Over the last fifteen years, I’ve enjoyed leading several Bible studies focused on how to enjoy greater intimacy with Christ.
At the beginning of the opening session, I ask the participants complete a questionnaire so that I can find out what they hope to gain from the study.
The last question is: “In your life, what do you believe is the greatest obstacle to enjoying intimacy with Christ?”
While most of their answers have to do with busyness, tiredness, and just not taking the time, every once in a while someone will answer that they are the greatest obstacle to enjoying intimacy with Christ.
Sadly, they see themselves as the major hindrance.
I remember when a wrong view of myself kept me from enjoying intimacy with Christ.
Oh, I spent focused time with Him, reading His Word, journaling, and talking to Him.
But almost always, my conversations with Jesus revolved around my shortcomings—my sins, failures, and mistakes—and asking Him to forgive me and help me do better in my walk with Him.
There was no fixing my eyes on Jesus, setting my mind on things above, or dwelling on eternal spiritual truth (Heb. 12:2, Col. 3:2, Phil. 4:8).
Until one day.
That incredible, liberating, marvelous day when I finally realized that His finished work on the cross had already wiped out my sin debt in full and made me a brand new person altogether!
In many of my posts, I share about the believer’s identity in Christ and our new life in Him.
But I don’t believe I have fully expressed what it means that Christians are already completely forgiven—forever.
Oh, how I pray that God will give you eyes to see that the sins of your lifetime are gone and you no longer have to fixate on them!
Instead, you can focus on the Wonderful Christ and His finished work on your behalf.
This way, you won’t waste one more minute missing out on the wondrous delight He longs for you to experience in intimacy with Him!
Right here. Right now.
Beloved, I don’t expect you to take my word for it when I tell you that you are already completely forgiven for the sins of your lifetime.
The following list of Scriptures provides more than enough evidence:
- Jesus has forgiven the sins of your lifetime (Eph. 1:7; 4:32; Col. 1:13–14; 2:13–14; Heb. 10:18).
- Jesus has taken away your sin (John 1:29; Heb. 9:22, 26; 1 John 3:5).
- Jesus cleansed you and made you perfect forever (Heb. 10:1–3, 11–14; 1 Pet. 3:18).
- Jesus has chosen to forget your sins and will appear a second time without reference to your sin (Heb. 10:14; 9:28).
If you are thinking, This sounds too good to be true, I encourage you to look up and write out the above Scriptures for yourself, meditate on them, and trust Christ’s indwelling Spirit to confirm the truth of your complete forgiveness in Him.
My favorite passage concerning our complete forgiveness is Colossians 2:13–14:
“When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Some interpret this passage as “He forgave all of my sins up until the moment I got saved, but then after that, I have to make sure I ask forgiveness for every sin I commit.”
If that is true, then let me ask you an important question: What happens if you forget one?
Imagine that my wealthy earthly husband never wants me to do without anything I need or want, so he deposits a massive sum of money into a savings account to cover every debt I will incur throughout my lifetime.
But there’s a catch. My checking account has a zero balance.
Every time I write a check, I have to tell him what I bought and how much it cost. Then I have to ask him to transfer the exact amount from the savings account to cover my transaction so that I won’t overdraw my checking account.
While I am extremely thankful my generous husband will always agree to pay each debt, the consequences (overdraft fees, embarrassment) will be costly if I forget even one.
This may sound like a silly example to you, but I lived in fear for years over the possibility that some of my sins would go unforgiven because I couldn’t remember them all.
You can imagine how thankful I was when I found out my heavenly Husband deposited His unlimited riches into my checking account instead!
Now I never have to worry about incurring hefty insufficient funds fees for unconfessed debts.
Does this make me any less appreciative for His overwhelming generosity? Of course not!
It makes me even more thankful that I can lay my head on my pillow every night and sleep in sweet peace, knowing that I will never have to work to pay off my own sin debt.
My heavenly Husband paid it all with the first and only forgiveness deposit the very moment we were joined in sacred union.
To make my ongoing forgiveness contingent on my memory and my asking for it shifts my focus away from what Jesus has already accomplished on to what I must do to remain in “good standing” with Him.
