Hebrews 9:22 NIV

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

How Is Forgiveness Working For You?

A number of years ago I went whitewater rafting with some friends. We were going through a particularly rough stretch of water when we came upon a bend in the river where a giant boulder stood at the turn. The water was rushing fiercely through the gorge there and despite our river pilot in the back urging us to with our paddles turn the raft to the left, we didn’t make it and we came barreling into the boulder. The force of our impact cause one of the guys at the front of the rubber inflated raft to be catapulted into the air and he went flying ten feet in the air backwards and into the pool of water behind us. At that moment, we watched in shocked disbelief as he shot past us; we were going one way and he another. We were suddenly going on separate journeys, us sliding upon onto a rock and down the river and him soaring through the air and back into the chaos of the swirling caldron of white-water.

All of us are on journeys; some going one way, others a different road. There are those heading for higher education, others not interested in further schooling. Some are building families, others prefer to stay single. Many are trying to save all the money they can, still more looking for ways to spend it. There are those wanting to connect with as many people as they can, others would prefer to be left alone. Some like to take it easy, others would rather work hard. Sometimes we decide what journey we take, other times the journey decides who we are. You might be on a journey of honesty and integrity or a journey of fraud and corruption. Our journeys may be similar or quite different but every one of us is on a journey and eventually it will bring us somewhere.

It seems that the Bible has described a pair of journeys that between which we all must choose. The first is the journey of Sin and the other of Forgiveness. Sin is what the Bible calls the “broad road” and many enter through it. (Matthew 7:13 NIV) The journey of Forgiveness is narrow because few choose to take that path. Sin is your default direction. All are sinners and come short of God’s glory. The result of being sinners is that we die in our sin. The other journey is that of forgiveness. Acts 10: 43 declares that from ancient times, the Lord has been telling us through His prophets that we can enter a journey of forgiven sins. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (NIV) The Bible throughout declares that one day and now it has come to pass, our sins would be taken from us, as the Psalm puts it, “as far away as the east is from the west.” Through Jesus dying on the Cross, that has happened. Paul in Ephesians 1:7 lists two results of Him dying on the Cross. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace… (NIV) We are no longer slaves to sin and sinning and the guilt of our sin is removed. We are now free to live completely in line with God and our lives immersed in Him.

Sin has a devastating effect upon our personality. It leads to confusion, frustration, bitterness, depression, anger, selfishness, pride, discouragement, stress and worry. The sins we commit always damage us and the long range effect cannot be calculated for it is too immense. The sins others commit injure us terribly and we are mangled by both ends of sin. What Christ has done by pouring out His blood on the Cross is begin the work of making us holy and free of the damage sin has caused us. He is “redeeming” us, taking us out of it. Because we have lived in a world of Sin and that is all we know, we are like a frog slowly cooking in a pot of water growing hotter by the hour. We have never known life without the damage of sin and so we are not conscious of all it has done to us. The Bible says that what Sin brings us is death…psychological death, social death, emotional death, mental death and eventually physical death. The miracle of all time is that God decided to put an end to the destruction of Sin by placing all the sin of the world upon His Son Jesus Christ and letting the Sin itself die in His crucified body.

This of course may be “old hat” to you. You understand the Cross and God’s work with Sin but here is something that must be considered profoundly in regard to sin forgiveness. Jesus declared that our determination to forgive sins is linked to God’s generosity in forgiving our sins. This is underscored in the model prayer He taught us during the Sermon on the Mount but given naked expression in Matthew 6:14-15. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (NIV) There is an undeniable link between our forgiveness of the sins of others and God’s forgiveness of our sins. Often it is thought that if we don’t forgive the sins committed against us, then God won’t forgive our sins. But then, what is the point of Christ dying on the cross if not to put away our sins...if it is really dependent on what we do?

