Thursday, February 12, 2015

Forgiveness

One of the fundamental aspects of being a Christian and becoming a Christian is forgiveness. God the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, to the earth so that the sins of humanity could be forgiven. If there is no forgiveness, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, then we are not saved and are not reconciled back to God (Hebrews 9).

What we have to keep in mind as Christians is that the forgiveness of our sins is contingent upon our ability to forgive those who have sinned against us and have done us wrong. Jesus says very clearly that if we do not forgive those who sin against us, God the Father will not forgive our sins (Matthew 6). What this means in essence is that if you don't forgive others, then you forfeit your salvation. You cannot stay saved and remain in unforgiveness.

Why is this the case? Because it violates the very basis by which you received your forgiveness in the first place. We are saved by Grace (Ephesians 2). Grace is God's unconditional acceptance of us in spite of ourselves, which means that, as long as you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, all of your sins are forgiven – past, present and future (Romans 5). God's not waiting for you to ask for forgiveness; as a born-again believer your sins are already forgiven. Now someone may raise 1 John 3:8; this scripture is for one's fellowship with God, it's not the basis of one's "salvation from God."

So then, if God can forgive you for ALL the sins you've done AND DO (there's not a person reading this that has stopped sinning), based strictly upon the Blood of His Son Jesus, then what's keeping you from forgiving your brothers and sisters?  This is divinely unacceptable.

Saints, let's make sure that we're not putting our eternal destiny in jeopardy, and ask the Holy Spirit to work in us and on us so that we may forgive others as Christ has forgiven us.

No comments:

Post a Comment