We are forgiven forever when we first place our faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:7). Being forgiven forever is a part of our eternal standing in Christ. It is a part of being identified with Him in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:1-5). We are sealed in Christ when we believe in Him and this is a permanent seal accomplished by the Spirit of God that includes being forgiven in eternity (Ephesians 1:13-14).
But what I am addressing in this article is being forgiven for sins we continue to commit that cause us to be in spiritual darkness in our experience with God here and now. While I am forgiven of all sins in Christ, God's Word teaches that I should confess my sins each and every time the Spirit makes me aware that I have missed a mark that He has set for me to live by.
“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).
God said He was looking for a leader, a king, who would be a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:22). In other words, God was looking for a man to lead His people who wanted to be like Himself more than anything else. You probably know who that man turned out to be. Yes, it was David; a shepherd boy who became king of Israel. Was David, the man after God's own heart, perfect? Far from it. He clearly understood how desperately he needed the grace of God in forgiveness. He emphasized this when he wrote Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 after he recovered from a sin that brought a great deal of pain into the lives of many people (2 Samuel 11 & 12). Yet, long after he had died, he was still remembered as someone whose heart was “devoted” to God (1 Kings 11:4; Acts 13:22). How encouraging it is to know that God forgives and that we can recover like David did and be useful to our Lord and Savior once again.
The truth that God forgives us again and again because of Jesus Christ's suffering in our place is a reality that should deeply grip our hearts when we pause to think about what it means. No matter how often we fall to a sinful weakness, be it a wrong thought or behavior, the Lord Jesus forgives us again. And again! Through confession we recover from being in spiritual darkness and re-enter the light and joy of fellowship with God.
“ . . . these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:4-7).
The Apostle Paul wrote of His struggle with sin after being a believer in Christ for a number of years and how he hated it (Romans 7:15-24). He found himself thinking and doing what he knew what was wrong over and over. But when He came to himself by the ministry of the Spirit in His life, He exclaimed,
“Oh wretched man that I am! who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25).
Yes, Christ Jesus “sets us free” again and again from our spiritual deadness and uselessness to God when we sin as believers. It is thought that what Paul had in mind by the phrase “the body of this death” was the practice in his day of chaining a cadaver to a person who had been guilty of an offense that warranted the death penalty. Gangrene would set in and the guilty person would experience a horrible, drawn-out, painful death.
Who will release us from the horrible influence of our sins? Our spiritual deadness and uselessness to God while we are living in the dark because of sin? Christ Jesus sets us free from the “body of this death” again and again. He forgives us every time we admit that we have sinned against Him. And because of our appreciation for His suffering in our place to provide for this forgiveness, because of His love and grace, we should cry out to Him for His help to stop succumbing to the sin. But in our frailty when we fall to that weakness again, that sin that we hate, He forgives us again. And we then can enjoy fellowship with Him once more and live in His light and the light of His Word, the light of His teachings from the Bible.
Because of the work of Christ Jesus, God forgives us forever and He forgives us again and again when we confess our sin, when we simply admit to Him that we have done wrong. That's grace!!!
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