I know there are many verses that specifically say our sins have been forgiven. Please note that I am not trying to disprove scripture. I just want to let you see forgiveness from a different perspective in order to see the extent of God’s grace that is lavished on us. The way I personally understand what happened at the cross, has made me come to believe that our sins weren’t forgiven. Let me go through my deductions with you:

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death (NKJV)

The wages of sin is death. We all know this well. Now read this verse together with the following one:

Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NKJV)

One of the root meanings of the word forgive in the original Greek means to disregards. So if God were to forgive our sins, it would mean He had to disregard them. If it were true that He could just disregard or forgive them, then why did Jesus have to die? If the penalty for sin is death and Jesus died to pay that penalty, it tells me that God didn’t disregard or forgive our sins. But why do all those verses say our sins were forgiven? The answer lies in the word sin. The confusion lies in the English language. Whenever we hear the word “sin”, we immediately think about some action or deed that transgresses the laws of God. Our minds are somehow trained to think of sin as a verb. In English, we only have on word for both sin, the noun, and sin, the verb. The verb refers to the action of committing a sin and the noun refers to a person’s state of guilt because of the trespass, their collective sinfulness, or their universal inability to “hit the mark”. In light of this common confusion, let’s look a little closer at a few of those well known verses:

Acts 5:31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins [noun]. (NKJV)

Acts 13:38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins [noun]. (NKJV)

Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins [noun] and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. (NKJV)

Rom 4:7-8 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds [noun] are forgiven, And whose sins [noun] are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin [noun].” (NKJV)

Col 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins [noun]. (NKJV)

Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins [noun], according to the riches of His grace (NKJV)

All the words ‘sin, sins and lawless deeds’ in these verses are not all the same Greek word, but they are all nouns. Not one of them refers to the action of committing a sin technically. Now I know some of you will say that is merely semantics, what am I really on about? This is what I mean: Your sins were NOT forgiven, YOU WERE! You received forgiveness, not your sins. People are forgiven, people are set free, and people are redeemed. Their every sin gets punished unto death in Christ Jesus. The wages of sin is death and Jesus died to pay them. His death secured forgiveness for you. When you believe, you become forgiven. That means God will ‘disregard’ you when He has to enforce final judgment on His great day. When you stand before Him, He can disregard you because the wages for your sins have already been paid, you don’t owe anything for them.

So instead of thinking that every act of committing a sin needs to be forgiven, rather realize that all sins have to be punished unto death. If your sins are punished in Christ, you are forgiven, regardless of the action and also regardless of when the act is, was or will be committed. The noun-sin, the sinfulness that resulted because of the actions, the guilt and the inability to hit the mark are disregarded in Christ. You might need to say this to yourself a few times to let it sink in. Say it out loud too: “I am forgiven.” Why do you need to realize this? Because as long as you think actions are forgiven, actions won’t bother you. As long as you think sin gets forgiven, sinning won’t bother you. You will just commit them over and over because they can just be forgiven, right? Once you realize people get forgiven, but that somebody had to die in order for you to be forgiven, you might want to honour the person who died for you by thinking twice about what you are about to do. If it wasn’t for Jesus, you would have had to go through what He went through. You’re only free if you choose to live free. Grace gives you the choice, now make it.

Glory, Honour and Praise to Jesus!

Cornel

Subscribe to our RSS Feed by clicking on the icon below

Read a preview of Cornel’s book “So You Think Your Mind Is Renewed?”