How Christians Identify With Forgiveness
“And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
Christians are a unique group of people. No group apart from Christianity emphasizes forgiveness as much as we do, because it’s one of the core elements of our faith. However, we are most often told to live as people who are “born again” or “holy” rather than people who are forgiven. It is not as if this is unbiblical or even unhelpful, but rather that it’s essential that we are first told that to live this way is impossible unless we are forgiven.
The term forgiveness in Scripture refers to the dismissal of something. In our case, through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, ALL of our trespasses and iniquities are dismissed (Colossians 1:14; 2:13-15). To not be forgiven is to be spiritually “dead.” This term in the Greek is “nek-ros” meaning deceased or destitute of life, which is metaphorically used in Scripture to depict our spiritual nature apart from Christ. Not corporeally, but morally, has sin brought death upon us, alienating us from the life of God, making our affection for God and desire for righteousness non-existent. Just as a physically dead man is lifeless, whose soul is absent from his body, so is a spiritually dead man lifeless and alienated from God (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Spiritual death was a reality at one point for us and still is for all who walk in darkness. But there’s a turning point for those that have been redeemed. Colossians 1:13 states, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” Put another way, God being rich in mercy has made us alive together with Christ (Romans 6:11). Our sin caused us to be guilty before God, facing eternal punishment, dead, and completely hopeless to do anything about it. This is what forgiveness has delivered us from.
Living out the life of forgiveness causes us to recognize that every sin we ever commit in our life has been erased by God. This is a great blessing to the sinner because we will commit an enormous amount of sin in our lifetime. Famous theologian and Bible commentator John Gill states in his commentary on Colossians 2:13 that “forgiveness is a single act, not done at different times but at once, and includes sin past, present, and to come; and is universal, reaches to all sin, original and actual, before and after conversion; sins of thought, word, and action.” Forgiveness is an act of God’s will; it is a deliberate act of love; it is a decision not to hold our sin against us no matter what we have done. This is powerful because we are guilty! Guilty sinners that don’t deserve forgiveness but rather deserve God’s wrath.
The forgiveness of guilty sinners who put their faith in Jesus Christ is the most important reality in Scripture. Psalms 32:1 declares “Blessed is the one whose transgressions is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” Glory be to God! To be forgiven is what makes us unique; it distinguishes us from everyone else and unifies us to God.
Working in a financial institution, I often hear of testimonials from people who no longer owe debt. People are happy to the point of tears because their debt is paid and wiped from their record. We share a similar reality. We once owed our very lives to God, but this debt has been paid by the sacrifice of Jesus’ life. In John 19:30, when Jesus was dying on the cross, He said the words, “It is finished”. In the Greek, His literal words were, “It is paid in full”. Jesus’ work has been completed; the will of God has been exposed; our punishment has been taken on, and our debt has been paid in full by Jesus through His death on the cross.
So what? What does forgiveness have to do with how we live? The reality of forgiveness brings us redemption. Many times, as I sit back and reflect on this truth, my mind wonders about the reality that, God in His sovereignty has chosen to redeem His people from His own wrath. This is amazing because we know that we were once children of wrath, but God by His sovereign hand has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to drive away our love for sin and cause us to walk in newness of life.
Redemption causes us to praise God and seek holiness despite our evil and tempting culture. Holiness is not something natural men strive to attain, but something that God through the power of the Spirit and the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ has given to His people. And it’s the single act of forgiveness that separates us from the world and enables us to walk in holiness according to the call to live as a people who have been forgiven by the only one who can forgive, and He is God.