What’s Holding Back Your Joy? It just might be…misunderstanding forgiveness!
About a year ago, I wrote about sin in the life of a believer. I said that callousness to sin can steal joy from the Christian life. As I finished that article, I encouraged you to be involved with a church where you can be held accountable, encouraged, challenged, and corrected. This is almost always helpful for a believer and is necessary as scripture plainly teaches us to be connected with other believers.
There is another improper response to sin. This response can keep a person from accomplishing anything for God for years. It can cause people to live in fear. It can cause people to have a cheap view of grace. It can reduce God, in people’s eyes, to a heavenly ATM machine that is simply obligated to dispense blessing upon demand. It can cause people to look down on others or to see themselves as so unworthy they can’t even function. What is this? You ask. Simply, it is misunderstanding the forgiveness we have been given.
In 1 John 1:8-2:2, John tells us first about sin and the believer and unpacks just what has happened with that sin. John explains that, even though we still struggle with sin, this does not mean we are not forgiven. In 1:8-9, he says that anyone that says they are not sinning is deceiving themselves and does not have a living, vital connection with the Truth (John 14:6). He reminds us that, even though we are struggling with sin, we can confess our sins and God is just and faithful to forgive those sins. He is just in that this is the same treatment He affords all of those that belong to Him. He is faithful meaning that we can trust, believe, and act upon the belief we will be forgiven. We don’t have to be paralyzed from serving God because we are worried about our struggles. We continue to resist the temptation to sin, keep short accounts with God when we fail and press on to living for Him more and more.
In addition to not allowing our present struggles to keep us from living for God, we also do not have to let our past keep us down either. John says, in verse 10, if say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar because He has said everyone has sinned and is falling short of the grace of God (Romans 3:23). What does that mean in context? Everyone has sinned and everyone that has repented, and trusted Christ as Lord also gets the benefit of knowing Him as Savior. We are forgiven! LET ME SAY THAT LOUDER! WE ARE F-O-R-G-I-V-E-N!! Have you stolen? You are forgiven. Murdered? Forgiven. Lied? Forgiven. Cheated? Forgiven. Fill in the blank _________________? Forgiven. Our past, while it may still have some consequences physically, governmentally, emotionally, or relationally is forgiven and the consequences spiritually have been satisfied. You might be thinking that I simply don’t understand what YOU have done. That is true, but I don’t say this on my authority, but on the authority of the One that does know. If you are in Christ, you are forgiven. Your past does not have to hold you back from serving Him.
Lastly, John even goes so far as to remind us that even our future sin has been dealt with and will be because we have an Advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ, God the Son! Satan, the accuser of the brethren, cannot stand against the advocation of God the Son, Who is called alongside us to defend us. To illustrate this further, John reminds us of the function Jesus served on the cross. He was the propitiation for our sins. This means He has satisfied the wrath of God. He has met the requirement. He has made us good with God. (That is what the term literally means.) Since God does not repent or change His mind (Numbers 23:19), we can count on this being true. Because of this, we need not worry that we will somehow mess up to the point that God abandons us.
As we strive to live for Him daily, we can rest assured we are secure. We do not need to live in such fear of the future that we are paralyzed. We do not need to live in such regret of the past that we are paralyzed. We do not need to live in such trepidation in our present that we are paralyzed because Jesus has paid the price for our sins once and for all!