From The Motionless Series
Episode title: Unbroken
In today’s series, we will take a panoramic look at the subject of forgiveness of sins. We will deal with questions like
- Does God forsake us when we sin (in other words do we experience a break in our relationship when we sin)
- What do we have to do to be forgiven?
- Do we pray for forgiveness
- Do we ask for forgiveness
- What role do we have to play?
In dealing with this subject we are going to look
- Gods response to sin before the law
- How and why does God forgive (Before the Law, during the law, in the gospels and in the epistles)
First, Sin is primarily against God. Psalm 51:1-4. (You may have a responsibility towards those you offend, but sin is primarily against God)-This is very important.
Romans 5:12-13. Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned. 13 There was sin in the world before the Law was given; but where there is no law, no account is kept of sins. (Good News Version)
Before the law therefore, Abram was declared righteous how? Genesis 15:6. He believed God and was declared righteous.
In Genesis 18:25-33 Abraham was interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham was asking if God will kill the wicked and the righteous.
What did Abraham mean by righteous here? Was it someone who did not do wrong? NO! Abraham himself had been counted as righteous because he believed.
What was Abraham praying for- Does Sodom not have at least 50 who believe? Sadly Sodom had no one who believed God.
No was righteous because no one believed God. It had nothing to do with what they did!
UNDER THE LAW, HOW DID GOD FORGIVE AND WHY DID HE FORGIVE
Exodus 23:20-21.
Under the law, don’t dare provoke him, He will not pardon your transgression.
Leviticus 19:19-22: The offender brings a ram, after the sacrifice, his sin is forgiven him.
Numbers 15:22-37…Unintentional Sin– You had to bring a RAM. Look at verse 37-the penalty for not resting was death!
2 Chronicles 6:21- Forgiveness here was based on their prayer, supplication, returning and confessing.
21 And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.
22 “If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, 23 then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
24 “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, 25 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.
26 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 27 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.
28 “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; 29 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: 30 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), 31 that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
32 “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; 33 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.
34 “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, 35 then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
36 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; 37 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’; 38 and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: 39 then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.
Forgiveness in the GOSPELS
Matthew 6:12-15
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Mark 11:25
25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Some may say but Jesus said these words! Yes but Jesus was still under the old testament when he came. Jesus had not died yet so the testament was not in force.
So what do we see therefore, UNDER THE LAW, FORGIVNESS WAS CONDITIONAL- IT was based on PERFORMANCE, confession, prayer, rams, turning away. Man had to do something for sin to be forgiven!
But in the EPISTLES
Ephesians 1
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
Colossians 2:13- And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood,[a] the forgiveness of sins.
Acts 10: 40 and 43: Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.
Acts 13:38-39: 38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Romans 4:7-8 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
2 Corinthians 5:18 New King James Version (NKJV)
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
1 John 2:1-2
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
1 John 2:12
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake
In the new covenant, we are forgiven because of Jesus sacrifice and we are forgiven once and for all
Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Hebrews 10:10-12
By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
The sacrifice of Jesus is a once for all SACRIFICE that isn’t dependent on our confession and our relationship remains UNBROKEN. He never leaves us and He never forsakes us. We are eternally forgiven ONCE and for all time!
Are you wondering what benefits there are to these realities? Go ask a little child who knows how important his father’s relationship is to him. To think His father never leaves him-NO unbroken relationship!
If God’s love is unconditional, then his forgiveness must be unconditional too. And it is! His forgiveness is not doled out in proportion to our acts of repentance or confession. It is lavished upon us according to the riches of his grace (Eph 1:7). You only need to look at Jesus to know this is true.
During his time on earth, Jesus went around forgiving people who neither confessed nor repented, and while he hung on the cross he forgave those who put him there. The Son of God did all this to give us a picture of what true forgiveness looks like; it looks like love.
Praise Jesus forever more!