What Is Forgiveness? Part 2

The heart of the Christian rejoices in his salvation. He knows that he has a gracious forgiveness which harmonizes with the justice of the Judge, the wrath of the Sovereign, and the love of the Father. It is not the purpose of God to leave the chosen ones in hopeless uncertainty. Therefore, we have the eternal covenant of the God of peace, the blood of the great Shepherd of the sheep, and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit who gives life. “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20, 21 NASB).

Those who are born of the Spirit (John 3:8) have a permanent Teacher who keeps God and His eternal verities before them. “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth….And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (I John 2:20, 21, 27 NASB). Christians soon learn that God’s wisdom is always on a collision course with the world’s wisdom. Some additional information needs to be given on verse 27—“no need for anyone to teach you.” There are some things that we just know instinctively. We do not have to be taught these things. Even animals know some things instinctively. When a person is given grace, he instinctively knows many things without being taught these things by anyone else. Believers have nothing but what they have received from Christ. When a person has been born of the Spirit and realizes what has happened, the experience of that new birth includes the essence of all truth. The unction for knowing is a privilege for all saints—every child of God. John wrote to the little children because they knew, not because they did not know. “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin [subjunctive mood]. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And by this we know [aorist tense] that we have come to know [perfect tense] Him, if we keep His commandments” (I John 1:1-3 NASB). That is assuring those who have assurance. God is always doing this for us.

The following statements from various authors in a publication entitled “THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR” are examples of assuring our assurance on the subject of death: “Instead of soul sleep, death is the arousing of the soul from her drowsiness to heavenly vitality.” “What sleep is to waking, death is to resurrection.” “Resurrection is ushering in a mightier power of life.” “We should fear life with all its sinfulness within and without, not death.” “Despair died when Christ died, and hope rose when He arose.” “The sin in us dies when we depart. How could Paul think it better if he would sink into an unconscious sleep? We would be better to remain in the flesh if when we depart we have no knowledge of Christ.” “Absence implies separation; presence implies conjunction.” “Immortality is not a dubious opinion. It is a positive conviction.” “We will never be without a vehicle, that is, a covering, clothed upon.” “Frequent thought of our resurrection is requisite to spirituality of mind. If Christ brings departed saints with Him, they are with Him now. Christ spoke of Lazarus’ death as sleep, but He never referred to His own death as sleep. That was not sleep but death in all its awfulness. He felt the sting of death—its victory, yielded to it, and bore it. He endured the desolation of death and the darkness of death. He dreaded it. He could not say, Where is thy sting and grave where is thy victory?” “Eternal is an adjective of quality, not duration. It exceeds exceedingly.”

Believers sin daily, and their daily subjective experience with sin finds its remedy in the one objective reality at Calvary. The more the Christian learns, the more sinful he becomes in his own eyes. “For by one offering He [Jesus Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified….Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Heb. 10:14, 18 NASB).

The prophet Zechariah spoke of a fountain that was historically opened at Calvary. He prophesied, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity” (Zech. 13:1 NASB). The fountain which was opened at Calvary will not be experienced by the remnant of national Israel until just before Christ’s second advent (Rom. 11; Rev. 7). The grace of repentance, which is the fruit of the opened fountain, will awaken the remnant to the meaning of cleansing by the blood of the Son of God.

The cleansing by Christ’s blood takes us to the great statement by John the Baptist who was Christ’s forerunner. “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me. And I did not recognize Him, but in order that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John bore witness saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and He remained upon Him. And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34 NASB).

The word “sin” may be considered as a state of depravity, a transgression of law, or legal obligation to punishment. However, the last sense alone can apply to John 1:29. Legally, sin must be punished, and God must punish it. He did punish it, or Christians would not be rejoicing today for their salvation. Luke said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10 NASB). Who comes to whom? Sinners do not come to Jesus Christ for salvation because they do not have the “will” to come for a spiritual change. Christ said to the religious Jews, “And you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:40 NASB). Coming to Christ is the reaction of God’s gracious act of imparting life. Therefore, coming to Christ IS salvation (regeneration), not a means to deliverance. The greater percentage of those “who come to Christ” come for healing, prosperity, and entertainment of their “flesh.”

