A RECAP OF WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM
When all of His glory is vindicated in Christ, the Lord God pours out His grace toward us in a way that will spend eternity praising Him for. Knowing that there is indeed righteousness that comes by faith and not by the works of the law or by any good work we have done, we abandon any trust in the flesh and we put our hope in Christ.
Having been set on the path of our sanctification, we come to learn of His grace even more. We come to know our weakness on the road to glory that it is the path in which we battle against sin apart from the persecution we get for our faith and other problem such as sickness etc. because of the broken world we live in. And where sin is, forgiveness is the only solution if one is to stand right with God.
So far in our discussion, we have seen of the blessed fellowship God has given us through His Son. We do not only know God at a closer walk but also walk closely with each other guided by the word of God through the leadership of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We have also talked about the reason why we are to learn to acknowledge our sins before God and even each other.
OUR TODAY’S EXALTATION: EMBRACING THE BLESSINGS GOD’S FORGIVENESS
In this short article, we are looking at this: what next after acknowledgement of my sin before God? The answer is found in this assurance from God’s word: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).”
The foundation of God’s forgiveness: His faithfulness and righteousness
We learn of the following character of God in the above verse:
God’s faithfulness to forgive: this assures us of God’s unchanging commitment to Himself. As He proclaimed to His servant Moses so He has revealed Himself even more in Christ so that we may understand Him. It is written:
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation (Ex 34:6-7, NIV).
How can God forgive and yet not leave the guilty unpunished? Short answer, through Christ God vindicated His glory by punishing Christ in our place. Because of that He can forgive us without punishing us. This is the hope of the believer in Christ. It is a hope of life. Read this work for more understanding of God’s forgiveness and the necessity of the death of Christ (READ).
God’s justice in forgiveness: when John says, “He is just,” we know that God is not bending His Character when He is forgiving us of our sins. He is not closing His eyes to our sins. He is still the righteous one and we can hold on to that. His justness or righteousness is revealed when He punished Christ in our place. We can run to God for forgiveness because we have Him, who is the righteous Judge, who has provided a way for us to draw near to Him.
How far God’s forgiveness goes
The other issue that we learn from this short verse is how far the forgiveness of God goes towards our sins when we confess. John says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (v.9).” From here, we learn that God does not only forgive us the sins we confess but His forgiveness pursues all of our unrighteousness. We would think that God is just forgiving the sins we remembered to confess before Him. But that is not how He deals with us. Even where our minds could not reach, His forgiveness reaches there. The Lord God does this to the praise of His grace lavished on us richly.
Exaltation to embrace the rich Grace of God in Christ Jesus
Let us then be sure of this: The work of salvation is completed through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the offer for forgiveness is definite for all of us who believe. Just as God has been faithful to forgive in the Old Testament He is still faithful in forgiving our sins when we are willing to confess them before Him. We know also that even when He does that He remains the just one or the Righteous one. What a sweet privilege I have that I can stay in the presence of God with Joy.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all.
