Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!
Thanks for joining our bible discussion tonight on a particular New Covenant topic that a lot of Believers get confused about. What's the Truth about God's forgiveness? Did it already happen or is it still a pending matter that we have to qualify for? What should I do about the sins I commit after I'm born again? What does the word REPENT mean and what would happen if I died and had not had a chance CONFESS my recent sins? In the Old Covenant God punished people for their sin by sending curses on them: so how does that work under the New Covenant?
Now this is one of those subjects where a lot of contemporary traditions and thinking and preaching and praying seem to be different than what I see in my Bible. Are we going to believe the Bible or something else? It's as though some really smart people who ought to know better have decided that the New Covenant is too good to be true so they change it to be like what maybe they would do if they were in charge of things instead of Jesus. But, we can't just follow some manmade version of the New Covenant and expect it to produce good results. What we believe and act on needs to line up with the Word because among other things the Word of God is an articulation of His will for the Kingdom.
Indeed, the Greek behind the English word GOSPEL (Luke 4:18) means literally the TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE NEWS but people seem to have trouble accepting it for what it is. How could God be so good when we're so bad? Part of the TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE NEWS is that the benefits of the New Covenant have been made available to ALL those who'll simply believe. The Bible clearly reveals this but a lot of the Church insists on following a redesigned version of the GOSPEL.
Now I know that a lot of folks will need to MEDITATE about my take on these things. My objective is always to discuss the Word as purely as possible and to challenge Christians to know why they believe what they believe. But I understand that traditions are strong and some of what I've concluded is debated all the time around the Body of Christ probably on a daily basis. As always though, I hope you'll come to your own conclusions based on your direct investigation of the Word, not based on what somebody is teaching, and that includes me because I don't insist that I'm ALWAYS right.
The Truth about God's Forgiveness
First of all, according to the Word, the work of Christ on the Cross was so complete that ALL sin for ALL time has ALREADY been paid for. Following are a few examples of what your Bible actually says about it:
Hebrews 9:12 = "...through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."
Hebrews 10:12 = "...He (offered) one sacrifice for all sin for all time..."
Hebrews 10:18 = "Now where there is forgiveness...there is no longer any offering for sin."
Hebrews 8:12 = God has chosen under the New Covenant to not remember our sins.
Hebrews 10:17 = "...their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Galatians 3:13 = "Christ has (already, past tense) redeemed us..."
2 Corinthians 5:19 = God has through Christ reconciled the world to Himself and is no longer
counting our sins against us.
Romans 5:13 = Our sins are not being counted against us because we do not live under the Law.
Since forgiveness ALREADY happened two thousand years ago, it's not really biblical to ask God now for something He's ALREADY done. He's ALREADY forgiven everybody for everything, for all sin for all time for all people (Hebrews 10:12). What we actually need to do to be born again is simply RECEIVE the gift of undeserved forgiveness by BELIEVING (Romans 10:9) and then thanking God for what Jesus has ALREADY done on our behalf. If I ask Him to forgive me for something now, then I am putting myself back under the LAW where forgiveness is only temporary, and my Bible says this was one of the main defects that makes the New Testament a much better covenant (Hebrews 10:11-12).
This is a good place to discuss the related point that the Body of Christ routinely misuses the word REPENT. Sometimes it is used to ask for forgiveness from God and other times it's used to apologize for an offense. According to your Bible, neither of these uses is correct. The word REPENT means to TURN AWAY FROM, to go in the opposite direction. Certainly, God wants us to REPENT but the word used correctly means to ADMIT that something I have done was wrong and to ask for help from the Holy Spirit to overcome it as I purpose to go in the opposite direction not in my own strength but with help from the Holy Spirit. Certainly I can tell God I'm sorry for my bad behavior and that I regret it; but I apologize knowing that I've ALREADY been forgiven. He has no intention of counting the sin against me and Scripture says that He's chosen to not even remember it. In short, the word REPENT correctly used does NOT mean to ask for forgiveness.
Another point to discuss tonight is the instruction in 1 John 1:9 that God is faithful to forgive our sins once we CONFESS them. In order not to contradict MANY other scriptures, the only way to interpret this particular verse is that the Apostle John was talking about the occasion when believers are initially born again and RECEIVE forgiveness by GRACE. In the first ten verses he's talking generally about how Christianity works. Thus, verse 9 does NOT mean that believers have to go to God repetitively to renew their forgiveness or that they have to tell some other person about their sins to get forgiveness. ALL of the parts of the Bible are in agreement. To CONFESS my sins (according to the original Greek) simply means to ACKNOWLEDGE that the related acts I committed were indeed sins and should be dealt with in a proper manner.
In verse 11 the Apostle goes on to explain to believers that Jesus is the SATISFACTION (propitiation) for our sins which to me makes this point very clear. Even so, verse 9 has been misinterpreted out of context by whole denominations to mean that forgiveness is temporary and has to be pursued daily which means those folks are never sure moment-to-moment where they stand and that they're scarcely better off than being under the LAW.
Some Concluding Comments
In sum, forgiveness comes from GRACE which means it's available to me by faith, by believing and trusting, and not by anything I do. My works aren't good enough to get me the forgiveness that I need in order to be reconciled to God. There are many in the Body of Christ though who insist that if we tell folks their sins are ALREADY forgiven they'll go out and sin all the more. And that my friend is TRADITION speaking which the Apostle Paul said this about:
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!" (Romans 6:15)
How could it be possible that by telling believers the TRUTH straight from the Word, the result would be sin? Actually the opposite happens. Once you're free from having to worry about your sins all the time, once you're secure in the knowledge that God isn't going to be sending curses and punishment against you, you'll be able to profoundly LOVE Him as you would never otherwise be able to. The truth is, it's the LAW that causes sin to increase (Romans 5:20), not GRACE. Read it yourself and be GRATEFUL that you're ALREADY forgiven.
Thanks for joining our discussion tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on October 24. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), pushing you to VICTORY in every area of life!
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Sinners' Prayer
If you've never invited Jesus to be your Lord, you can do so today by believing and saying out loud the following simple prayer:
Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and I believe that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven for all time and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already come into your life and you're a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
When you get a moment have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer and believing what you said:
Romans 10:9
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ephesians 2:8
Prayer Requests
If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM central time. Agree with us for God to answer your petitions.
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