Jesus Christ was legally obligated to take away the sin of God’s chosen ones, whom the Father gave to Him in the eternal covenant of grace (Heb. 13:20, 21). Therefore, in John 1:29, the Son of God did not “offer to take away,” but He is taking away (present active participle of airo, meaning to take away or remove) the sin of the world (kosmos, used in the sense of a collection of a particular people into a combined total). This particular meaning of kosmos is seen in II Corinthians 5:19: “…God was in Christ reconciling the world [kosmos] to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:19 NASB). This is not talking about the world in its entirety, not all of humanity. Examine the context.

The Father’s knowledge is infinite (Ps. 147:5). Thus, God sees future, present, and past all at once. Therefore, God has a fixed and settled purpose which is one. There is no succession in His knowledge. Technically, there is no more “fore”knowledge than “after”knowledge. However, God does accommodate Himself to man’s method of communication for our benefit. This is another manifestation of condescension. How else could the Infinite communicate with the finite?

The following is from God’s perspective: “…written [perfect passive indicative of grapho, meaning “it stands written”] from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain [perfect passive participle of sphadzo, meaning to slaughter, kill, or slay].…Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:8, 10 NASB). Two very important things are stated in these verses—(1) Christ has been eternally slain in God’s purpose, and (2) the names of the chosen ones have been eternally written.

Those chosen by the Father are eternally secure. The word “eternal” means permanent, unending, no beginning or ending, always existing, an eternal now, timeless, duration without beginning or ending, imperishable, or indestructible. Here in time we have eternal existence as contrasted with life. From God’s perspective (ability to see all things at once), the blood of Christ shed at Calvary needed no distinction between retrospect and prospect. However, the chosen ones living in time are forced to make a distinction between the elect born before the death of Jesus Christ and those born subsequent to Christ’s death.

The inspired Scriptures give the sheep of God’s pasture the answer to the distinction between the Old Testament saints before Calvary, and the saints subsequent to the cross of Jesus Christ. The sins of the Old Testament saints were rolled forward by their sacrifices. It was the death of Christ at Calvary that put away their sins. Propitiation is the “mercy seat” of the Old Testament. It presupposes the displeasure of God because of sin. The doctrine of propitiation means that Christ propitiated the wrath of God and rendered God propitious to the elect—God’s people by Divine choice. This does not mean there was a conflict between the Persons of the Godhead—as some assume. The Son did not win over the incensed Father to clemency and love. Propitiation did not cause love, but love caused the propitiation (John 3:16). In the Hebrew, propitiation means to cover. In this covering, three things are to be noted: (1) It is sin that is covered. (2) The effect of covering is cleansing and forgiveness. (3) It is before the LORD that both the covering and its effect take place (Lev. 4:35; 10:17; 16:30). Propitiation is not a turning of wrath into love, but it is the provision of God’s eternal love. The apostle John said, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10 NASB).

Paul put a capstone on the Biblical answer for the past sins of the Old Testament saints. Christ’s blood is retroactive in paying for the past sins of the Old Testament saints. Paul said, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets [referring to the Old Testament], even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:21-26 NASB).

Since Christ’s blood is retroactive in paying for the past sins of the Old Testament saints, what does Christ’s blood do for the future sins of Christians subsequent to justification at Calvary and regeneration? Jesus Christ is the Lamb who has been slain (perfect passive participle of sphadzo). The perfect tense looks at both ends of the action. The action is not going on but the results are continuing. Both the punctiliar (point action) and linear (length continuing) are combined in the perfect tense. Therefore, having been chosen by God the Father in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), given grace in Christ from eternity (II Tim. 1:9), having been loved and kept in Christ (Jude 1), having been effectually called by the means of the gospel (II Thess. 2:14), having our names permanently written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 13:8), and finishing everything He started (Phil. 1:6), proves beyond doubt that salvation is completely of God. This assures your assurance.

The future sins of Christians, as well as their past sins, are provided for in the redemptive work of Christ at Calvary. Our position assures all true believers that sins related to condition (not position) have been provided for by the same Fountain (prophesied by Zechariah to the Jews) that was opened judicially at Calvary. Therefore, John said, “And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses [present active indicative of katharidzo, meaning to cleanse, make clean or purify] us from all sin” (I John 1:5-7 NASB).

The blood of Jesus Christ that was shed at Calvary two thousand years ago “is cleansing” in a practical sense because all the elect were judicially cleansed at Calvary. The present tense is viewed as the imperfect tense of present time. It just keeps on cleansing. That’s the imperfect aspect of it. The practical cleansing does not mean there is a reapplication of blood each time the believer sins, but there is a continual cleansing because of the one sacrifice made at Calvary (Heb. 10:10-14; John 13:10; Eph. 5:26).