One of the greatest blessings that we can have is forgiveness. We know that the wages of sin is death, but God has promised to forgive us our sins on the condition that we confess, repent, and do as Jesus said, to “go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.” Matthew 5:14. People may not always forgive us, even though we may confess to them and ask for it. Punishment for our wrongdoing is not forgiveness. When we are sentenced to prison, we pay for our crime. In the time of Moses, there was the death penalty for certain sins, with no mercy.
Most of the sins are done secretly, with people hoping that nobody knows about them. If a professed Christian decides to go to a movie theater, he looks all around so that there is no one from his church around to see him go in.
We cannot always hide our sins. Sooner or later they become known, but then we may not have forgiveness anymore. In the case of Achan this happened. If he would have confessed before he was found to be the guilty one, he could have been forgiven, but he waited until he was found to be the one who had taken the silver, gold, and the garment, and hidden them in his tent. A similar case was that of Ananias and Sapphira. If they had confessed their lie before Peter pointed it out, it could have been forgiven.
True forgiveness is based on love. Only a person who loves you is willing to forgive you, even without asking for restitution. We know that God loves us, therefore we can go to Him and ask for forgiveness, and He is willing to forgive if we can prove that we also love Him.
The sweetest melody to the human ear is this: “Your sins are forgiven; you can go free.” “Neither do I condemn you.”
Think of a man who is guilty of a crime, sentenced to death. Then suddenly he hears the words, “You are forgiven.” How wonderful these words sound to him.
We all are guilty of sin, deserving the death penalty, and we have heard the words, “Your sins are forgiven;” “I will take your death penalty upon Myself.” Who spoke these words? Was it not the Judge Himself, Jesus Christ?
Forgiveness is an unmerited favour. To forgive our fellowman is beautiful; only few people can do it truly. It is Christ-likeness, which is not easy to learn. Jesus was bleeding from His hands and feet and in terrible pain, and He prayed, “Father forgive them.” God forgives us exactly as we forgive others. If we bear a grudge against someone, then God cannot forgive us.
A forgiving spirit makes friends; it will change enemies to be our friends.
When Jesus kindly asked Paul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Paul realized that there was a religion of love. The religion of which he had been a member of was a religion of hatred and persecution.
Mary also recognized the love of Jesus in forgiving her sins. This generated love also to Jesus in her heart. This was proven in her anointing the feet of Jesus with the precious ointment and with her tears. Also she was the first one at the tomb of Jesus Sunday morning.
Often we are offended deeply, even by our fellow Christians. Jesus said, “Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” Matthew 18:7. According to this we will be offended; we will be called rebels, and by other offensive names, which shows their hatred towards us. But what do we do in such a case? Jesus gave us counsel: “Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” Luke 17:3–4
If your brother who has offended you comes and asks for forgiveness, you are to forgive—even seven times a day.
There are sins that God will not forgive. John writes, “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and it shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” 1 John 5:16
When Jesus was taken to Herod, “he questioned with Him in many words, but He answered him nothing.” Luke 23:9
Then there is silence. There was a silence on the side of God to King Saul when he was asking advice of Him, therefore he went to the medium in Endor.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Psalm 66:18. Millions of prayers are pronounced daily which the Lord will not hear nor answer.
Jesus said to His disciples concerning the Pharisees, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matthew 15:14
Jesus told His disciples not to waste time with the self-righteous Pharisees, who were so ready to condemn even Jesus Himself. Forgiveness to them was too late. But much instruction has been given to us as to how to treat one another in Christian love. “All coarseness and roughness must be put away from us. Courtesy, refinement, Christian politeness, must be cherished. Guard against being abrupt and blunt. Do not regard such peculiarities as virtues; for God does not so regard them. Endeavour not to offend any unnecessarily.” –Evangelism, p. 637
Any sin that we may have committed remains in the books of heaven to the time of judgment, unless they are confessed and repented. Go through your past life and try to remember if you have been impolite, rude, or have unnecessarily offended someone. God will not forgive you if you confess to Him alone, you must confess to the person that you have unnecessarily offended and then God will forgive you also.
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Psalm 32:1
Peace of heaven and joy in the Lord will fill you when your last sin has been forgiven, and you stand clear before Him.
Some sins we need to confess to the church. If we have “indulged in evil speaking, alienation, and dissention,” against someone in the church, God will not forgive us unless we make a public confession. “Examination should be made as to whether those who would be blessed with health have indulged in evilspeaking, alienation, and dissension. Have they sowed discord among the brethren and sisters of the church? If these things have been committed they should be confessed before God and the church.” –Counsels on Health, p. 374
Often it happens that a brother or sister in the church has indulged in evil speaking against another brother or sister, whether privately or openly, but has not gone to the person themselves. They have not
followed the principles of Matthew 18. Jesus said, “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye?” Matthew 7:3. “His words describe one who is swift to discern a defect in others. When he thinks he has detected a flaw in the character or the life he is exceedingly zealous in trying to point it out; but Jesus declares that the very trait of character developed in doing this un-Christlike work, is, in comparison with the fault criticized, as a beam in proportion to a mote. It is one’s own lack of the spirit of forbearance and love that leads him to make a world of an atom. . . . According to the figure that our Saviour uses, he who indulges a censorious spirit is guilty of greater sin than is the one he accuses,
for he not only commits the same sin, but adds to it conceit and censoriousness.” –Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 125. This sin requires open confession before the entire church.
A proud person finds it difficult to make a public confession of their evilspeaking of someone to the members of the church, therefore their sin remains in the books of heaven, and the peace of heaven will not fill their hearts.
“The day is coming when all who have committed sin will make confession, even though it is too late for them to receive pardon.” –The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 3, p. 1147
“The sins hidden from the knowledge of men will then be proclaimed to the whole world.” –Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 498
How do we know that our sins are forgiven? The answer to this is clear. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
At the same time that God forgives us He gives us power not to sin anymore.
On the day that you have confessed all your sins and received forgiveness, you can start a new life without sin. Now you can move mountains and nothing is impossible to you. A sinless life is a continuous miracle of God, as long as you do not make the same mistake as Peter, when he was walking on the water. The moment he turned his eyes away from Jesus, he started sinking. The same thing will happen to us if we turn our eyes away from Jesus for one moment; we lose Christ’s righteousness and we fall back into the world and to sin. “No man is safe for a day or an hour without prayer.” –The Great Controversy, p. 530
We need a constant prayer connection with God and His power to continue on this narrow pathway to the end. May the Lord help each one of us to have forgiveness and God’s power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. AMEN.
Timo Martin