James H. Cagle
“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” Psalm 32: 5 KJV).
To forgive is to show mercy and pardon, overlook or remit an offense or debt. When someone forgives us for some debt, we are set free from the responsibility of that debt. But the debt does not disappear; someone else takes responsibility for it. Jesus took responsibility for our sin debt and paid it at Calvary.
Every person is born a sinner, already condemned by God (Jn. 3: 18). Those that do not trust Christ as their Savior will be sentenced to eternity in Hell.
Sin is lack of conformity to or the transgression of the law of God (1 Jn. 3: 4; 5: 17). A transgression is crossing over the line and violating God’s law.
We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3: 9, 23). There is no “perfect correspondence by us to God’s perfection whereby we may be at peace with Him.” We have all missed the mark or failed to reach the standard of God, which is perfect obedience to His law and the penalty for our sin is death.
But God is merciful and forgiving; and worked so that we may be reconciled back to Him through the work of redemption accomplished by His Son Jesus Christ at Calvary.
Before a person will repent of and confess their sins and have them forgiven by God, they must acknowledge their sins. God is a forgiving God, but He can only forgive us when we repent on the merits of Jesus’ sacrifice of death on Calvary (Acts 20: 21).
To be forgiven we must acknowledge our sins, and that there is evil in our lives. We must not hide, or attempt to deny or excuse our sin to escape its guilt. We must confess our sin to God for it’s His law we broke and His forgiveness we seek.
God has promised to forgive our sins if we confess (repent of) our sins (1 Jn. 1: 9). Then the barrier is removed for fellowship with God. Salvation from sin through forgiveness of sin is a transaction in which one is brought into conscious communion with God.
Even after getting saved we sin and must seek God’s forgiveness in order to restore our fellowship with Him. God is always ready to forgive if we repent.
