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Forgiveness is something according to God's heart. God loves man, and He loves to forgive man's sins. Therefore, from the time man sinned, God sought ways to redeem man from his sins.
In the Old Testament God used the blood of bulls and goats to redeem man from his sins. In the New Testament He appointed the Lord Jesus, who is the Lamb of God, to be the sacrifice for sin. In offering up Himself, man is forever redeemed from his sins. On God's side, the blood shed on the cross by the Lord Jesus has completely solved the problem of man's sin. But on man's side, there is another condition — faith. Whoever believes that the blood of the Lord Jesus is shed for his sins is redeemed, and his sins are forgiven. Whoever does not believe will perish and his destiny will be hell. However, the work of redemption is complete, and it is of God. It was initiated by God, a work that God wanted to do. God has done this work; He has sacrificed His only begotten Beloved and paid such a price. Therefore, there is no problem to prevent God from forgiving man's sin to redeem man from his sins. O sinners, are you still fearful that your sins will not be taken care of? Are you still afraid that your sins will not be forgiven? God will forgive you; He is willing to forgive you, and He has paid a great price to forgive you.
As soon as a sinner believes that the blood of the Lord Jesus was shed on the cross for his sins, his sins are forgiven. If a believer is by chance overcome by sin, he only needs to repent sincerely and confess his sins before God (1 John 1:9). Such confession will bring about forgiveness. The worth of the Lord Jesus' blood is so great that all of man's sins can be forgiven and he can be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Therefore, there is a way to take care of sins, both in the sinners as well as in the believers.
Once the Lord Jesus told Peter to forgive others seventy times seven times. This means that one should continually and forever forgive. As long as a person turns and repents, his sins will be forgiven. Since the Lord taught Peter such a word of grace, is it possible that He would not practice it Himself? This is impossible; He will forgive a sorrowful and repentant sinner, and He will forgive him every time.
Many people think that committing a sin is like copying a wrong letter, whereas being forgiven of sin is like the erasure of that wrong letter which still leaves an indelible mark on the page. They do not realize that this does not match the fact of God's forgiveness. The blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses man from his sins. What is the meaning of cleansing? It means to be washed to the extent that no trace of blemish or spot is left; it is as if the person had never sinned and is as holy as Christ. Isaiah 1:18 says, "Come now and let us reason together,/Says Jehovah./Though your sins are like scarlet,/They will be as white as snow;/Though they are as red as crimson,/They will be like wool." Snow and wool do not have a speck of red in them. Therefore, when God washes man of his sins, he becomes absolutely clean, and no trace of sin is left.
The actions of the prodigal son's father in Luke 15 show us the forgiving heart of our heavenly Father. While the prodigal son was on his way home, the father saw him and went out to meet him. The old man was not walking slowly but was running toward the son. The father was eager to see his son, and he considered walking to be too slow. As a result, he ran. God's "feet" of forgiveness toward a repentant sinner are also swift. He only wishes He could forgive man of his sins sooner. Did the prodigal son run to his father? No, he did not run. In the movement of the two persons, we see that the forgiving heart of the father was greater than the desire for forgiveness in the son. As we read on, the father's kiss and his embraces tell us that God is most pleased and happy with a sinner who turns back. The son was still remorseful about his past sins and felt that he had sinned against heaven and against his father, but as he was confessing to his father, the father could not contain himself out of his earnest love for the son. He could not wait and did not wait for the son to finish his words. (In Luke 15:18-19, there are five phrases of confession, but in verse 21 only four phrases were spoken; the last one was interrupted by the father.) The father ordered the servants to bring in the best robe and the ring and put them on the son. Oh, our heavenly Father's forgiving heart is greater than our desire for forgiveness. We do not have to weep for three days and three nights, confessing our sins over and over again before we can be forgiven. Many times we confess our sins over and over; we weep again and again, thinking that we can only be forgiven if we buffet ourselves once again. Oh, we have misunderstood God's heart; we have caused His heart pain. We have to realize that He loves those whom He has purchased even more than we love ourselves. He is most eager to forgive us; He "runs" to forgive us. He does not wait for us to finish our confession before He has already forgiven us!
