What is to follow is a treatise concerning the Forgiveness of Sins, which will be posted a little at a time. With this first post I wish to make some general remarks about forgiveness that I intend to fully develop and substantiate in the coming days. Your comments, questions, and objections are welcomed, for I submit this series for your approval.
Opening Statements on the Forgiveness of Sins:
"Forgiveness of Sins" is not an eternal consideration of God; only a temporal one. When one believes in Jesus for eternal life he does not receive an eternal forgiveness of sins. Furthermore, it is incorrect to state that there is a "forensic" or “legal” forgiveness, which is an illegitimate confusing of categories, as we shall see.
The forgiveness of sins is precisely this: The one made alive by Christ is forgiven of all the sins that he has ever committed in the past (2 Peter 1:9) and has the privilege, right, and opportunity to come to the Father, through the name of Jesus Christ, to have any and all future sins forgiven (1 John 1:9).
Forgiveness of sins is a temporal issue. It deals with our harmony and fellowship with God in the here and now. Many distinct and varied blessings to the regenerate flow from the magnanimous death of Christ. Some are eternal in nature, and some are benefits that are specifically designed for us in our pilgrimage here on earth.
People are not careful enough, in my estimation, when reading and studying the word of God, to make critical distinctions in the Bible. Justification does not equal forgiveness of sins does not equal eternal life, etc. They are all distinct, even if they all come in the salvific package. Eternal life is God’s divine life, in which all things necessary to prepare one to live with God forever resides. Justification is a legal declaration from God and the imputation of perfect righteousness, which springs from eternal life. And forgiveness of sins remits all past sins at the time of regeneration, and provides the basis upon which all future sins may be let go.
Forgiveness of Sins is Not Legal in its Purview. It is Personal:
Forgiveness is not a legal issue! Think about it for a second. A judge is not in the business of dispensing forgiveness! He hands down judgments of guilty or not guilty; he acquits or condemns; he makes pronouncements based on the law. A judge does not concern himself with matters of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a PERSONAL issue between two or more parties.
Of course a judge can forgive; he just does not do so in a context of jurisprudence. Let’s say that you stole the judge's car and were in front of him for that charge. He could find you guilty and then come down off the bench, take off his robe, and upon your contrition offer you forgiveness. Forgiveness is a personal issue.
In all the occurrences of the 2 Greek words aphiemi (to forgive) and aphesis (forgiveness) resides not a single passage necessitating the doctrine of eternal forgiveness of sins; but many clearly denoting temporal forgiveness for the benefit of restoring or continuing fellowship with God.
Get your thinking started here. Realize that forgiveness is not judicial, but relational. I mean, comon, shouldn’t this go without saying? This is a reasonable distinction.
Then ask yourself, "Why would God have to forgive a man temporally for what has already been forgiven eternally, if what was given to him at the moment of salvation is eternal forgiveness?" This consideration alone ought to jar you a little!
A Few Reasons Why this Study is Important:
Jesus, when evangelizing, almost used exclusively the term "eternal life". For sure, forgiveness of sins is given when one believes in Jesus for eternal life (see Peter's preaching to Cornelius in Acts 10:43), but it is past sins that are in view (see 2 Peter 1:9); and also in view is the ability to be forgiven of future sins by confessing them to the Father (1 John 1:9).
Irrevocable eternal life is the main concern and priority in the saving message of both Jesus and His apostles. Through the message of life, unending life, resurrection and physical immortality, and eternal participation in the world to come is offered (and by corollary, experience of the eternal life in abundance and ever increasing measure in the life now). In evangelism, we are to prefer the use of eternal life, rather than eternal forgiveness of sins, because there is no clear passage offering an eternal forgiveness of sins by grace through faith. As a matter of fact, our eternal standing with God and our eternal destiny DOES NOT DEPEND A WIT UPON FORGIVENESS, as we shall see in the posts to come.
Like Jesus, presenting eternal life should be the primary focus of our evangelism.
Some Parting Words to this Installment:
Future forgiveness of sins is not granted like an indulgence giving assurance that all future, temporal, personal fellowship with God will be maintained despite what one's future actions and attitudes may be. And an all-encompassing eternal decree of forgiveness is both confusing to thought (eg. a man being God-forgiven and God-unforgiven of the same sin at the same time) and completely unnecessary to eternal felicity (see below).
An objection may be stated that apart from some sense of eternal forgiveness of sins that one could not be assured of heaven upon death. We must realize that forgiveness of sins was designed to be a benefit solely in time. When eternity comes for the believer, eternal life (God's kind of life, necessary if one is to live with God) and justification (God’s imputed righteousness) are operative. These considerations, as we shall see, alone assure heaven. The forgiveness of sins (which is always temporal) does not.
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