Forgiveness-Verses
Forgiveness Is Love
The most important concept one will
ever encounter is that God is love (1Jn 4:16). And because our Lord loved us
with such a great love He made a way for us to be forgiven after sin had
entered the world (Ro 3:22-26). Jesus came down from Heaven, became man, and
died for our sins (Jn 3:16-17). Our Savior arose
again and offers to forgive all believers’ sins (Eph 1:7-8). Forgiveness starts
with the perfect love of our God (1Jn 4:7-10). Forgiveness ends with the love
we have in our hearts for our God (1Jn 4:17-18). For our sins
will be forgiven if we love our Lord above all things, and our neighbor as
ourselves (Lk 10:25-28). So salvation comes
down to this. God’s love will always forgive us (Ro 8:37-39), but do we have
the love of Christ in our hearts so we can be forgiven (Eph 3:16-19)?
Spiritual Forgiveness
Faith saves us
(Gal 3:11, Rom 3:28), faith makes us righteous (Gal 2:15-16, 3:11), faith
forgives our sins (Ac 10:43, Lk 5:20). Faith produces
a love that gladly hears, gladly follows, and gladly obeys our Master (Jn 14:21). Faith creates a love in our hearts that assures
us our sins are forgiven (Lk 7:47, Ro 8:1-4). To have
faith and love in Christ sounds so simple, so easy. But as mere humans we will
never be able to handle all the temptations we will encounter (Lk 17:1). We will always sin (Ro 3:9-20, 7:21-25). Our only
answer is to turn to our loving God for forgiveness, for help in fighting off
all the evil around us (Ac 3:19). We must accept the Holy Spirit and allow Him
to guide us, to introduce us to Jesus (Jn 16:12-15).
We must bring Jesus into our lives, we must let our Savior’s love and peace
come into our hearts (Jn 14:27, 2Cor 13:11). We must
receive the forgiveness of sins (
Jesus came to save
sinners (Matt 1:21, 9:12-13, 1Tim1:15). Our Savior gave His life as complete
atonement for all of our sins when He died on the cross for us (1Pe 3:18).
Jesus offers complete forgiveness to all who truly believe in Him (Ac
13:38-39). We receive forgiveness through sanctification by the Holy Spirit
(1Cor 1:2, 6:11, Ro 15:16) and personal repentance to our Lord (Lk 5:32). The Spirit offers general forgiveness (sanctification)
of sins to all who have a true faith (Ac 26:18, Gal 5:16-18). Sanctification
forgives our sins until we are able to daily ask for forgiveness from our Lord
(Ro 8:26-27). Sanctification forgives our sins as we commit them to keep us
holy and part of the body of Christ, His Holy Christian Church (1Cor 1:2, Eph
5:25-27). We receive personal forgiveness when in our daily prayers we humbly
ask Jesus to forgive us (Lk 18:13-14), even for those
sins we do not know that we have committed (Ps 19:12, Ja
4:16-17). Our Lord then graciously forgives all of our sins and remembers them
no more (Heb 8:12).
General and
personal forgiveness are obtained spiritually (Ac 15:9, 1Cor 4:5). We are
forgiven by the intent that is in our hearts, (Ps 44:21, Ro 2:16, Heb 4:12-13)
not the physical actions we do, or the words that come out of our mouths (Matt
chap 23). Jesus can forgive all the sins we commit no matter how awful they may
be considered, except for one. The only unforgivable sin is to reject the Holy
Spirit (Mk 3:28-29, Matt 12:31-32). For when we reject the Holy Spirit Christ
cannot come into our hearts (Eph 3:16-19). The spiritual faith, love, and
intent needed in our hearts for forgiveness can never be present (Ro 8:9-11,
Eph 4:8). Sins are spiritual, are committed because of a lack of love for our
Lord (Jn 14:15-17, 1Jn 4:7-10), for our fellowman (Ro
13:10, 1Jn 4:11-12). The physical acts of sin we commit just show that we have
a lack of this love (Jn 14:23-24). We are spiritually
forgiven: By a faith that creates a total love for Christ in our hearts, that
puts Jesus number one in our lives (1Ti 1:5, Gal 5:5-6). By a faith that
produces a committed love in our hearts which makes us sorry for our sins, and
makes us strive to live a Christian life (Gal 5:19-26). By a faith that desires
to grow and come alive through reading the Scriptures (Ro 10:17) and telling
all about Jesus Christ (Matt 28:19-20). By a faith that enables us to love
others as ourselves, helping all in their needs (Gal 5:13-15). When we have
Christ in our hearts we have such a faith, such a love, and such an intent within us (1Jn 2:5). Jesus knows in whose heart He
lives, as well as those who have not made room for Him yet (Ac 15:8, 1Jn 4:15).
To all who have accepted Him into their hearts, Christ offers sanctification
and personal forgiveness through the blood He shed on the cross for us (1Jn
1:7). Christ makes us holy, sinless (Ro 11:16, 1Pe 2:9-10). We are once more
part of the family of God, are once more heirs of Heaven (Gal 4:7, Ro 8:17).
Those who can never quite submit their will to Christ have chosen poorly (1Cor
6:9-10,