Many times in our homes the ones we love offend us. Do we not eagerly wait to forgive them? If they apologize a little from their heart and say a little word of apology, do we not forgive them right away? Wherever there is love, there is a forgiving heart. If this is true with earthly relationships, how much more is it true with the Father in heaven, who is full of love and mercy? Will He not eternally and completely forgive man of his sins?
God sent the Lord Jesus to the world. He shed His blood for man's sins on the cross, and He dealt with man's sins. All these are an expression of God's love. The Lord Jesus has shed His blood; God Himself has testified for Him that whoever believes in Him will be forgiven of their sins. Those who confess their sins will be cleansed. As long as we believe (if we are a sinner) or confess (if we are a believer), God must forgive our sins. If He did not forgive, He would be unfaithful and unrighteous. But I will ask most reverently, "Can the holy God be unfaithful and unrighteous?" Therefore, the matter of forgiveness is securely guaranteed. We should rejoice in God; sin shall not lord it over us any longer. We can be delivered from sin and can be forgiven of our sins.
There are two sides to God's truth. What I have said emphasizes the side of grace. It is true that as long as a man is preserved in the grace of God, he does not have to be concerned about the matter of forgiveness. But if a man thinks that God's grace can be wasted and that he can "continue in sin that grace may abound" (Rom. 6:1), he should pay attention to the following words. These words are severe. The Word says, "Behold then the kindness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but on you, the kindness of God, if you continue in His kindness" (Rom. 11:22).
Some have said, "I can sin daily by hiding under the blood." Others have said, "I sin in the daytime and confess to God at night, and I am forgiven. The next day I sin again and confess again at night, and I am forgiven again. Since the Lord taught Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, He can surely forgive me. Moreover, 1 John 1:9 says that God is faithful and righteous. He has to forgive my sins, the sins that I have confessed, through the vicarious death of the Lord on the cross."
Senseless men! We have to realize that God's grace is to lead us to repentance and not to encourage us to sin. If we think that the precious blood can be wasted this way, we have to realize that the blood has never cleansed us from the sins "confessed" in this way.
Now we want to answer one question based on the Scriptures. Please read 1 John 1:7: "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin." This verse shows us one condition and two results. If one condition is met, there will surely be two results. What is this one condition? It is to "walk in the light as He is in the light." If we walk in the light as Christians, we will not be in darkness and will not sin, but we will have works of light rather than works of darkness and sin. But what kind of light are we going to walk in? What, in other words, will this light be according to? In this verse it says that walking in light is "as He is in the light." According to verse 5, "God is light," and in this light there is no darkness at all. All other lights are mixed with darkness. When we walk in this way, we are walking in God's light, and there will be the following two results. First, "we have fellowship with one another." This is our mutual fellowship with all the brothers and sisters in the Lord. If we meet the condition we have mentioned, we can fellowship. If there is no fellowship, it must mean that the condition we have mentioned has been violated. Furthermore, there is a second result, which is that "the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin." This means that when we fulfill the condition of "walking in the light," the blood will be effective in its work of cleansing us from our sins. Now we are clear: fellowship with one another and cleansing of the blood both come from the condition of walking in the light. If a Christian does not walk in the light, he will lose the benefit of fellowship and cleansing. Put another way, in order to have fellowship and to be cleansed from our sins, we have to walk in the light. Otherwise, we cannot fellowship, and there cannot be any cleansing even if we want these things.
