome the weakness of our flesh which has sin operating in it, and we do see many victories as we do such throughout our life now, but we are NOT to allow Satan or our own self which is a New Person to fall back into the state of mind and heart that we are Lost again, out of Fellowship with God now, or lost our identity as forgiven totally delivered people in our New Self and New Life in Christ. WE live in a fallen body with Sin but we are not the ones doing the evil as Paul said, but Sin is doing the evil now and we ask God to help us deal with our body of weakness where sin dwells, but the forgiveness and pardon and His goodness and righteousness in us, is what we really are!
Are we consumed with our sins when God says HE remembers them no more? Are we willing to agree that the focus is No longer on our failures? Will we please the Father through obsession with the Son? He finished the work and that is where our eyes and heart should be? LOOK UP!
The book of Hebrews makes a lot to do with all of this this!! In our new identity and our new birth, we need to listen to the Lord as He gave us these words in Hebrews!
Hebrews 9:25-26 – “Nor did HE enter heaven to offer Himself AGAIN and AGAIN, the way the high priest enters the Most-High Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But HE has appeared ONCE For ALL at the culmination of the ages to do away with Sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Notice THE POINTS, Never AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND ALSO Once FOR ALL TO DO WHAT?
Our thoughts should be like this:
- Only blood brings forgiveness!
- Jesus’ blood will never be shed again!
- Therefore, God is Satisfied!
- And We enjoy Lifelong and Eternal cleansing!
Think of this example: What if a saved born-again Jew would think this; “I believe that Jesus died for my sins, but just in case I will continue to participate in the animal sacrifices.” Actually, some did just that in the beginnings of the New Covenant days. This would be publicly disgracing Jesus Christ, since they were working to make more added on to the work of Christ which was ONE time Only Sacrifice. How does our doubting about the once-for-all sacrifice manifest itself? We do not express our doubt through temple ceremonies or through animal sacrifices on our lawns! We employ more subtle means of insulting God! Rather than publicly disgracing Him, we Privately disgrace Him in our thoughts and belief operations.
I think the writer of Hebrews, Paul the Apostle, would confront us about this. He would accuse us of doing exactly what the recipients of his letter were doing and he would say when we invent nonbiblical terminology and propose that we are forgiven from God’s vantage point but not Actually forgiven without a “method” of renewed repentance and confession when it has already been taken care of at the Cross. We would be insulting the Spirit of Grace. The point is that ONE Who would take away (NOT JUST COVER) the sin of the world has done just that! We recognize that if and when we do allow sin to operate in the flesh, we are not to endorse such as being o.k.! We realize it takes place and we also recognize that we are NOT to think that sin(s) is placing us back into a same position we were before we were born again! We realize those are already forgiven, we openly agree with God that sin has acted out in our body of the flesh and it was sin that did the sinning and not our New Born Holy Person and New Self, and we can certainly ask our Lord to help us through the Spirit to slay this monster and the Rebuke the Devil and the demons which may have been involved or to ask our Lord to give us strength during the temptations that come our way and teach us how to “run” to Him more strongly and help us fight the monster that is still within the flesh. A lot of difference in our words and belief system now that we see the truth and how things are in reality.
I also know that Paul through the Spirit of God, taught us that all of our activities of life will be brought before the Lord when we meet Him and they will be judged in the sense of whether they were done in the Spirit or done in the Flesh and those will be burned up if they are of the flesh! But the good deeds will be rewarded. But remember that those sin(s) are not being referred to by God as deserving punishment upon us at all. We will not be judged in that sense ever! He obliterated our deserved punishment for sins and TOOK AWAY those sins from such wrath and condemnation.
Yet, we find ourselves buying the idea that we will be judged for our sins when Jesus returns. How could we be judged for our sins if He has taken them away? How could we be punished for our sins when He remembers them no longer as acts due punishment and wrath and condemnation? And really only worthy punishment for sins is death, and death is precisely what Jesus experienced on our behalf so we would not die! Notice the following verses of scriptures:
Hebrews 9:28 – “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, WILL appear a second time for salvation WITHOUT REFERENCE to sin, to those who eagerly await Him!”
