Looking at personal forgiveness

Personal honesty

To receive forgiveness of any kind we have to be honest enough to accept that we need it. If you, or I, or anyone, refuse to believe that we have done anything wrong then there is no willingness to seek forgiveness. If we do not seek then we will not find. Obviously as Christians we have a different understanding of the role of forgiveness than the unbeliever. If we have not come to the position of realising our need for forgiveness from God and receiving that gift then we are not Christians.

Romans ch1 v20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” What we are without excuse for is seeing through creation that there is a creator God. Creation is the revealing of God’s glorious nature. We need to look to the word of God, the Bible, to find salvation revealed.

Let us just go over the ground work here. Salvation is about being saved. What is being saved? We are (people). What are we being saved from? May I use a wonderful phrase a Christian friend of mine says frequently? — We are saved from a lost eternity. That is forever and ever lost from God and suffering the consequences of all the things we have done which have not been forgiven—we are saved from that. Before we look at how, let us just mention what are we saved for? Many people forget this part. We are saved for something. Ephesians ch2 vs6&7 say, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” That makes me say, “wow.” Does it you? Do you get that? He saves us so that he can show Himself through being kind to us. God has millions of kindnesses all lined up for me and millions of kindnesses lined up for you and millions of kindnesses lined up for every Christian. In this battered old world I sometimes feel rather in need of some kindnesses do you? Make sure you are ready to receive them!

I said we need the Bible to see how salvation is revealed to us today. In the Bible we find first the Law, then the promise of a Saviour and then the revealing of that Saviour. It is “through the Law that we become conscious of sin” Romans ch3 v20 says. We cannot dismiss the Old Testament as having no relevance. We need to examine ourselves in the light of God’s laws. But it is not through the law that we find salvation and forgiveness—it is a pointer to our need of it though. When our eyes are opened to the gap between the way we live our lives and the way God wants us to, we come to the point of realising our need of forgiveness from God.

To go over how we are saved let us look at a few of those Bible verses in the later parts of the scriptures. Romans ch3 v23 tells us, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This brings us right back to the opening sentence of this section—”to receive forgiveness...we have to be honest enough to accept that we need it.” That is, recognise that we commit sins according to God’s high standard not just measure ourselves by our own standards (which, to be honest, we don’t even measure up to either). To receive forgiveness from God we look to 1 John 1 v9 for some clues. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” There is that forgiveness. Let’s get it!