Am I forgiven? When faced with that question, most people may say they are a pretty decent person, so they may have never really thought much about the idea. So, what is forgiveness and how does one seek such forgiveness? Let’s take a little deeper look into this idea of forgiveness and what it entails.
The definition of the word “forgive” is ‘to stop feeling angry or resentful for an offense, flaw, or mistake.’ The word can also be used to describe the ‘canceling of a debt.’ We are all guilty of the offense of sin against God, so how do we seek forgiveness from and be reconciled back to good standing with our heavenly Father? Growing up in church, I knew from a young age that Jesus died on the cross, so I could be made right before God. This was the ultimate display of love and a once for all sacrifice to cover the sin of humanity.
Hebrews 10:10 — “For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. “
The cost of this forgiveness was God’s only begotten son, Jesus. The price of sin was death, so our sentence was such. Our debt has been paid in full by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, freeing us once and for all from the punishment of sin. Stop and think about that for a moment. We were guilty of sin against Him, but Jesus, who was free of any sin, came and suffered our punishment to free us to be with Him forever. There is no other love like this.
So you may be thinking what do we have to do to be forgiven? Well, the good news is that the work has already been done! All we have to do is accept and confess that Jesus has paid our debt in full and make the choice to following Him. Romans 10:9 — “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Jesus Himself showed us the simplicity in the act of seeking forgiveness of our sins through Him when He speaks to a woman who was caught in adultery and was about to be stoned. After He had spoken to the crowd of people preparing to stone this guilty woman to death, He demonstrates an example of true mercy and forgiveness.
John 8:10-11 — Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.”
As simple as this sounds, here is where we begin to see different traditions and practices in religions and churches of the world that complicate this gift of salvation through Jesus. In the church I attended as a child and into my early twenties, I was taught the process of confession in which we would go before a priest and confess any sins we had committed. The priest would then assign penance for you based on your confessed sin. Your penance usually consisted of saying a certain number of hail mary or our Father prayers which you would then do as the priest had assigned. In this situation the priest would act as mediator between you and God. However, a couple things stood out to me when I began to actually study the scriptures for myself.
1 Timothy 2:5 — “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”
The scripture above states that we have one Mediator, and He is Jesus Christ. He alone opened that path of communication between us and our Heavenly Father, so that we could come before Him and confess that we were sinners.
Ephesians 2:8-9 — “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Another thing to note is in Ephesians 2:8-9, as the scripture points out that it is by faith we are saved, not by our own doing or works. So by faith alone we are made right before God from sin. As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” There is no more work to be done or can be done to remove our sins, but just to accept it by faith in the finished work of Jesus. The veil separating us from God due to our sin was torn down by Jesus’ death on the cross, so we are free to enter. When we accept Christ and following Him, God looks at us and sees that we are clean by the blood of Jesus. We are washed from our sins and He remembers them no more.
1 John 2:1 — “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. “
So when we do sin, we should turn to Jesus as our personal advocate and mediator to our heavenly Father. There is no set number of formal prayers to be recited or guidelines that need to be followed. Thanks to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the work is ‘finished’. When we begin to feel obligated to “do” some type of prescribed penance to absolve ourselves from sin, we are leaning towards a faith based upon our own works and away from faith in what Jesus has already done for us on the cross.
So how do we walk in this forgiveness and extend the same forgiveness to others? The fact that we could not do anything ourselves to deserve this forgiveness is the grace of God. When someone offends us or wrongs us, we must remember how God showed us mercy even when we didn’t deserve it. Who are we to withhold mercy and forgiveness to another person when we have been shown such grace from our Heavenly Father?Matthew 6:14-15 — “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses , neither will your Father forgive yours.”
So remember, it is through Christ alone that we are forgiven and made in right standing before God. This means we should not boast or withhold such forgiveness to others, since we were given such a gift freely by the grace of God. To walk as Christ walked is to humble ourselves and show this same grace to others even though we feel they may not deserve it. When we do this, we are not only freeing those who have offended us, but also freeing ourselves from the bondage of bitterness and resentment that stem from not forgiving others. Thanks for reading and keep faith.
