Forgiveness is a core concept of the Christian faith. We confess that all humans have sinned but understand that God is willing to forgive them. But what if I have sinned really badly – say I have committed murder, sexually abused children or am involved in human trafficking? What is the point of no return where God won’t forgive me anymore?
This question assumes that some sins are more serious than others. In society, this is true. A just judge imposes a harsher sentence on a murderer than a person with several unpaid speeding tickets since the consequences of murder are much worse. The punishment must be proportionate to the crime. You probably apply the same principle in your personal life: if a friend has been lying to you about something and is really sorry, you’ll forgive them. But if they have willingly ruined your reputation by gossiping and spreading lies about you and they keep doing so, this may be the end of your friendship. However, with God, things are different. He not only considers the earthly consequences of our deeds but our heart attitude. He takes every sin seriously and at the same time there is no particular sin we can commit that God is not willing to forgive. God is so awesome. His standard is absolute perfection, which is totally reasonable since He created humans perfect in the beginning but when the first humans chose to disobey the Lord, everything changed. Everything!
From that point on, Adam and Eve's pure, holy, sinless nature that was created in God's image, had taken on corruption and death and all of their descendants have inherited this sinful nature within their flesh. We all fall miserably short of God’s standard. As the Bible says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20, compare Psalm 53:3 and Romans 3:12). Any sin we commit is serious enough to deserve eternal separation from God. Therefore, no one can get to heaven by being good since being good does not destroy our desire to disobey God. And since no one is “good enough” according to God's WORD we need/needed another solution to get right with God. What is that? Forgiveness based on Jesus’ righteousness, not our own! Even though humanly speaking some sins are just too bad to be forgiven, God does not think so. Nobody is irredeemable by God. Jesus has paid the price for every possible transgression, and scripture promises His blood has the power to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7). The Bible is full of stories about people who were forgiven by God and they were not always the nicest people. For instance:
1) When king David saw a beautiful woman called Bathsheba, he sent his messengers to bring her and had sexual relations with her even though he was fully aware that Bathsheba was married to one of his officers. When Bathsheba turned out to be pregnant, David tried to have her husband Uriah sleep with her to cover it all up. When this scheme did not work, David abused his power to purposefully kill Uriah in battle. After that, he took Bathsheba as his wife. The Bible plainly says that “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27). The prophet Nathan confronted David with his behavior and he suffered from the consequences for the rest of his life. But when David realized what he had done and wholeheartedly repented, he received forgiveness!
2) When Jesus was crucified, two criminals were put to death with Him. One of them confessed, “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man [Jesus] has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). So, this man had committed a crime that deserved death penalty. But when he asked Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom”, Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).
3)The apostle Paul is the most famous missionary ever. But before he came to faith, he used to persecute Christians to death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women (Acts 22:4). Years later, he writes, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15).
These examples show that there is hope for everybody who confesses their sins and accepts God’s offer of forgiveness. Since God is love, are we forgiven automatically? No, we are not. We must repent and turn our lives over to Jesus to be forgiven and spiritually healed. If we don’t, we’ll have to bear the punishment ourselves, which means eternal separation from God. God offers us forgiveness, but if we don’t accept His gift, we won’t profit from it. The following example made it crystal clear to me when I needed clarification. If someone gave me a beautifully wrapped gift for my birthday and placed it on my kitchen table but I never open it, I didn't accept it, I would never profit from it. And though it sat there throughout the years, it would not be the givers fault that I rejected it. So therefore, I would have no one else to blame but me. The key is to ACCEPT the gift of Christ's dying for you which activates forgiveness for every sin you've ever committed. Get this now ... CHRIST DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD. Nothing within this scripture seems to suggest that God's Son perished for only for certain people.
His gift of forgiveness and redemption was already purchased for every living person. Whether the unrepentant and current pedophile, every current child molester, every current rapist, every current murderer, every current embezzler, every current human trapped in the filth of pornography, every current prostitute, every current homosexual, etc. His gift is on the table. It's up to you to accept it. Salvation is based on YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF HIS GIFT and not the sins you've committed! What? Why? Because yours sins were nailed to the cross AND ALREADY FORGIVEN over 2,000 years ago when He sacrificed His life for the sins OF THE WHOLE WORLD. You are included in that! 1 John 2:2 "And He is the propitiation (atonement) for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Jesus already paid the penalty for the vile sins you've committed and those you're currently caught up in. If (and 'if' connotes it's conditional) if you accept and take His free gift given for you, you will repent by being sorry for your sins and confessing that to Him. The greatest sin you can commit is not a terrible murder or some other serious crime, it is not believing in, accepting, or trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior of sinners. If you have not yet confessed your sins to God, don’t wait till it’s too late.
“For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You.” (Psalm 86:5) “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). This is not a private religion. He didn’t just deal with us. He is dealing with the whole world, and he is gathering people into Christianity from the whole world, and he is blessing the whole world by obtaining people from every tribe and tongue and people and language, which is exactly what Revelation 5:9, the third text, says: “You were slain, and by your blood your ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Until He Comes,
-Pat-
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