Some days
ago while studying, the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of my understanding to something
we so easily take for granted, which is so powerful; our forgiveness in Christ
Jesus. I will be honest with you that what we think about forgiveness is way
lower compared to what the Father done for us in His Son Jesus Christ. When we
do something wrong we are so quick to feel guilty and hate ourselves and trying
to do everything to please God and yet our consciences feel we still deserve
more punishment. Well, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink but
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14: 17). No matter how
good you are as a man you can never save yourself and thus you can never free
yourself from sin. God in His manifold wisdom knew that, that is why He sent
His son Jesus Christ to come and take our place and die for us, with us and as
us that we may be redeemed from the curse of sin once and forever. Remember
that it pleased the Father to place us in His Son Jesus Christ that we may
receive the forgiveness of sin in Him. His blood was shed for our sins that we
may become the righteousness of God in Him (Ephesians 1:3, 7, Hebrews 2:16, 1
Corinthians 1:30).It’s very important to note that forgiveness is not made
available only when we ask but it was made available abundantly from the
foundation of the world.I would love to share with you some three words that
have helped me understand forgiveness especially with the seating of Jesus
Christ at the right hand of the Father. But before we delve into knowing and
understanding these wordsby the Spirit of God, I will like to call your
attention to the fact that these words are used interchangeably in the New Testament
especially in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.
Remission
of sins: In Romans 3:25
the Apostle Paul uses this word to speak of total cancellation of sins. Jesus
Christ in shedding His blood for us once, cleansed us of our sins forever.
Through Him our past, present and future sins were cancelled forever. In
Hebrews 9:22 we see that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sins. Why? Because in the old covenant the high Priest entered the tabernacle
once every year which is on ‘Yom Kippur’ to offer sacrifices with the blood of
animals for the sins of the people. Now, Jesus Christ is our one and only High
Priest who had shed His blood 2000 years ago on the cross for the sins of all
mankind, and He is now presenting us Holy, blameless and irreproachable before
the Father (Hebrews 9:24-26). In Christ we have received total cancellation of
sin by the Father and He sees us as Holy, blameless and irreproachable because
we’re in Christ, united in an indissoluble union (Hebrews 10:18, 2 Corinthians
5:17).
The
Purging of our sins: This
term ‘purging’speaks of total extraction of sin by the Father in the incarnation
and atonement of Jesus Christ for mankind. Jesus became sin who knew no sin
that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Righteousness goes far
beyond receiving pardon of sins but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ
Himself. In the once and forever sacrifice of Jesus for our sin, we were rid of
everything sin. Jesus Christ became man representing all of mankind in Himself
and took upon Him all that was sin (Adam) and brought it to its finality at the
cross. He was raised from the dead a new man thus we no longer have that sin
nature in us (Hebrews 1:3, 1 Corinthians 15:45, Hebrews 2:16).
The
Propitiation of our sins:
Propitiation is another very important word that when used in the epistles of
Paul speaks of our complete redemption. Most times, it is used in relation to
mercy, which is God’s love twice mentioned.Propitiation speaks of restitution
to the status of favor and it also means averting calamity in someone’s life. Thus, Jesus was set as God’s mercy seat
averting calamity in our lives so that we can be restituted to a place of favor
in the presence of the Father (1 John 2:1-2, 1 John 4:10, Romans 3:25).
Forgiveness
of sins is not dependent on when you ask God to forgive you for God does not
pardon, he totally cancels our sins. Dr. Shawn Smith in his book Delivered?
An Exegetical Investigation puts it in a wonderful
way “ The complete dismissal of all charges held against someone, total
cancellation of all sins, past, present and future to let someone go and
release them from all obligation” (Page 69). Jesus Christ came to preach
complete forgiveness, the total cancellation of all sins; past, present and
future to send away the captives from their prisons releasing them from their
debts. In Colossians 2:13-14, Paul says God forgave all our sins by nailing the
certificate of indebtedness on Jesus’ cross (pg 71). Jesus Christ was
officially surrendered and handed over to death because of our offenses. God
the Father is the one who was personally involved in sending Him to the cross.
Jesus died for the forgiveness of our offenses (pg 79).
You are Blessed!!!
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