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Author
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Topic: THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
We Can Confess Our Sins (1 John 1:7, 9)
John gives two interesting titles to Jesus Christ: Advocate and Propitiation (1 John 2:1-2). It’s important that we understand these two titles because they stand for two ministries that only the Lord Himself performs.
Let’s begin with Propitiation. If you look this word up in the dictionary, you may get the wrong idea of its meaning. The dictionary tells us that “to propitiate” means “to appease someone who is angry.” If you apply this to Christ, you get the horrible picture of an angry God, about to destroy the world, and a loving Saviour giving Himself to appease the irate God—and this is not the Bible picture of salvation! Certainly God is angry at sin; after all, He is infinitely holy. But the Bible reassures us that “God so loved [not hated] the world” (John 3:16, italics added).
No, the word “propitiation” does not mean the appeasing of an angry God. Rather, it means the satisfying of God’s holy law. “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and, therefore, He cannot close His eyes to sin. But “God is love” (1 John 4:8) too and wants to save sinners.
How, then, can a holy God uphold His own justice and still forgive sinners? The answer is in the sacrifice of Christ. At the cross, God in His holiness judged sin. God in His love offers Jesus Christ to the world as Saviour. God was just in that He punished sin, but He is also loving in that He offers free forgiveness through what Jesus did at Calvary. (Read 1 John 4:10, and also give some thought to Rom. 3:23-26.)
Christ is the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He is Advocate only for believers. “We [Christians] have an Advocate with the Father.” The word “advocate” used to be applied to lawyers. The word John uses is the very same word Jesus used when He was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). It means, literally, “one called alongside.” When a man was summoned to court, he took an advocate (lawyer) with him to stand at his side and plead his case.
Jesus finished His work on earth (John 17:4)—the work of giving His life as a sacrifice for sin. Today He has an “unfinished work” in heaven. He represents us before God’s throne. As our High Priest, He sympathizes with our weaknesses and temptations and gives us grace (Heb. 4:15-16; 7:23-28). As our Advocate, He helps us when we sin. When we confess our sins to God, because of Christ’s advocacy God forgives us.
The Old Testament contains a beautiful picture of this. Joshua (Zech. 3:1-7) was the Jewish high priest after the Jews returned to their land following their Captivity in Babylon. (Don’t confuse this Joshua with the Joshua who conquered the Promised Land.) The nation had sinned; to symbolize this, Joshua stood before God in filthy garments and Satan stood at Joshua’s right hand to accuse him (cf. Rev. 12:10). God the Father was the Judge; Joshua, representing the people, was the accused; Satan was the prosecuting attorney. (The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren.) It looked as if Satan had an open-and-shut case. But Joshua had an Advocate who stood at God’s right hand, and this changed the situation. Christ gave Joshua a change of garments and silenced the accusations of Satan.
This is what is in view when Jesus Christ is called our “Advocate.” He represents believers before God’s throne, and the merits of His sacrifice make possible the forgiveness of the believer’s sin. Because Christ died for His people, He satisfied the justice of God. (“The wages of sin is death.”) Because He lives for us at God’s right hand, He can apply His sacrifice to our needs day by day.
All He asks is that when we have failed we confess our sins.
What does it mean to “confess”? Well, to confess sins means much more than simply to “admit” them. The word confess actually means “to say the same thing [about].” To confess sin, then, means to say the same thing about it that God says about it.
A counselor was trying to help a man who had come forward during an evangelistic meeting. “I’m a Christian,” the man said, “but there’s sin in my life, and I need help.” The counselor showed him 1 John 1:9 and suggested that the man confess his sins to God.
“O Father,” the man began, “if we have done anything wrong—”
“Just a minute!” the counselor interrupted. “Don’t drag me into your sin! My brother, it’s not ‘if’ or ‘we’—you’d better get down to business with God!”
The counselor was right.
Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judging sin and facing it squarely.
When we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us (1 John 1:9). But this promise is not a “magic rabbit’s foot” that makes it easy for us to disobey God!
“I went out and sinned,” a student told his campus chaplain, “because I knew I could come back and ask God to forgive me.”
“On what basis can God forgive you?” the chaplain asked, pointing to 1 John 1:9.
“God is faithful and just,” the boy replied.
“Those two words should have kept you out of sin,” the chaplain said. “Do you know what it cost God to forgive your sins?”
The boy hung his head. “Jesus had to die for me.”
Then the chaplain zeroed in. “That’s right—forgiveness isn’t some cheap sideshow trick God performs. God is faithful to His promise, and God is just, because Christ died for your sins and paid the penalty for you. Now, the next time you plan to sin, remember that you are going to sin against a faithful loving God!”
Of course, cleansing has two sides to it: the judicial and the personal. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, delivers us from the guilt of sin and gives us right standing (“justification”) before God. God is able to forgive because Jesus’ death has satisfied His holy Law.
But God is also interested in cleansing a sinner inwardly. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51:10). When our confession is sincere, God does a cleansing work (1 John 1:9) in our hearts by His Spirit and through His Word (John 15:3).
The great mistake King David made was in trying to cover his sins instead of confessing them. For perhaps a whole year he lived in deceit and defeat. No wonder he wrote (Ps. 32:6) that a man should pray “in a time of finding out” (lit.).
When should we confess our sin? Immediately when we discover it! “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13). By walking in the light, we are able to see the “dirt” in our lives and deal with it immediately.
(Wiersbe)
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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WildB
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Member # 2917
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posted
by Cornelius R. Stam
Some three thousand years ago, and about one thousand years before Christ, the Psalmist said:
"If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee..." (Psa. 130:3,4).
The Psalmist did not explain, however, upon what basis a just and holy God could forgive a guilty sinner. This was to be proclaimed one thousand years later by the Apostle Paul, himself once "a blasphemer, and a persecutor and injurious"; the "chief" of sinners, but forgiven and saved by the infinite grace of God (Tim. 1:13-15).
Preaching Christ at Antioch, in the province of Pisidia, Paul declared:
"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that THROUGH THIS MAN IS PREACHED UNTO YOU THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BY HIM ALL THAT BELIEVE ARE JUSTIFIED FROM ALL THINGS, FROM WHICH YE COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED BY THE LAW OF MOSES" (Acts 13:38,39).
But even this does not fully answer our question, for we must still ask: On what basis does God forgive sins through "this Man"? The answer is: on the basis of His payment for our sins on Calvary's cross. Thus the Apostle wrote to the Romans, explaining how we may be...
"...justified freely by His [God's] grace, THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS" (Rom. 3:24).
Now, thank God, through Christ's finished work, there is not a sinner who needs to remain unforgiven, for:
"In [Christ] we have redemption, through His blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE" (Eph. 1:7).
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That is all.....
Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004
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