We gain several promises when we accept the gift of salvation. One of those promises is forgiveness. This daily devotional looks at how God’s pardon and providence interact with our faith to give us forgiveness.
Nuggets
- God promises to provide us forgiveness of our sins when we sincerely ask that of Him.
- God forgave us from the start and kept providing for us
- But that means we have to believe that God will forgive us when we ask.
- We have to take our faith and do something with it.
- We not only live our lives as God wants us to, but we are also the people He wants us to be.
- When we have the faith that God has forgiven us and provided us with salvation, we can trust that God has carried through with his promises – one being eternal life.
Devotions in the Promises of Salvation series
Salvation means that we have to trust in God to provide us with that salvation. We have to believe that God will give us forgiveness, as He says He will.
We Are Promised Pardon
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I Jn. 1: 9 ESV)
God promises to provide us forgiveness of our sins when we sincerely ask that of Him. That takes faith.
Let’s back up a second and define the terms for those who may be new to churchy words.
Forgiveness is when God pardons us because we have broken His laws and commandments and restores our relationship with Him. Sin is actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
We ask for that forgiveness through faith. Faith is the belief that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives.
We Are Promised Providence
Faith can be a confusing thing to some people. The Homilist tried to help us out there.
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Confidence in the Providence of God
Oh, great. Another great churchy word. The Holman Bible Dictionary defines providence as “God’s faithful and effective care and guidance of everything which He has made toward the end which He has chosen.”
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God created us, and mankind disobeyed Him two chapters later. But God didn’t turn His back on us.
God forgave us from the start. He kept providing for us.
That is what providence is. Providence is God’s acts of meeting the needs of His creation.
If we trust God to keep His promises, we have the assurance that He will give us what we need. That may not be everything we want, but it will be everything we need.
Confidence in God will give us peace of mind.
Assurance of God’s Willingness to Forgive Us
But that means we have to believe that God will forgive us when we ask. If we think we have committed too big of a sin or too many sins, we may think God’s forgiveness will never apply to us.
That is so far from the truth. God does not limit His forgiveness.
There is only one sin that God will not forgive — the unpardonable sin. I believe that sin is not ABCDing.
Glossary
Doesn’t that make sense? If we don’t believe in Him, we aren’t going to ask His forgiveness. He can’t forgive us if we don’t ask.
We know that God forgave Paul, and he persecuted the early Christians. Yes, the Energizer Bunny for Christ went around trying to arrest disciples before his conversion. “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (I Cor. 15: 9 ESV).
We don’t know how far Paul took that. We know Paul (when he was still Saul) was coat-check boy at Stephen’s stoning.
We know Paul kept biting on himself about his actions. But he know God had forgiven him. “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief”. (I Tim. 1: 13 NIV).
That is what assurance is. We gain assurance, which comes from God as we grow closer to God. It leads to hope. Hope is where we desire for something that we believe is obtainable.
We don’t have to doubt our salvation. God can and will forgive us when we sincerely ask.
The thing is, we get really guilty about the sins we have committed. In a way, that is good. God wants us to realize just how detrimental sin is.
In a way, that is bad. God has forgiven us of those sins. We have to get over it.
Parsons wrote, “The aggravations of sin are to be found in their highest form where there are instituted powerful means to deter from its perpetration, and where yet it is committed in spite of restraints eminently calculated to direct the soul to goodness.”
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Elaine-speak. We get the most aggravated when we sin knowing we shouldn’t, having aids in place to help us stop sending – and we sin anyway.
God forgives us of sin because of His mercy. God’s mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs.
We think that being a repeat offender is going to terminate the covenant. Not going to happen if we have genuinely ABCDed.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
God is going to forgive us because that is consistent with His character.
Parsons went on to tell us how this forgiveness is given to us. He wrote, “God communicates forgiveness through the atoning sacrifice of His Son.”
Jesus only had to die once. The shedding of his blood paid the penalty for sin once and for all. He didn’t have to die again – ever.
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Another churchy word is remission of sins. The Homilist wrote, “Remission is to remove the guilt of sin, that the punishment of it may not be inflicted upon the sinner.”
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It isn’t just about removing the offense. It is about removing our guilt about it.
God removes our sins — completely. He removes big sins and little sins. He removes all of it, even the guilt.
This occurs only through grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers.
And we are talking everyone here. The Homilist wrote, “As the blessing of forgiveness is applicable to all nations, so it is also to all classes.” God will forgive them if they will submit to Him.
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Transforming Because of God’s Benevolence
But we have to take that faith and do something with it. It has to transform us to be more like God.
When we are still sinners, we are governed by our human nature. The biblical term is in the flesh.
We are operating as Satan wants us to operate. We break God‘s laws and commandments and do not submit to His loving care.
We need to change that after conversion. We need to grow our character to be more like God’s.
That takes the focus off of us and puts it on God. That expands to loving and helping others.
Centering Ourselves on God
It all boils down to we are focused on God. We not only live our lives as He wants us to, but we are also the people He wants us to be.
God wants us to be like Him. He wants his character to be our character.
That way, when Satan comes around tempting us to sin, we don’t give into the distraction. We stay faithful to him.
The Homilist said it involved “… the centring (sic) of the soul upon one object of love and one course of action …”
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We Are Promised Eternal Life
Assurance of Spiritual Life
When we have the faith that God has forgiven us and provided us with salvation, we can trust that God has carried through with his promises. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with eternal life and good.
One of the consequences of sin is spiritual death. Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
When we ABCD, God gives us spiritual life, which will last for eternity. We don’t have to worry about paying the penalty for our sins. Jesus already has.
Translation: that means we don’t have to worry about dying. Yes, that is an unknown, but what we do know is that God and Jesus are waiting for us on the other side.
It’s okay. God has this.
Making the Connections
Faith. Faith brings forgiveness.
We don’t have to clean up our acts. The Evangelist wrote, “He [God] does not wait till men come to a sense of their delinquencies.” That comes after salvation, when we are navigating the Sanctification Road.
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Glossary
We accept the pardon by letting go of the guilt and remorse that we feel because we have done something wrong. It is a conscious decision to accept His forgiveness.
How Do We Apply This?
Faith prepares us to ask for forgiveness. However, we have to growth that faith by seeking God. Begel advised us that faith is only increased through faith. As we learn by seeking God, we faith “… is maintained, increased, and strengthened by exercise …”
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Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Parsons wrote, “In order to secure the personal application of the sacrifice of Christ, there must be, in yourselves, the production of certain emotions and principles, by the operation of the Spirit of God.”
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We’ve got to sincerely seek God with the mindset that we will change our character. That could challenge our principles and values.
We have to remain committed to be like Him.
Father God. Mankind disobeyed You almost from the start. You want to forgive us. In order for You to do that, we have to agree to our end of the covenant. We have to admit sin separated us from You, believe Jesus is our personal Savior and Redeemer, and confess You as Sovereign God. Forgive us of our sins. Help us to seek You so that we may grow our faith in You. Amen.
What do you think?
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