In a Letter Regarding Youth Suicide, the writer suggests that the forgiveness of our sins is part of our continuing blessings in Christ. As we continue in a family status in Christ, unless we leave the family through deliberate intent or gross negligence, so we continue having our sins forgiven, unless we fall from the grace of God.
This suggestion rings true with scripture revelation. Consider the following passages.
Blessings in Christ
Ephesians 1:3 begins an extended praise of our Heavenly Father for the spiritual blessings bestowed on the believer in Christ. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (things mg.) in Christ.” The believer has been:
- Chosen before the foundation of the world (1:4).
- Adopted into the family of God (1:5).
- Freely bestowed with the grace of God (1:6 RV).
- Redeemed through Christ’s blood, receiving the forgiveness of sins (1:7).
- Given an inheritance (or been made God’s heritage, RV) (1:11).
- Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (the 1st century blessing of gifts of the Holy Spirit) (1:13).
- Quickened (made alive) together with Christ (2:5).
- Made to sit with Christ in the heavenlies (2:6).
- Made nigh by the blood of Christ (2:13).
- Reconciled unto God in one body by the cross (2:16).
- Made a fellowcitizen with the saints and of the household of God (2:19).
- Made a part of God’s living, dwelling place (2:22).
In considering these blessings, we would not consider them to be on-again, off-again blessings that were on during one part of the day and off for another part. Certainly we recognize we can fall from the grace of God by turning our backs on salvation through faith in Christ (Gal. 5:4). But we do not feel we go in and out of His grace because of the ebb and flow of our spirituality.
Later in Ephesians, Paul warns us that “no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance…” (Eph. 5:5). We thus know that, if we walk in the darkness of iniquity, we lose the blessed inheritance. But we don’t change our fundamental walk in life from one day to the next. It is not correct to believe we are heirs of God on Sunday, on Monday cast out because we exceeded the limit of sin for the day or fallen short in listing sins for repentance, on Tuesday back in again and on Wednesday back out. We know scripture is referring to an ongoing pattern of behavior, a state of blessing or a condition of rejection.
We know that those who were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise could fall away from the faith, crucifying the Son of God afresh (Heb. 6:6). Yet this they could only do one time, not on a weekly or monthly basis, because once they had fallen they could not be renewed to repentance.
If then, reasons our correspondent, we don’t consider the other blessings in Christ as on-again, off-again blessings, why should we consider the blessing of forgiveness of sins as being only an occasional blessing, one we only receive when we remember to pray for forgiveness? We feel he is right.
We believe a decisive passage in this regard is Hebrews 10.
Perfected continually
In this section, the apostle sets out the superiority of Christ’s sacrifice to the sacrifices offered under me Law of Moses. The Mosaic sacrifices were inferior because f ley could not “make the corners thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Heb. 10:1-2).
Our initial reaction may be that this argument does not make sense. The worshippers might be forgiven of past sins, but they would sin again and would quite naturally have to keep offering sacrifices. How could they be once purged and thus have a continuing confidence in the blessing of forgiveness?
As the apostle develops the point, the answer becomes clear: he is not talking about a repeated sin-sacrifice-forgiveness cycle. He is talking about a state of forgiveness which one enters by becoming associated with the sacrifice of Christ.
Follow his argument as he cites from Psalm 40:6-8. The Psalm reveals God has no pleasure in animal sacrifice but does have pleasure in the willing sacrifice of Christ. This means the former has been replaced by Christ (Heb. 10:5-9). By association with this sacrifice “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). And following his one acceptable offering, the Lord Jesus “sat down on the right hand of God,” his sacrificial work having been completed. This is in contrast to the priest who must continually stand at the altar offering “oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (vv. 11-13).
The Lord can sit down because “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (v.14). Each element of this key statement has already been defined in the chapter:
- The “one offering” is the sacrificial life of Christ culminating in his obedience unto the cross (vv. 7,10).
- “Perfected” is the state defined in verse 2 where the person “once purged should have no more conscience of sins.” That is, he would be confident his sins were being forgiven.
- “For ever” is from the Greek word dienekes which occurs only four times in the New Testament; all occurrences are in Hebrews, and three of the four are in this chapter. (Heb. 7:3 “abideth a priest continually;” 10:1 “offered year by year continually;” 10:12 “for ever sat down…;” and verse 14.) The meaning of this word is critical to our subject: the definition is “carried through, perpetually,” Strong’s Concordance; “stretching evenly along, stretching the whole length, unbroken, uninterrupted,” Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon. This unusual word clearly sets out a state of forgiveness for those in Christ.
- The “sanctified” are the “we” who “are sanctified” (v. 10). This class of persons is the “brethren” who “have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” being part of “the house of God” (19,20). In other words, they are those blessed in the heavenlies in Christ referred to in Ephesians 1 and 2.
The apostle reinforces his point from Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant which sets forth a condition of conversion of heart and a blessed state of forgiveness of sins (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 10:15-18). In the bonds of this covenant in Christ, we are blessed in being able to draw nigh “with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (v. 22). This is our blessing unless we do “despite unto the spirit of grace” by turning away from Christ having “trodden under foot the Son of God (vv. 26-31).
Why ask forgiveness?
If it is true we are blessed on a continuing basis with the forgiveness of sins, why should we bother confessing our sins and asking forgiveness? The reason is, for our own benefit. Those who truly remain in Christ continually seek to serve him and improve their characters. When we are thus minded, we want to be aware of our shortcomings that we might practice true repentance in turning from sin to obedience.
We recall that Christ’s introduction to his model prayer is: “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matt. 6:8). Most of the elements of the prayer are thus for our benefit, not the Father’s. God has promised our daily bread, but we ask daily to remind ourselves where it comes from. God’s kingdom will certainly come, but we ask for it to come, that our hearts might continually yearn for the day. Likewise we ask for forgiveness to remind ourselves continually how much we need forgiveness, how thankful we are for this blessing and how we must always forsake sin.
Part of walking in the light, as the apostle John writes, is confessing our sins that we might always remember we have sinned and do sin and have a critical need that ” the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7-10). There is, in fact, no conceivable way we could itemize all our specific sins, for many of them are sins of omission of which we are unaware. As well, we can remain unaware of sins of commission, depending on our level of spiritual maturity. Nonetheless, itemizing as many of our sins as we can recollect is essential for maintaining a right attitude of confession and of gratefulness for the great blessings we have in Christ. One of the greatest of these blessings is redemption in Christ, even the uninterrupted forgiveness of our sins, unless we turn and walk in darkness.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One