1 John 2:2 – “He is the One who Turns Aside God’s wrath, taking away our sins, and not only ours, but also the sins of the whole world (meaning of course the whole world of redeemed and born-again peoples)!
As someone has said, “if we miss the message of the gospel, it holds no power to alter natural mind-sets that control us. Partial forgiveness provides partial relief from guilt but breeds an unhealthy fear of judgment. Real forgiveness means that the sin issue is OVER. Real forgiveness means that there is no present or future punishment for sins. Jesus’ death satisfied God forever. And there is nothing about us that will ever anger him again: “When HE had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” – John 19:30 (A. Farley)!
Listen as you read, think about it! When we were born again, we were actually placed in Christ and our sins which in our case were past, present at the time, and any that we may commit in the future were forgiven and the issue is over! Seated with Christ now we can relax! He assures us that the sin matter is over. No other ACT on our part will make a change. Notice Hebrews 10:14 – “By ONE OFFERING (Jesus) has perfect for ALL TIME those who are sanctified.” No one can get around this fact!! Are you willing to be like the Lord Jesus Christ and forget your sins! Are you willing to agree with God that you are a forgiven person absolutely for now and forever? Semone has stated, you are as much “born again” now as you will ever be, except for the translation of the body being made perfect. You just can’t be MORE born again! I think anything short of what I have spoken is just not faith in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus!
Real Forgiveness has been accomplished. Freedom from guilt is our daily privilege in Christ. What if you asked your wife several times a day “Honey will you marry me?” She would think you are off your rocker! She can get out the marriage certificate and show you the facts of the past!
Have you thought about or tried to look up in the New Covenant Epistles that Urge Christians or Born-Again people, to ask God for forgiveness since they have been saved? I think you will come up with Zero times! You will not find a single epistle that suggest that we ask God for forgiveness. 1 John is calling lost Gnostic sinners to repent not a Christian. The Christian there is identified as those who recognized when they got saved, they were sinners and repented of same.
I think you could build a case that even in Revelation the local Ecclesia’s (called out body of born-again ones) were not the ones Christ was calling on to repent but those who were involved with Satan and were dead etc. Remember that the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke was mostly majoring on words and events during the Old Covenant days, and even in John’s Gospel you have a lot of Jesus and His ministry during the Old Covenant. One can’t mix Old Covenant teachings with New Covenant teachings for they are different Covenants. We do recognize God tells us to deal with the flesh where sin abides and is a force within this body of ours. For instance, 2 Corinthians 6: 14 through 7:1, speaks a lot about separating from outside of the faith people in terms of yoking up with them like they are family for close friends. God said there can be no fellowship with darkness and we are in the light. In Chapter 7:1 he wrote, “Therefore, since we have these precious promises (God will live with us, walk among us, will be our God, and we will be His people, and He will be a Father to us and we will be His sons and daughters, if we “come out from among them and be separate), dear friends, let us PURIFY ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”. As you see there is this activity as “forgiven, saved saints, that we are to be highly involved in this business of God walking in the Spirit, by purposefully working to keep the flesh and ‘sin’ within it under control. These actions will not and cannot be performed by a religious only prson, but can be done ONLY by saved people who have the Holy Spirit.
Sinners who needed to be saved who need redemption get that message but not Saints! Why are there none in the Epistles? Saints are told to put on things, and put off things, but that is a different matter than Regeneration. So, the reason for no Epistle directions to confess and repent is because the writers penned their words AFTER the death of Jesus. They were fully aware of their forgiveness as an accomplished Fact! ****
***More lessons on confession to others, etc., stay tuned! – Lamar
****The entire article is information I would think, write, and speak from beginning to the end; however, I chose to repeat many ideas exactly like others if you compare likeminded teachers and ministers as we all seek to use English properly and Greek meanings, men and groups such as may exist even among those who oppose what I teach; such as: Dr. A. Farley; The Evangelical fundamental orthodox ministers and people, and other ideas, comparing each with the Scriptures (NIV and NASB Translations and exposing Roman Catholicism heresies and Gnostic heresies)! Also, I have found by listening to Dr. John MacArthur, that he would agree with most of all I have written, for his position is that the dichotomy exists (our new person living in a fallen body which houses sin).
More articles forthcoming on Confessing sin etc.!
GRACE WORXS 