Perfect Sacrifice, Complete Forgiveness (Enhanced)
Pic courtesy: Received in WhatsApp on 21st October 2019
Colossians 2:13
You will never be sure that you have God’s unmerited favour if you are not sure if God has forgiven you of your sins. Beloved, I want you to know that your sins are forgiven not according to the riches of your good works, but according to the riches of God’s grace (unmerited favour). All your sins—past, present and future—have been forgiven. Don’t draw a timeline of God’s forgiveness of your sins. There are some believers who believe that the forgiveness they received spans only from the day they were born to the day they became believers. From that point onwards, they think that they need to tread very carefully in case they lose their salvation. This belief is simply unscriptural. Colossians 2:13 states clearly that we have been forgiven of all our sins.
Does “all” mean the same thing to you as it does to me? My Bible says that all our sins have been forgiven by Jesus’ one sacrifice on the cross. We have been forgiven once and for all! The high priests in the old covenant had to offer sacrifices for sins daily. But Jesus, our perfect new covenant High Priest, offered the complete, perfect sacrifice “once for all when He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:27). On the cross, He took upon Himself all the sins that you will commit in your lifetime, and once for all paid the full price for all your sins. Christ does not need to be crucified again for your future sins. In fact, all your sins were in the future when He died on the cross. So when you received Jesus into your heart, ALL your sins were completely forgiven!
Now that you know that your sin debt has been completely cleared and settled by Jesus on your behalf, don’t expect God to deal with you according to your sins. When something negative happens, don’t imagine that God is coming after you because of what you did in the past. Instead, take God at His Word and expect to enjoy the benefits of the heavy price Jesus paid at the cross for you. We sowed nothing good, but through Jesus, we have reaped every good blessing. That, my friend, is called unmerited favour. And you honour what He has done for you by thanking Him and expecting these blessings to manifest in your life every day.
But, couple of words of caution here. And, I am going to borrow some words from Charles Spurgeon as I saw his version closer to reality than the many who have tried to articulate:
All our past sins are forgiven when we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of our Life. But, this is not the final milestone with respect to sin. There are 2 more milestones: (2) Freedom from the power of sin, (3) Freedom from the presence of sin in our life. We realize these 2 milestones only when we continuously follow Christ and his words with the help of Holy Spirit.
In the 1st century also some people assumed that their salvation is secured & took some deviations from the holy living in Christ. And, therefore, Holy Spirit wrote through the Hebrews author on the necessity of continuous striving to continue living in Christ:
"Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and WHO have FALLEN away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that PRODUCES a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. "
" Hebrews 6:1-12
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