The first result, the fellowship, is visible; it can be experienced on earth and is before men. The second result, the cleansing by the blood, is invisible; it is a fact in heaven and is before God. But just as the visible result on earth is a fact, the invisible result in heaven is also a fact. Just as the part before men is a fact, the part before God is also a fact. Therefore, if you are a believer who has sinned, you will not be able to fellowship naturally with other believers; you will try to avoid other brothers and sisters and will not want to see their faces. I must tell those who are walking in sin and darkness that the minute you lose your fellowship with other believers, the effectiveness of the cleansing of the blood will also be gone before God in heaven. Just as you lose the first result through not walking in the light, you will surely lose the second result. You may confess your sins with your mouth, but the blood will never cleanse you of your sin. This does not mean that the blood has lost its effectiveness in cleansing. Rather, it means that your condition of not walking in the light shows that you have not fulfilled the prerequisite for the blood to cleanse you of your sins. The prerequisite for cleansing is to be walking in the light. But since you continue to sin and walk in darkness, the blood cannot cleanse your sins. The blood can only cleanse the sins of those who walk in the light.
Therefore, brothers, do not deceive yourselves. If you have sinned and become fallen and have lost the visible fellowship, I am afraid that the blood in the invisible heaven has not cleansed you from your sins either. I must tell you most soberly that unless you thoroughly deal with your sins in sorrow and repentance, you will still have to give an account of your sins before the judgment seat of Christ in the future. Therefore, if there is only the confession with the mouth, without the conduct of walking in the light and without a broken and contrite heart (Psa. 51:17), your sins will not be cleansed.
Now we want to give special emphasis to this one prerequisite, which is to walk in the light. This prerequisite has been particularly neglected by those who have wasted the blood. (Of course, in reality, the blood can never be wasted by anyone.) Little do they realize that this prerequisite is their only remedy. Therefore, we have to pay more attention to this matter. According to the Bible, whenever a believer has sinned and desires to receive forgiveness, there are at least three conditions that must be met: (1) with respect to the spirit — there must be a broken spirit (Psa. 51:17), (2) with respect to the mouth — one must confess his sin with his mouth (1 John 1:9), and (3) with respect to the walk — one must walk in the light (1 John 1:7). If anyone thinks that by hiding under the blood they can sin every day, or that they can sin in the daytime and have everything taken care of by confessing at night, I will tell them most solemnly that there is not such a thing. God cannot be mocked. Whenever you walk in the darkness, the blood cannot cleanse you from your sin. The blood cannot become your refuge; it cannot become your hiding place. If you want the blood to cleanse you from your sins, you must first walk in the light and not indulge in your sins any longer.
The true confession must be one that sorrows according to God. This kind of sorrow works a repentance that is without regret. This kind of repentance has seven expressions: (1) earnestness, (2) defense, (3) indignation, (4) fear, (5) longing, (6) zeal, and (7) punishment (2 Cor. 7:11). Only those who have these seven conditions are truly confessing persons. Otherwise, a person's confession with the mouth does not agree with his heart. His mouth may be confessing, but his heart will not hate sin. I say again that the blood will not have any effect on such persons.
Some commit sins again and again, and they are bound by sin because they know the forgiveness of sin only as a formula; they know the way or method to obtain the forgiveness of sin. They know 1 John 1:9, which says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." They think that the Lord Jesus has already shed His blood for them, and that the blood can now cleanse them from their sins. At the same time, God is both faithful and righteous, and if they confess their sins, God will surely forgive them of all their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. Since they have this "charm" to protect them, they do whatever they want and act loosely, because there is a way to be forgiven in any case. They think that as long as they confess, they can sin a little and everything will be all right, even while they are sinning. These people are in a dangerous place! I heard of one brother opening the letter of another brother. Later he told the second one, "I know that it is wrong to open up others' letters, but I know that you will forgive me. That is why I opened it." This is knowing the way of forgiveness and purposely sinning because of this knowledge. Those who do such things have fallen into Satan's trap. These people are hidden rocks in one's spiritual voyage; they are very dangerous. If someone only knows the method of forgiveness of 1 John 1:9, which is confession, but does not know the prerequisite of verse 7, which is walking in the light, I wish he would be in fear and trembling, so that he would not sin and offend God. Let me say again that the grace of God is to lead him to repentance; it is not to encourage him to sin.
