Monday, August 22, 2011

The Expunging Power of God's Forgiveness

This is a long read, but it will bring you great rejoicing and provoke some serious thought as well. I wrote this a few months ago, but was reminded of it again today. Maybe it's for someone that needs to hear it today..

Sometimes God just surprises me with an illustration from real life that teaches me a great spiritual truth. It’s almost like I understand fully what He is saying all at once, but then He sort of unwraps this gift of revelation slowly in order to show me what He is saying in detail. This morning I saw something on television that God used to take me on a detailed journey in thought, reminding me of His full forgiveness. I’m inviting you to take that journey again with me now as I re-trace my steps of understanding this incredible truth.

The important thing to note first is that when Jesus was on the cross dying for my sins, He saw me. And He saw my entire life; all the sins I would ever commit and in fact all the sins of the entire world were in His view that day. And He died to forgive every one of them.

So we can emphatically state that the forgiveness for all sin was purchased by the death of Jesus on the cross. There had never before been a sacrifice that was effective enough to forgive sin fully and forever. And after the death of Christ there would never be a need for another sacrifice to add anything to His because His was enough. In fact, Jesus said, “It is finished” indicating His completion of all that God required to provide forever and full forgiveness for those who receive Christ and have His forgiveness applied to them.

Now, let’s take this journey one step further. When I came to an understanding that I was a sinner in need of a Savior I responded to His invitation and received Christ as my salvation. At that moment, the forgiveness Christ purchased on the cross was applied to me. And it was a package deal. I didn’t just get forgiveness for all the sins I had committed up until the day I received Christ as Savior. I got fully and forever forgiven for all my sins for all my life!

Remember that Jesus looked ahead through the corridors of time when He was on the cross. He looked ahead to see me and to see you. But did He just see the sins I had committed up until the day I was saved? Was His view limited to only a portion of my life? Of course not. From the cross, Jesus saw every sin I would ever commit for my entire life and paid for them all.

We are limited by time and space. We can only see a limited view of things. But God’s view is not limited by time, space, or anything else. He sees our tomorrows as clearly as we see our yesterdays. So when Jesus was on the cross, everything in my life was future tense at that point. He saw the final day of my life as clearly as He saw the day I was born.

So the death of Jesus was enough to take care of all my sin and the sin of all the world…past, present, and future…because that’s what God saw that day. When God’s forgiveness is applied to me, it’s applied completely; withholding nothing for a future day when I might need it again. God’s wrath over my sin is fully satisfied forever, no matter how badly I mess up in the future. Nothing I ever do will surprise Him. He saw it before He saved me and saved me anyway.

When I think about this fully, I have to realize that in God’s view, even the record of sins I will commit 10 years from now were already on my record and in His archives on the day that I was saved, even though in my limited view I haven’t seen them yet.

Now, back to what I saw on TV this morning. Fox News reporter Orlando Salinas was in Miami, Florida reporting on the job shortage there. Because the jobs are so limited there, only the top candidates get hired. In Florida there is a huge population of criminals who have records of law breaking going back for many years. In some cases, many years have passed since their last conviction, but that old record is keeping them from getting jobs. So convicted criminals are now seeking to have their criminal records “expunged”. Orlando Salinas went into great detail describing the process of expunging.

When a judge approves the expunging of a criminal’s record, a court clerk literally goes to the basement, the attic, or wherever the archives are located. He looks for the record until he finds and it. Then he physically removes the criminal record and obliterates it. There is absolutely no record left of the crime. The crime can never again be used against the former criminal and in fact he is no longer even identified by the law as a convicted criminal. It is “just as if he never committed the crime.”

The former criminal and those closest to him may remember the crime, but in the eyes of the law it is gone forever. The crime is in the former criminal’s memory, but it’s no longer in his past.

Here’s what God showed me. Because God’s vision transcends time and space, all of the sin record of my life (past, present, and future) was recorded and archived on the day of my birth as if they had already happened. When I received Christ as my Savior, the debt caused by the penalty for my sins was marked “paid in full.” Jesus suffered and paid the penalty for my sin.

But God didn’t stop there. He sent Jesus to the archives to pull my entire sin record and then He obliterated it. God forgives fully and forever, but He doesn’t stop there. He JUSTIFIES….it is “just as if I never sinned.” In fact, just as a former criminal who has had his record expunged is no longer considered a criminal, God justifies me and no longer calls me a sinner. He calls me a saint.

At this point you may be shouting glory or you might be wondering why I’m making such a big deal of this. Here’s why…We often accept, believe, and even praise God for such truths, but we don’t carry the truth to the furthest extent. If we are truly already forgiven, fully and forever, why do we keep asking God for what He’s already given us? Isn’t asking Him for forgiveness basically saying that we don’t believe Him when He says we are fully forgiven? Isn’t continuing to ask Him for forgiveness just like asking God to send Jesus back to the archives to look for and destroy a record that no longer exists?

If God says that I am justified forever (and He does) then that means that in regards to the guilt of my sin (what is charged against me) I will forever be “just as if I’ve never sinned”…and that will not change even on those occasions when I sin (because even my future sins were already archived and subsequently obliterated). So when we ask God to forgive us, we’re asking Him to do something He’s already done…and our request reveals that we don’t believe Him.

Does that mean that God doesn’t see me when I sin? Or worse yet, does it mean that He doesn’t care if I sin? Of course it doesn’t mean that. Sin will still destroy what is beautiful in our lives and prohibit us from living in the abundance of Christ’s life in and through us. When we sin it is still crucial for us to confess that sin to God as the Holy Spirit convicts. But confession is not the same as asking for forgiveness. Confession is simply agreeing with God about my sin. The Holy Spirit’s conviction is not condemnation because my guilt record has been eternally expunged. His conviction is simply convincing me that something is a sin and that it will bring destruction to my life. It is His way of convincing me without condemning me…and He only does that for those who have experienced the expunging of their archive of sin through their relationship with Jesus.

Do we still sin? Yes.

Does God see our sin? Yes, in fact He saw it before we even did it. But He’s not surprised by it, disappointed by it, or unprepared for it because He saw it before He even saved us and fully forgave us.

Does He still charge our sin to our account? Absolutely not. When He looked over my life at the point of my salvation, He scooped up every sin I would ever commit and put them in my record…then He expunged my record. He obliterated it.

Does He still point out my sin to me? Yes, because He loves me and wants me out of the danger of all that sin can do to me. He convicts me without condemning me because there is no longer any condemnation for one who has had the record of their crimes against God expunged.

Praise God for His expunging, obliterating, justifying grace by which I am fully and forever forgiven!

2 comments:

yvonne4christ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
yvonne4christ said...

What an awesome God we have!!! Such a great post thank you for sharing..
In Christ
Yvonne

with Debbie Childers