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THE FORGIVING GOD
Introduction
God is a Forgiving God and King David had to say that blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. God forgives us because He knows that man is only 'Flesh, not Spirit', and his heart is overwhelmed by the things he sees, the behaviour of people towards him and the person's personal ambition and greed.
In Genesis 6, God saw that the wickedness of man was great and that every imagination and the thoughts of the heart of men were continually evil. God was disappointed with the man He created. But luckily for us, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God decided after the flood, that His Spirit will no longer strive with the man because he is only flesh Gen 6:3.
After the flood, righteous Noah was appreciative of God mercy and kindness and decided to build an altar unto the Lord and offered unto Him a sweet-smelling sacrifice that made God to say in His heart, " I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done"- Genesis 8:20-21.
I went down the memory lane to show that God is a forgiving God, compassionate and merciful. He will forgive you, if you will repent of your sins and ask for forgiveness, God will surely forgive you and you will rise and shine again.
What does God forgive?
God forgives the sins of man, especially those who ask for forgiveness. This is very important for every man to know that God will forgive his sins if he should ask for it. God has made his standards clear to all men. From the time of the Law to this time when we are saved by His grace through Jesus Christ, the Lord has made His mind and standards clear to His children. He gave them the Law, statutes and ordinances to guard them to the Saviour and after Christ, the law collapsed into two commands, to love the Lord with all your heart, and to love your neighbours as yourself.
Any time your acts and behaviours fall short of love for God and your neighbour, repentance is required after which you ask for forgiveness. It is the purpose of God that we should not live like the unbelievers do, seeking to fulfil their lusts and ignoring the word of God. This is why He gave us the Holy Spirit.
God forgives us our sins when we ask, so that we also will be willing to forgive those that will offend us. Forgiveness is so important because everyone is a sinner, and without forgiveness, there can be no reconciliation. If God did not forgive us, we are not reconciled back to Him. If we do not forgive our offenders, the Lord Himself will not hear our cry for forgiveness. This is so important because we live in a sinful world and from time to time,. we ourselves commit sins that need forgiveness from God.
Sin separates us from the Lord and His kindness. As it happened in the bible, when Adam and Eve sinned, and the Lord said “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretches out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”.
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. (Genesis 3:22-24). That is what happens to us when we sin, because the word of God says “The soul that sinneth shall die and the wages of sin is death. - (Ezekiel 18:4b, Romans 6:23). To be God’s people, and to have God as our Father and helper requires that we address the issue of sin in our lives
Anyone who wants to overcome sin should consider the advice of Joshua to the people of God, that God is a holy God, He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins and if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”
Assurance of Forgiveness
In Exodus, He declared His loving kindness to forgive the sins of man. The Lord Himself made this statement to Moses, saying: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:5-7).
If man will listen to God and obey His instructions, there will be no bondage. And in the event of sin and error, a child does not run away from the house because he made a wreck of the father's car in an accident, he should still come home the father and ask for forgiveness. The prodigal son did so in the bible.
He spent his father's money in a riotus way and when it was famine time and he had nothing on him to survive on, he realized it was better to go back to his father than die in a foreign land due to hunger. He was surprised to discover how much love the father had for him, though he wasted the money given to him. This is the same way the Lord welcomes His sons and daughters, who repent and return to Him and ask for forgiveness.
Nehemiah talked about God's forgiveness when he declared saying: "Thou art a God of forgiveness, Gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness; And Thou didst not forsake them” (Nehemiah 9:17).
The bible says there is forgiveness with the Lord, that the Lord may be feared and the words of Nehemiah was repeated in Psalm 86:5, saying "For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon Thee.
When Moses sought to know God more intimately by seeing His glory, God revealed this about Himself to Moses, saying: “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion” (Exodus 33:18-19).
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:6-7).
Basis for God's forgiveness - Why does God Forgive sins?
1. God’s compassion and grace (Exodus 34:6-7); God is ready to forgive (Psalm 86:5; 130:4)
2. God’s promise to forgive (Deuteronomy 30; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Jeremiah 18:5-8)
3. God’s provision for forgiveness in Jesus Christ
4. Jesus shed His blood—He made atonement for our sins (Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7)
5. God’s gift in Christ is repentance and forgiveness (Acts 5:31)
6. The gospel is the offer of forgiveness (Luke 24:47-48; Acts 2:38; 10:43)
Sins that are difficult to Forgive
1. Those who reject God’s forgiveness and strive on their own—Joshua 24:19-20
2. Those who persistently rebel against God, who refuse to believe in His Word, and who reject the inspired warnings God gives through His prophets—2 Kings 24:1-4
3. Those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who is God’s instrument for convicting men of sin and of saving them through faith in Christ—Matthew 12:22-37
4. Those whose sins have been “retained” by the church, acting on God’s behalf (in effect, those who refuse to repent when confronted and rebuked for their sin)—John 20:22-23
The New Covenant in Christ
Forgiveness of sins was promised by God, by means of a “new covenant.” in our Lord Jesus Christ, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The righteousness based on faith in Christ Jesus is not based on works, but confession. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:4-10).
The Forgiveness of Sins is now through the blood of Jesus. Jesus Christ came to fulfill God’s promise to forgive men’s sins and to create a new heart within. God’s solution for sinners was the coming of Messiah, who would bear the sins of men. When Jesus was confronted with a paralytic, lowered through the roof, He simply told the man his sins were forgiven.
The Lord confirmed that His blood is the blood of the new covenant during the Lord's Supper. Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).
What to do
Everyone should know that the forgiveness of sins has been accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. That means that your separation from God is inexcusable. Except you do not want to repent of your sins, forgiveness is available.
Men are therefore expected to repent of their sins and error and ask for forgiveness. The good news of the gospel is that those who believe in Jesus Christ and who ask for forgiveness will have their sins forgiven.
FIRE...
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