Why are my last three posts on forgiveness?
Believe it or not, forgiveness is so huge I cannot possibly say enough. You see, if you forgive (yourself included) and really and sincerely do forgive then God will forgive you. But, if you do not truly and sincerely forgive then you will not be forgiven. Forgiveness is tantamount in revealing who you truly belong to. In a previous article about self-forgiveness I mentioned about being born again, and that when that took place the old life including all the sin was done away with, and now all things were made new–including you. You as do we sin after being saved? Sure we do, and now we have an advocate that we confess those sins to who is Christ Jesus. That is confession to Jesus is called repentance which means to change your mind which results in a change of actions (Luke 3:8–14; Acts 3:19). This is different from saying forgive me and then turn around and do the same thing again which indicates you did not repent and was not forgiven. In acts 26:20 we read “but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” So you see repentance and forgiveness is verified by performing deeds in keeping with repentance. Reminds me of the AA twelve steps:
- We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
In the twelve steps above we see a sincere plea to God in step 2. In step 3, we see repentance taking form. In step 4 we see self-examination. In step 5 we have confession. In step 6 we see that asking for forgiveness. In step 7 we see the removal of things that offend others and self. In step 8 and 9 we see deeds being recognized and those deeds being carried out. You see, without doing those steps there would not be forgiveness by others, by yourself, and most notably by God. I won’t go through the other steps since I believe they are self-explanatory.
Forgiveness is the one feature that sets a follower of Christ Jesus apart from those who only claim in word only to be followers. Also, forgiveness, repentance is so huge that the letter to the Hebrews chapter six is fair warning for those who claim to have been enlightened or followers of Christ Jesus if they fall away or I like to say continue in their sin while claiming to follow Jesus and faking it the whole time. In Hebrews 6:4-6 we read “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” These verses are most likely about apostasy or abandonment of belief. This may be a bit rough but, not forgiving is very much like an abandonment of belief since someone desires to retain a past mistake or a series of past mistakes and never truly accepting forgiveness for them from the Lord or others. In essence, you cannot claim to be a follower of Christ Jesus if you are not forgiven and by holding on to those things you also have not been born again. It simply is not possible to be unforgiven and born again.
Just like with the twelve steps above, a follower of Christ Jesus who was once in a state of condemnation (unforgiven), and who seeks forgiveness through repentance (has a change of mind) or I like to say a change of heart and accepts Jesus they are forgiven and are born again. Prior to that, those twelve steps above are like the deeds spoken of in Acts. Question is: can a person accept Jesus, be born again, and then seek forgiveness for all those previous sins? No, and the reason why is, if you do not forgive you are not forgiven. Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Likewise, if you have not forgiven yourself of your own transgressions after Jesus has forgiven you, I don’t believe you can be a true follower of Christ Jesus.
I realize this all sounds a bit convoluted but just sit back and work through all the scriptures concerning forgiveness. I’m sure you will come to something similar to what I’m attempting to communicate in this post. I guess the bottom line is: If you cannot forgive others their offenses against you, you will not be forgiven by God; and I think the other is equally true: If you cannot forgive the things you have done since Jesus already forgave you, you are not forgiven by God also. The last part is not in the scriptures, but I’ll bet it is equally true.
Let me be clear here: I’m not talking about sin you create after being saved and born again. Everyone will sin (break fellowship with God) throughout your walk. Those sins we repent of, (change of mid) and no longer revisit them—I hope. I guess there will be more said on this subject after the new year. For now, if there are things in your life that has not truly been dealt with, please confess those things, repent and be saved.
Regards,
Mike
20 December 2021
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