Paul cements this relationship between God’s forgiveness and ours in Colossians 3: 13. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (NIV) It is established by Christ and the Apostle Paul that all Christians are forgiving people. They put up with the quirks and difficult behaviors of those in their circles and they forgive or “show grace” as it literally is, to those who treat them badly. Now the Greek which Paul used to give us this teaching is a bit tricky. Literally it reads, “As also the Lord showed grace to you, so also you”. To show grace to someone is a bit broader than to forgive the sins of that person but it includes it. The primary teaching here is that as Christ has done for us, the same is to flow out of us to others. If that does not happen, then we have to ask what is wrong with us.

There is a most fascinating teaching found in Hebrews 9:22ff. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness...But now he (Jesus) has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself…so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (NIV) Paul here declares that forgiveness of sins is not possible without the shedding of blood. That means that I cannot, even if I wished, forgive a single sin of any person, regardless of how good or bad I view that one—good or bad. It is beyond the scope of my ability! So why does Christ and Paul insist we forgive sins? There is only one explanation. Through Christ’s death on the Cross, He brought us into His redeeming work. He made us the freer of slaves.

Christ’s poured out blood upon the Cross completely altered the moral landscape of the world. Every sin, before that, was irrevocable…it could not be removed and had to be punished. If you sin against me, whether it seems important to us or insignificant, it was a deadly sin and we could not change its impact upon the one who sinned. Paul stated this clearly. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a NIV) Before our Lord’s blood shedding, I could not help you out of your sins against me, even if I wanted to do so. I could not wave it off and say “no big deal” because it wasn’t for me to decide. God’s law said the sin brought death and that was the end of the matter. But with Christ’s death and His loving forgiveness through it, I now can forgive the sins of anyone that has hurt me or offended me. I am joined with Christ through His poured out blood in the work of forgiveness.

Consider this one aspect of sin. Each sin has a devastating impact upon the personality. One sin wrecked Adam and Eve and if you multiply that ten thousand times, there are layers and layers of damage in each of us. Forgiveness is God’s way of healing us and making us whole. Somehow, God uses us to bring forgiveness to those we encounter and it is no small privilege or responsibility. Every forgiven sin is a removed sin. What does this mean? Forgiveness as a Biblical teaching is not me accepting whatever you have done wrong to me and saying, “No big deal!” Forgiveness is the removal of sin in an actual way. The word Jesus used in saying we are to forgive the sins or “transgressions” of others means “to put away”. In other words, we do something with the sin, at least as far as it is connected to us. Of course, that is only possible because of the pouring out of Christ’s blood.

Here is a crazy analogy on the part we play forgiving sins. When Jonah began his journey running away from God, the Lord did not let him go very far before he sent a gigantic storm to get his attention. It was a blazing light of chaos for everyone on board the ship…not just Jonah. The only way the storm could be shut off, it was discovered, was to throw Jonah overboard. Jonah knew it and he convinced the sailors it was so. But no one wanted to actually toss Jonah into the raging sea…they felt badly about it. We are like that with forgiveness. We don’t want to let go of the sin. We prefer to nurse it, coddle it, relive it and cling to it. God though tells us to toss it away. Forgive it. Meanwhile, for the sailors and for us, the storm continues to rage. The damage of sin keeps increasing as we hold onto it. Only, when by the power of the blood of Christ, we toss the sin away does God stop the storm it creates. Jonah, the one who caused the storm, also began a new journey when he was thrown into the sea. He was in fact rescued and given a new life by being tossed overboard. When we forgive the sins of someone, we in a way rescue that person. We give him or her a fresh start. A forgiven sin stops being an active sin; it is a crucified sin and is no longer able to damage either the one who forgives it or the one who has had the sin forgiven. It is a new journey when a sin is forgiven…a journey of peace within and without. We can either refuse to forgive a sin and continue being damaged by it, or forgive it, and be set free from it. Somehow, in a way only God can explain, when we forgive a sin we join Christ in His work on the Cross and by His blood, keep the sin from hurting us or others anymore.