"Accepting The Gift Of Forgiveness”
(Romans 5:12-17)
I. Introduction.
A. Have you every played the “time game?” It goes like this:
you sin; you feel guilty; you ask God to forgive you.
1. Depending upon the nature, and magnitude, of the
sin, you allow some time to pass before you ask
God for anything again. On the unconscious level,
this is a way of punishing yourself, and showing
God how sincerely sorry you are. On the conscious
level, you want to show respect for God. Yes, God
is forgiving, but you need to give it time before you
approach Him with another request.
2. Many people nod their heads in agreement when
someone talks about the unconditional love of God,
and His desire to restore fellowship with sinful
people. But, when the question is asked: “Do you
think that God has really forgiven you?”, they reply,
“I hope so.” Or, maybe, “I guess we really won’t
know until judgment.”
B. Until we are sure and confident about God’s forgiveness,
until we settle this issue once and for all in our minds, two
things will always be true:
1. First, we will never have much confidence when we
pray to God for forgiveness. There will always be
the lingering thought that He holds something
against us.
2. Second, we will put others on the same level we put
ourselves. If we must wait, or do something more,
to receive God’s forgiveness, surely other people
must do so also.
3. Believers who function in such a “payback” way of
thinking about themselves and God, are like one
who gets a new car as a gift and refuses to drive it.
People may remark about how beautiful the car is;
you keep it clean; you read the owner’s manual to
familiarize yourself with everything about the car,
but you never use it, or take advantage of what it
provides. The car is yours, but you might as well
not have it.
4. So it is with us if we believe God forgives, but don’t
accept the gift of that forgiveness.
C. Among the things God desires for us is the complete
assurance that we can be wholly forgiven of our sins. God
has given us instructions on how to have such assurance
and how to accept the gift. Ours is the tendency to
complicate matters, made additions to what God has told
us, redefine the terms of accepting the gift.
II. The Bottom Line.
A. The Old Testament Levitical laws identified how an
individual became the beneficiary of God’s offer of
atonement. This lay in the sacrificial system (Read
Leviticus 1:1-4).
1. A sacrifice had to be offered that met certain
standards.
2. By “. . .[putting] his hand on the head of the
burnt offering, . . .” he identified with the dying
animal, and was promised atonement for his sins.
B. Is there, then, a New Testament equivalent to “. . .[putting]
his hand on the head of the burnt offering . . .?” How can
we know we have atonement for our sins?
C. The equivalent for New Testament Christians is faith. Or,
maybe a better word is trust. To make God’s gift of
forgiveness our’s, we must trust God’s word that our sins
are forgiven through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. We
cannot, must not, abandon faith for works, God’s
forgiveness as opposed to our own means of atoning for
sin. It’s not what we do, but what we accept, that makes
the difference.
1. We often act as if a demonstration of sorrow earns
us forgiveness. It may make us feel better, but self-
punishment has nothing to do with God’s
willingness to forgive, or forgiveness in general.
2. Every time we work out some “trade-off” with God
regarding our sins, we abandon His way for our
way.
D. To God, there is no difference between the sins we have
committed, are committing, or will commit. To trust in
God’s way of forgiveness is to live forgiven. It’s like
having a checking account with unlimited funds. If that’s
so, we don’t have to ask someone else to pay our debts for
us, and it’s impossible to incur debts as long as we write
checks and continue to draw on the account.
1. This is really what Paul says in Romans 5. Read on
to verses 20 and 21 (READ).
2. There is always more grace – more forgiveness
from God – than there is sin. That atonement
comes through “. . .Jesus Christ our Lord.”
3. To work out our own system of atonement is to say
that God’s grace is not sufficient for our sins, that
He needs our help in dealing with our sins.
E. Our natural inclination is toward a work ethic to receive
forgiveness. We find it difficult not to do something on our
behalf.
1. We can give lip service to concepts like
“forgiveness comes through faith”, and, “we
can do nothing to merit forgiveness,” but in
practical, everyday living, we often revert to a
works-plus-faith system.
2. The biblical concept of faith goes beyond belief –
it is a matter of trust. It’s not “I hope,” but “I
know.”
3. Trust is defined as: “assured reliance on some
person or thing; a confident dependence on the
character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or
something.” Trust means personal involvement.
It’s the difference between saying: “I know the
bridge can hold my weight”, and actually walking
out on the bridge.
4. The biblical concept of faith is our “bottom line”,
the way to forgiveness. It assumes a relationship of
dependence and reliance. Take the definition of
trust and apply it to forgiveness: “the assured
reliance on God; a confident dependence on the
character, ability, strength, and truth of God and His
promises.”
5. The object of biblical faith, as applied to
forgiveness, is always Jesus Christ:
a. “But as many as received Him [Christ], to
them He gave the right [authority] to
become children of God, to those who
believe in His name” (John 1:12).
b. “Now when He [Christ] was in
Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast,
many believed in His name when they saw
the signs which He did” (John 2:23).
c. Jesus’ own statement about Himself,
John 14:6: “. . .I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me.” Jesus parallels believing in
Him with believing in God (John 14:1).
Then, He says that no one comes to the
Father except through Him.
F. The New Testament writers call us to place our trust in
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the promise
of eternal life. They ask people to rely upon, depend upon,
Christ as the way to God, the Father and, thus, forgiveness
of sins.
1. This means a personal commitment of dependency
for forgiveness.
2. This means a personal involvement to lay claim to
the promises of Jesus Christ.
III. Conclusion.
A. God’s gift of forgiveness must be accepted on an individual
basis. It is given for everyone, but it does not apply to our
sins if we do not personally put our trust in Christ.
B. Knowing the truth is not enough. Forgiveness comes
through trusting Christ. Complete forgiveness is available,
if we are willing to receive it.
C. Here are some practical suggestions for accepting the gift
of forgiveness:
1. First, settle in your mind that your sins can be, and
are, forgiven. They are no longer a barrier to
fellowship with God.
2. Second, think of past failures as reminders of God’s
grace. Satan wants us to believe we are unworthy
to be a child of God, and uses memories of past
failures as proofs of this. But, remember too, Christ
died for that very reason, because of our
unworthiness and our inability to atone for our
failures. Remember God’s grace.
D. The truth combats Satan’s lies. Trust – faith – knows we’re
forgiven. Accept the gift.