YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN PART 1

                              YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN  PART 1

God is good and His mercy endures forever. Part of His goodness is that He forgives sins. It is God’s NATURE to forgive sins.
Psalm 130:  4  But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.  We fear God because of the way He forgives.
Even before the coming of Christ, this nature is shown all through the scriptures. What does it mean to be forgiven? How does God forgive? What does it mean when we say God does not remember sin? What is forgiveness before the law, during the law and after the law? Then what of confession? How do we overcome sin?  All these will be addressed in this series.

THE MEANINGOF FORGIVENESS
The word forgiveness is from the Greek word, aphesis, it was defined by Thayer as:
1.release from bondage or imprisonment
2.forgiveness or pardon, of sins (letting them go as if they had never been committed), remission of the penalty
So to be forgiven  of sin is to be let go of the punishment of sin as      though you never committed it. It is to be delivered or pardoned of sin. The word aphesis was also used as deliverance(Luke 4:18), remission  (Luk 24:47; Act 10:43; Heb 9:22; Heb 10:18 ), liberty (Luke 4:18) So we have great liberty from the bondage of sin.

FORGIVENESS BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE LAW
As said in the introduction,  it is part of God’s  nature to forgive, God does not forgive because of what any man does. It is His nature not to count sins. We see this all through the Bible before the law. In Genesis 20, we see Abraham lied and he was called a prophet by God. It seem like God was not aware of his sin. Even in Exodus, we see the Children of Israel murmured against God before the law and nothing happened. In Exodus 17, the people murmured for water and chided Moses, nothing happened there after. Even in Exodus 16, the Israelites disobeyed God’s instructions on eating manna, and nothing happened. All these while,  we see that there sins were not imputed. They were forgiven even without asking for forgiveness. Therefore before the law FORGIVENESS was STRICTLY UNCONDITIONAL. It was not based on what the people did.

But wait man of God, what of Sodom and Gomorrah the destruction of the earth in Noah’s time. They are all acts of God’s mercy and kindness.  The destruction of the earth in Noah’s time is taught as the long suffering of God in the epistles(the explanation of Genesis to Malachi). 
1Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
2Pet 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
Notice it was the long suffering of God, not His anger. Noah is called  a preacher of righteousness. 2Peter 2:5. By his preaching he condemned the world. Notice the size of the ark God asked him to build in Genesis 6:15-16. It was big enough to contain everyone on earth then. For 120days Noah was preaching to the people to believe and enter the ark, no one listened to him except his family.  This can be likened to this present day: preachers all over telling the world to believe in Jesus and be saved and some think is a joke, but they’ll certainly be destroyed at the coming of Christ. THE WRATH OF GOD IS ALWAYS SEEN IN THE REJECTION OF GODS LOVE. Therefore, the wrath of God is the making of man.

What of Sodom and Gomorrah? They were destroyed not because of God’s wrath but because of the failed intercession of Abraham. It was Abraham that first used the word destroy in the discourse with angels. Read thoroughly  the whole of Genesis chapter 18.
  

Genesis 18
20  And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous
21  I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
22  And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
23  And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
People has been praying and talking against Sodom because of their wickedness. The Lord through His angels wanted to see if this is true and how He can pardon them. It was in this same chapter that Sarah laughed in Unbelief after God promised her a child and nothing happened to her. She even lied saying she never laughed to the same Lord “going to destroy Sodom “, yet nothing happened to her. Tell me, is this how to be angry? Abraham stopped at 10 people in his intercession for Sodom . He  could have still said one person and the cities would have been spared. God is a VERY GOOD AND FORGIVING GOD JARE. Whether you believe it or not it cannot change the nature of God.

UNDER the law we see a different case entirely. We see that sins were imputed. Obviously not by God but by the law. Romans 5: 13  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  It is the law that was imputing sin. This explains all the killings we saw after the law has been given. We see the people murmur  and many died. Same action different response, but same God. It was the Israelite that asked for the law when they said in Exodus 19:8 All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. So under the law forgiveness of sins became conditional. It was now depended on sacrifices, confession and the rest. It was all part of the law.
2Chronicle 7: 14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
This was under the law. Even under the law we still see a lot of people like Moses, and David enjoy great mercy from God because of the nature of God. Moses commanded the people to offer sacrifices that himself never offered. He understood the way of God, in that God does not forgive because of the many sacrifices. He told the people not to marry from outside Israel, but he did the same thing. Instead of God coming for him, it was for the people, who blamed him for his actions. Obviously he was not living under the laws he gave. That was Moses under the law. We see that it was the law that was imputing sin not God. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.  In Hebrews 10, we see that the sacrifices under the law could not take away sin.

Hebrews 10
1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. note
3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

THANKS BE TO CHRIST, After THE LAW, we have forgiveness of sins as a gift. IT IS UNCONDITIONAL. Christ has ended the law that was imputing sins on men. Romans10:4 Christ is the END of the law.
Ephesians 1: 7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Colossians 1:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Ephesians 4: 32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

OUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN.  Forgiveness of sins is what we have in Christ. It is through His blood, not through your actions. If we sin we fall back to the forgiveness we have in Christ.  It is an unconditional forgiveness. It is strictly depended on the sacrifice of Jesus.   WE forgive others because we are forgiven already, not so that we will be forgiven.

WHY do God forgive sins? It is because of His nature to forgive. He forgives for his names sake. 1John 2:12. It is not because we confess the sins. 

Dear reader, the GOODNEWS is that your sins are eternally forgiven in Christ, past, present and future. The price is paid already. There is no sin, I mean no sin that the blood didn’t cover for. No matter What you have done, God is not imputing your sins on you. When He said YOUR SINS AND YOUR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE, He knew you will commit sins. Relax you are not wiser than God.
Hebrews 2: 12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

God is not remembering your sins means He doesn't Treat you according to your sins. It is only the devil that uses the Bible (laws) and men to impute sin on you. He tells you, because you lied, you will miss that appointment. He even quotes Bible for you. He justifies your sufferings because of your lifestyle. That is not and can never be God. It is the fool devil playing on your ignorance and unbelief of God’s nature. Rebuke him and remind him of God not imputing your sins. Does this not just make you love God more? I feel like giving God a big big hug right now for loving and forgiving me like this.  God is a good God. HE FORGIVES ALL OUR INIQUITIES.  ALL not some.   Psalm 103:3  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.

What is NOW the role of confession of sin? What of 1John 1:9, if we confess our sins? Watch out for the part 2 of YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN (confession ).