Question 56. What do you believe concerning “the forgiveness of sins”?
Answer: That God, for the sake of Christ’s satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my sinful nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long (a); but will graciously impute to me the righteousness of Christ (b), that I may never come into condemnation (c).
(a) 1 John 2:2: He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
2 Corinthians 5:19, 21: that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.(b) Jeremiah.31:34: And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Micah 7:19: He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Romans 7:23-25: But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.(c) Romans 8:1-4: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
John 3:18: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
For your personal reflection:
Are you a forgiving person? Often, we find it difficult to extend to another what we ourselves have not received or experienced. More than anything else I’ve observed in pastoral ministry is the liberating power of forgiveness. Knowing ourselves to be forgiven and then forgiving others is perhaps the most freeing issue in the life of the individual. Your eternal security in Christ rests in His accomplished work. In Him, the identity given to you by Christ, Himself, is that of forgiven son/daughter. As His truth about you begins to shape your life, as His Word to you begins to free you from bondage, you find a new freedom to forgive others.
Do your own thoughts accuse you? What remedy and hope does Question 56 offer you?
Does Satan accuse you? What remedy and hope does Question 56 offer you?
Are there dimensions in your life in which you have failed to appropriate the work of Christ? Why do you allow them to remain and stand against you? What might you do to know freedom?
Do you hold others in the prison of unforgiveness? In light of what Christ has done for you, why?
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4 users responded in this post
I think Matt 18:21-35 is essential to remember alongside the rest of the teaching here. It’s not a “wouldn’t it be nice if you did likewise” scenario its a “you must in order to” situation.
Interesting that there seems to be a distinction between ‘my sins’ and ‘my sinful nature’. Is this the same as between actual sin and the temptation to sin? Two sides of the same coin, I suppose.
On a side-note, shouldn’t it be “that I may never come into condemnation”?
Thanks, Philip, for noting the omission.
Steve, thank you for making me think…really think…about the power of forgiveness. Those questions are haunting, and deserve plenty of attention from me, as I try to answer. Thank you so much.