Even when a person realizes that he has sinned and has confessed his sins to God or to man, the condition of the heart during his confession may be vastly different from one case to another! According to my own observation, there are at least four conditions:
After a man sins, his conscience is not at peace; it condemns him. After a man confesses his sins, his conscience is at peace and does not condemn him any longer. It is all right to confess one's sins as a result of the condemnation in the conscience. But if one confesses his sins merely for the sake of having peace in his conscience and to stop its condemnation, and if there is no deeper reason than this (the deeper reason being a realization of the evil of sin itself), such a confession is only a bribing of the conscience. The conscience is the organ within that tells him his true condition. The reason the conscience condemns is that sin is evil. This is why it continues to speak to a person. However, a person may find the unceasing condemnation of the conscience a nuisance and try to find a way to stop its condemnation only, neglecting to hate the sin that the conscience hates. In such a case, a person is paying attention only to the condemnation of the conscience; he is not paying attention to the cause of the conscience's condemnation, which is sin. Therefore, he does not hate sin that much. Instead, he only feels the nuisance of the condemnation of his conscience. He does not deal with the root of the matter, which is sin, but only with the condemnation which is a result of the root of sin. In this way, he tries to bribe his conscience by means of confession. But this is not the way that God wants us to deal with our sins.
Sometimes you have offended or sinned against others. On the one hand, you feel that you owe them something, and on the other hand, you are afraid that they will hate you in their hearts and remember your offense. In order to stop the conscience of the others from condemning you and to live peaceably with them, you look for an appropriate opportunity to confess to them. As long as you have their forgiveness, you think that you will be reconciled to them, that they will not hate you any longer, and that their conscience will not condemn you. If the others will not forgive you, there will be a problem between them and God, and they will be the ones who will suffer. (Matthew 6:15 says, "But if you do not forgive men their offenses, neither will your Father forgive your offenses.") This kind of thinking is similar to the first kind, for the attention is not on sin, but on others' conscience. It is true that we have to be reconciled to others. But if we only pay attention to this, without feeling the evil of sin itself, we do not have the kind of condition in our heart that God requires in our dealing with sin.
If one confesses his sin based on the two conditions we have mentioned, the result will surely be that he will sin easily and confess easily. If the heart does not feel that every sin against man is also a sin against God, if the blood does not seem to be that important, and if he thinks that sins have only to do with man and one only need to deal with man, he will not see the evil of sin nor consider confession as a serious matter. At the same time, if a person does not have a genuine broken and contrite heart, he will not have any difficulty in confession. In short, he will consider sin as something very light and will easily commit sin. Sometimes, even before he makes confession for a sin, he commits the same sin again. May God be gracious so that we can see sin the way He sees it!
Some remember the word of 2 Corinthians 5:10, which says, "For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad." At the judgment seat, Christ will not only judge their works, but also their conduct. Everything that has not passed through the judgment of the Holy Spirit, through the conscience, and every sin that has not been cleansed away by the blood will be judged by the Lord. Therefore, their hearts are afraid. Since today's sins will have to be dealt with in the future, they consider it wiser if they deal with them today, so that they can be spared from future judgment. It is not bad to confess one's sin under such a condition; it is much better than the above two cases, because the above two cases only relate to man, whereas this, at least, relates to God. One confesses before God, through a fear of God. Such a person may have two kinds of confessions; one is before God, and the other is before men (if such sins are against men also). After he has made a clear confession, he will have a clear conscience before God and men. Although this kind of confession is quite good and proper, it is, nevertheless, not the highest condition God desires the heart to be in for confession.
