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I am examining what it means to enjoy your forgiveness—to live in the incredible truth that when you confess and forsake your sins, God freely forgives and furthermore, he remembers them against you no more. They are removed from you as far as the East is from the West—and of course, the East and West can never meet.
In 1 John 2:12, we read: I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. Your forgiven sins have been forgiven for the honor of Jesus’ name. This is all done for God’s glory. Living in the joy of your forgiveness, testifying that God has forgiven you, enjoying your forgiveness is what God wants for his children—those who are born from above through faith in Jesus Christ.
I want to close with a quote from an article I read by Luke Roland:
The truth is, Christianity as a religion really has only one participant and that is Jesus. We are not participants, but recipients. We receive, and we receive the most amazing gift we could ever receive, which is forgiveness. This is why I believe it is important for us right now to understand our justification and to take our forgiveness very seriously, so we are not tossed around by a new false doctrine.
And that false doctrine is forgiveness is something you have to earn or work for. You have to pay for your sins, your mistakes, your wrong choices. And then of course, you can never enjoy your forgiveness, because you can never pay for it or earn it. So, it’s a catch 22. But Jesus has come to set you free from that bondage. As Galatians 5:1 tells us: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
My prayer today is you will begin now to enjoy your forgiveness and keep learning to do that. You do that by bringing every thought into captivity—those thoughts of guilt and regret—grabbing them and replacing them with the truth that you are forgiven. Truth sets you free.
