JESUS
CHRIST-FORGIVENESS
The Bible teaches
that all sin, past, present, and
future, is forgiven through faith in the atoning death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Eternal destiny is sealed and set at the moment of justifying
faith. Our depth of intimacy, fellowship and joy is certainly affected
adversely when we fail to confess and repent of daily sin. But our eternal
destiny has already and forever been determined. We must recognize the
distinction between the eternal forgiveness of the guilt of sin that is ours
the moment we embrace Jesus in faith, and that temporal forgiveness of sin we
receive on a daily basis that enables us to experience the happiness of
intimacy with the Father.
Sam Storms
Suicide, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.
In my mind,
the worst sin that any human being could ever, would ever, or has ever
committed is very clear. The worst possible sin would be to kill the Son
of God. I can’t imagine anything worse than that; it not only embodies
murder, but the most hateful, venomous, vicious rejection of God. Yet it
is precisely that sin which Jesus demonstrates is forgivable. In Luke 23:34, as
He hangs on the cross, He looks down at those who have taken His life, then He
looks to the Father and says, “Father, forgive them.” Even killing the Son
of God is forgivable. It isn’t the volume of sin that is unforgivable any
more than it is the kind of sin.
John MacArthur
Blaspheming the Holy Spirit, Part 1, Matthew 12:22-30. The article originally
appeared (www.gty.org/Resources/Sermond/2292)
at www.gty.org. © 1969-2008. Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
See how red your
guilt is. Mark the scarlet stain. If you were to wash your soul in the Atlantic
Ocean, you might incarnadine every wave that washes all its shores, and yet the
crimson spots of your transgression would still remain. But plunge into the
“fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,” and in an instant
you are whiter than snow. Every speck, spot, and stain of sin is gone, and gone
forever.
C.H.
Spurgeon
When men talk
of a little hell, it is because they think they have only a little sin, and
believe in a little Saviour; it is all little together. But when you get a
great sense of sin, you want a great Saviour, and fell that, if you do not have
Him, you will fall into a great destruction, and suffer a great punishment at
the hands of the great God.
C.H. Spurgeon
Joy Hindering Faith, 38.512.
I thought I
could have leaped from earth to heaven at one spring when I first saw my sins
drowned in the Redeemer's blood.
C.H. Spurgeon
Jesus clearly
connects our appreciation of the forgiveness of God with our love for Him. When
we realize Christ died on the cross for each of our sins, we will love Him much.
When we understand that Jesus experienced the wrath of God in our place, we
will love Him much. When we realize that we have been credited with the
righteousness of Christ when nothing in us is worthy, we will love Him much.
And when we consider that God will accept us into heaven for eternity because
of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we will love Him much.
Karl Graustein
Growing Up Christian, P&R, 2005, p. 51. Used by Permission.
The
blood of Jesus unfailingly cleanses the believer from his sin at all times.
There could be no sin that the blood does not cover,
confessed or not confessed. Though our sins were taken care of in the cross of
Christ, and by His blood being spilled for us, it is applied immediately in
time to every sin we commit the nano-second we commit
it.
Jim Elliff
Confessionism: The Misuse of 1 John 1:9, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org.
Used by Permission.
God
is faithful and just to forgive every sin and cleanse from all unrighteousness
because of Christ's atonement alone. In other words, the believer does not
confess in order to get something. What he seeks he already has.
Jim Elliff
Confessionism: The Misuse of 1 John 1:9, Christian Communicators Worldwide, www.CCWtoday.org.
Used by Permission.
When Jesus
died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He arose, He rose
as my representative, and I arose in Him; when He ascended up on high and took
His place at the right hand of the Father in the glory, He ascended as my
representative and I ascended in Him, and today I am seated in Christ with God
in the heavenlies.
I look at the cross of Christ, and I know that atonement has been made
for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher and the risen and ascended Lord, and
I know the atonement has been accepted.
There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how
great my sins may have been.
R.A. Torrey
The Bible and Its Christ, Revell, n.d., p. 107-108.
If
our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
Roy Lessin