This was the scoffing reaction by a sister, in a little meeting, at the
suggestion that a certain brother might have repented of his sins. Of course,
some present were not aware of that rumor about the man but that was one way
to it told. She might have believed that there are some sins that a person
cannot repent of, and the inference was that they cannot gain forgiveness for
such a sin. She wasn’t expressing what the Bible teaches about forgiveness,
but was clearly showing that she hadn’t forgiven the man. Dear reader, let’s
face it—in order to go to heaven all of us need God’s forgiveness, but how
does anyone gain God’s forgiveness, including the man and the woman just
mentioned?
Teachers and preachers have taught, down through the years, that the Lord will
forgive any sin for which a person repents and seeks His forgiveness. That is
God’s truth! “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them”
(Hebrews 7:25). The expression “save them to the uttermost” might have to do
with the Lord’s eternal being, but it seems to mean more. Some translations
say, “to save forever,”others, “to save completely.” W. E. Vine says,
PANTELLES, from which “uttermost” is translated here means, “complete,
perfect.”
If Peter who was a liar, and a traitor to Jesus, who “cursed and swore saying,
I know not the man” (Matthew 26:74); if he could gain forgiveness of this sin,
you can for yours. And again, if Peter, could gain forgiveness who later
sinfully yielded to the pressure of others and became the politician, the
bigot, and influenced others to do wrong, in Galatians 2:1-21, and Paul
“withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” If he could gain
forgiveness, you can too.
If Saul of Tarsus, “the chief of sinners,” could be forgiven for persecuting
the Lord’s church and putting Christians to death, you can be forgiven of your
sins too. So says Paul in 2 Timothy 1:15,16. We don’t know what repayment
poor Saul could make for the lives he was instrumental in taking, but we are
sure he taught others not to do what he did.
If the people of Corinth, including the Christian man “who had his father’s
wife” and all others who had been “sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers,
male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy, drunkards,
slanderers, and swindlers” could be “washed, sanctified, justified” and
forgiven by the Lord, so can you. We aren’t sure what all was demanded of
these sinners outside of having “godly sorrow” for their sins, and taught to
“sin no more” and help others to learn the truth and be saved.
Through Jesus Christ, who has “all power,” any and all sins can be forgiven.
B. W. Johnson says of Jesus, “He is not a frail mortal like us; and can save,
in every extremity, all who approach God through his priesthood.” Coffman
tells us that in Hebrews 7:25, “To the uttermost, as applied to the salvation
Christ bestows, means ‘completely’ (English Revised Version margin), which may
be extended to mean that Christ saves from the guilt of sin, now, and from the
presence, power, and penalty of sin in heaven.” On this passage Westcott
comments, “Sympathy with temptation does not require the experience of sin.
On the contrary, his sympathy will be fullest who has known the extremest
power of temptation because he has conquered. He who yields to temptation has
not known its uttermost force.”
On God’s terms, any person who wants salvation from sin can have it whether
they are a child of God or need to become one. To become a Christian and
saved from past sins, a person must, not only BELIEVE the gospel message (Mark
16:16; Acts 8:37), CONFESS their faith in Jesus Christ being the Son of God
(Matthew 10:32; Acts 8:37); and be BAPTIZED into Christ (Mark 16:16; Acts
2:38; 8:38,39; 22:16); but must also REPENT of the sins of their past life
(Matthew 10:32; Acts 2:38). Belief and repentance are the compelling forces
in the heart of a person that stimulates their desire to confess Christ and be
baptized. Without the promise of forgiveness of any and all sins men would
not submit to these other things. But they know God said, “For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17). Then Scriptures tell us that we
should rise from baptism to “walk in newness of life” and we are then become
“the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:4,18)
There is no probation period found in the Scriptures. The three thousand who
responded to the gospel preached on Pentecost day in Acts 2 were immediately
accepted as members of the Lord’s church, which He bought with His blood. In
reminding the elders of their grave responsibility in caring for the Lord’s
church in Ephesus, Paul charges, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to
all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).
Since we believe the Scriptures, today we accept into our fellowship without
hesitation those who are baptized.
Yes, some in the New Testament church sinned after their conversion. In the
early days of the church, Ananias and Sapphira sinned (Acts 5). Simon who
believed and was baptized, in Acts 8:13-22, sinned and proposed that he would
be allowed to buy the ability to lay hands on others and bestow the Holy
Spirit upon them. But the apostle Peter rebuked him and told him, “Repent
therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of
thine heart may be forgiven thee.”
When people were converted to Christ their sins were washed away (Acts 22:16),
however, they remained human and could, and sometimes did sin, and therefore
needed to be reminded, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” And again, “Ye are bought
with a price; be not ye the servants of men” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23).
It is God who forgives sins, not us. He said, “And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17). But if God forgives a
person’s sins we must. Once there was a young lady who became a Christian,
but later had fallen to her passions in a promiscuous life. As she begun to
reap the consequence of her sins, she wanted to reform. She made a confession
before the church, but afterward some seemed unwilling to accept her into the
normal circle of Christian friendship. They snarled and made ugly remarks
about her “having the nerve” to attend some functions in the community. Those
critics were asked what more they wanted her to do, “she’s made a
confession—do you want her to crawl on her hands and knees through the streets
the rest of her life?”