His shed blood and my belief in Him were all that was necessary for me to enjoy my complete once-for-all forgiveness (Heb. 9:22).
Beloved, if you believe that all of your sins—up until the moment you receive salvation—are forgiven, but the ones you have committed since then aren’t forgiven until you confess them, you will not be able to enjoy the assurance and peace Christ died to give to you (Rom. 5:1; 1 John 5:13).
This is hardly the kind of life the royal bride of Christ should be living!
It may help you to understand your complete forgiveness by considering the answer to the following questions:
- How many of your sins did Jesus shed His blood for?
- How many of them were in the future when He died for them?
All of them!
We appropriated His complete forgiveness for the sins of our lifetime—past, present, and future—the very yoctosecond (smaller than a nanosecond) we believed in Him.
Opponents of the complete forgiveness doctrine often cite 1 John 1:9 as evidence that we have to keep asking God to forgive our sins to remain cleansed: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This verse has been referred to as the Christians’ “bar of soap.” Thirteen verses later, however, the apostle John writes, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12 NASB).
At first glance, this appears to present a conundrum. The two verses cannot both be true at the same time—unless they are addressed to two different audiences.
In the first chapter, John was appealing to the Gnostics (those who had infiltrated the early church and believed that they had no sin) to be saved.
In contrast, 2:12 is unmistakably addressing believers—little children whose sins have been forgiven them.
People who teach that believers have been forgiven for the sins of their lifetime often get accused of giving people a green light to sin. I don’t know about you, but I don’t recall ever needing anyone to give me a green light!
I did a pretty good job of sinning without one. But now that I understand what I’ve been given through Christ’s finished work on the cross, I realize that I really don’t want to sin.
My heart’s desire is to express the cherishing love and exuberant life of Christ (Heb. 10:16).
Before I conclude this post on our once-for-all forgiveness, I would like to clarify a couple of things.
First of all, I believe that confession (agreeing with God that we are sinning) and repentance (changing our minds and turning from sin) are healthy and beneficial habits in the life of every believer.
When we realize we are sinning, it is important to tell our Beloved we are sorry for not living in complete dependence on Him and to thank Him for the forgiveness that is already ours in Him.
Nevertheless, our confession and repentance are not a means of obtaining more forgiveness.
Our initial acceptance of His forgiveness through His shed blood at salvation secured a clean slate for us forever.
Christ wants us to believe it and live like we believe it!
Second, our complete forgiveness before God does not shield us from the earthly consequences of our sin and doesn’t mean that we don’t need to ask for forgiveness from other people when we sin against them.
In order to maintain healthy relationships, we must be willing to admit our wrongdoing and seek forgiveness from the person we have injured.
We also need to be quick to forgive others when they sin against us. (That’s a topic for another post … or book … or series.)
Jesus wants us to wake up every morning, believing that we stand completely forgiven in Him.
This may not be something we fully understand with our minds or feel with our emotions, but we can choose with to believe it, regardless of opposing thoughts or feelings.
It is much easier to believe our way into a new way of feeling than to try to feel our way into a new way of believing.
After all, don’t we possess the very faith of Christ (Gal. 2:20)?
Believing that we are completely forgiven for the sins of our lifetime will enable us to receive and enjoy His lavishing affection.
That’s where the cycle of authentic love in our life begins—by letting Him love us unconditionally.
Dearly Beloved, do you believe that the sins of your entire lifetime—past, present, and future—were forgiven through Jesus’ shed blood the moment you believed in Him?
If your answer is yes, what difference has it made (or will it make) in your life?
If your answer is no or not sure, what is hindering you from believing it?
If you have trouble allowing yourself to enjoy His unconditional love without thinking you’ve earned it, ask Him to give you revelation about your total forgiveness.
Remember, just because you might have heard (and believed) throughout your life that you have to continually ask God to forgive each and every sin, that doesn’t mean it’s true.
Simply put, repetitive exposure to a false concept does not make it any truer.
Instead, why don’t you see what happens when you begin to thank Him for what you already have and see yourself as a completely forgiven, brand-new person altogether!
What you focus on will be expressed through your life.
If you enjoyed this post, then I think you would enjoy both of my books where I share the undiluted, unpolluted love and grace of God.
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