This is the condition that God wants our heart to be in for our confession. God has put His own life into us. When we have this life, we have the most holy nature, a nature that is as holy as God's. Sin is something very filthy before God; it is absolutely incompatible with the holy life of God. When God gives to us His holy life, He intends that we hate sin in the same way that He hates it. If a man allows God's holy life to grow and if he realizes the filthiness of sin itself, he will say as Madame Guyon did: "I would rather go to hell than to sin." The life of God is within us for the purpose of expressing Christ. The more Christ's nature is expressed, the more we see the evil of sin, and the more we will stay away from it (Heb. 7:26). We will consider sin like leprosy, and the more we stay away from it, the better we will feel. All those who know sin in this way will not easily fall into sin. If a person confesses his sin under this kind of condition, he will surely be a godly and holy man, and he will live before God.
How can we have such a proper realization of sin? This requires the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, a willingness to obey the light, and a willingness to repudiate the sins that are exposed by the light. The indwelling Holy Spirit operates in our spirit and exposes the true condition of sin before us; it gives understanding to our mind, the Spirit-renewed mind, and causes us to realize in a genuine way that sin is most filthy. At such times, our conscience will rise up to condemn sin as sin, and our new life, the life of Christ, will most naturally reject sin. This rejection is a most spontaneous function of God's nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Let me repeat this in a simple way. The Holy Spirit reveals the true condition of sin to us under the light of life. (Note: John 1:4 says, "The life was the light of men." The life of Christ is the light of man within him. This light is not visible from the outside. If a man pays attention to outward, visible lights, he is in danger of being deceived.) As a result, we obey the light and abhor the sins exposed by the light according to God's nature within this light. The more we obey the light, the brighter the light will shine within us, and the filthier sin will appear, and the more we will hate sin. When a man is under the bright sun, even specks of dust flying in the air, which men do not ordinarily see with their eyes, are exposed. A person who lives in God's light all the time will see things as sin that others do not even consider as sin. (For example, Madame Guyon repented for the good works that she had done, such as giving to the poor, and asked for the cleansing of the Lord's blood over these things because she saw, under God's light, that all her former good works were righteousnesses that originated from her self and were not from God's life. As such, she needed the cleansing.) In this way, one's feeling toward sin will become sensitive, and the measure of holiness (on the practical side) will grow.
Indeed, just as the nature of an Adamic man (one who is not yet regenerated) is inclined toward sin (the so-called "cherished sins" are the sins that the old nature yearns to commit), the divine nature within a person who belongs to Christ feels a repulsion against sin. This repulsion for sin itself is a spontaneous expression of God's nature within man. Only this condition in our heart is from God and is pleasing to God.
If we analyze the four kinds of conditions, we will find that the first three kinds have the self as the center and are directly related to one's self-interest. Only the last kind is from God and has God as the center. We should be those who are standing with God only.
Among Christians there is a grevious tendency concerning the confession of sins; men gradually shift their attention from dealing with God to dealing with men. Among some Christians, the blood is not even mentioned, and as long as men's consciences are at peace with others, they put God aside. This situation is terrible, and it causes men to lose their fear of God. I will say most solemnly that a confession that does not require the blood is definitely one that is from hell. We have to realize that when man sins, the first one he has offended is God, not man, and the One who is offended the most is God, not man. For example, if someone breaks an object in your house, the one who is offended is you, not the object. David said in Psalms 51:4, "Against You and You alone have I sinned,/And I have done what is evil in Your sight." He did not say that he had sinned against Uriah or Bathsheba. Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, in comparison, confessed his sins and returned his money; he settled everything on man's side, but he was still a son of perdition. This does not mean that we should not confess our sins to one another. It is right for us to confess to each one (James 5:16), but our dealing before God is more important than our dealings before men. We should never reverse the order and allow ourselves to put God and the blood aside. We should not neglect making a clear confession before men, but it is more important to confess our sins thoroughly before God. May God be merciful to us!