The early Christians needed the reassurance given by the apostle John in 1
John 2:1,2, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin
not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” Both the saint who sins, and
the people of the whole world need Jesus, the advocate and propitiation,
covering for our sins.
Since the children of God must be careful to maintain their walk in the light
of God to remain in fellowship with Him and His people, John reminded them
that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have
fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:5-10).
It is sad today to hear of some Christians bragging about never making a
confession of sins. Yes, we are all priests under Jesus Christ, who is our
High Priest, and we have the right to speak to God, our Father, and come
“boldly to the throne of grace.” And we also know that not every sin needs to
be confessed publicly, but each Christian must acknowledge and accept
responsibility for the sins they commit and never deny them. God forgives
only if we repent and ask His forgiveness. Many in the early church had to
be reminded that when they became Christians they were baptized into Christ
and that He dwelt in them, and their body was now the dwelling place of the
Holy Spirit. And since there was no miraculous manifestations of this
indwelling, they needed to be reminded, “What? know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:19,20; See also
Romans 8:9-14).
Remember when a person obeys the gospel he is baptized “into the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19,20). This
creates a new relationship between the forgiven soul and the Godhead. B. W.
Johnson comments, “Converts were to be baptized into the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is a positive affirmation of the
Old Testament that where the name of the Lord is recorded there will he meet
his disciples, or there will be his presence. See Exod. 20:24.” The apostle
John says, “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath
given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:13).
During the “dark ages” the apostate church postulated a power to the apostles
which was not given to any human. They assumed that since they claimed the
popes were “successors of the apostle Peter and vicars of Jesus Christ”, they
like Peter had the power to forgive sins. They then eventually claimed that
position for the local priests—to forgive sins. Eventually they formed the
doctrine of “auricular confession,” which simply meant that the moment a
person confessed a sin into the ear of the priest it was immediately
forgiven. That priest, in turn, would bind an act of penance upon the sinner
to pay for his sin.
This false doctrine was founded upon the misinterpretation of Jesus words to
Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19), and then
to the other apostles in (18:18). The Holy Spirit guided the apostles in what
God demanded of sinners and what God would not accept. The apostles did not
determine what they would, on their own, would forgive and not forgive. When
Peter and the other apostles preached on Pentecost day, and thereafter, their
message of forgiveness of sins was not their own but was the message of the
Holy Spirit. It was what was bound and loosed in Heaven (See John 14:26;
16:13; Matthew 10:19,20)
As we have already seen, the forgiveness of sins takes place in the mind of
God. Nobody can forgive your sins but God! Every Christian is a priest
endowed with the ability to speak to the Father on behalf of their sins. We
have no earthly intercessors today. No matter how much you respect another
Christian they cannot coax God into forgiving you if you are unwilling to
submit to the Lord’s will. On the other hand, if you do submit to what God
demands to gain His forgiveness, no one on earth can dissuade God not to
forgive you. The one who hopes, longs and prays that you will not go to
heaven is implacable and in danger of sending his own soul to hell.
What sins can God forgive? All sins that a man or woman is capable of
committing if we will of repent them. Having an illegitimate baby may be
difficult for some men and women to forgive in someone else, but it is not for
God. The sin of fornication or adultery that brought that innocent child into
the world is terrible to God, but He can forgive a person of it. Remember the
woman who was taken in the very act of adultery was told by Jesus, “...
Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). All the men who
had accused her and brought her to Jesus had disappeared after the Master
said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
The passage tells us, “And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone,
and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and
saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine
accusers? hath no man condemned thee?” (John 8:7-10). After Jesus said what
he did all the men left. They might have been ready to see blood, but they
didn’t get to that day. They seemed to change their minds about it at hearing
the words of Jesus.
During a Labor Day Meeting in California years ago, a brother addressed the
incident recorded in John 8 and the attitude of the men in that scene. He
went on to say a lot of people come to meetings like this with stones in their
back pockets, (not real ones, of course) but they fumble with them, just
waiting for an opportunity to cast them. Patting his back pocket the brother
said, “I brought some too, but I’ve decided not to cast mine.” He had a
change of heart. Dear reader, do you understand that?
Did you ever get bent out of shape when you were equipped and ready for a good
stoning just to find the person who was going to be stoned had repented? Did
you say, “Wow! What a disappointment! It’s not often we get in on a good
stoning! And I’ve missed out.” So, disgruntled did you go around to others,
showing them your stones of hate and go ahead and cast them anyway at the back
the repentant persons?
“Go and sin no more” were the words of Jesus to the woman in John 8. We need
to fix in our vocabulary this same admonition. Isn’t that what you would tell
a family member whom you love dearly. This should be what we tell every
penitent Christian who has sinned. The compassion of Christ needs to be seen
in us every day.
