I was standing in a worship service and heard these statements coming form the pulpit: “pray that God forgives you any sins you committed during the week. He is merciful and gracious. He will forgive us and reconcile us”. This threw me off balance a bit but in all honesty, that wasn’t the first time and I know it won’t be the last.
Mixed messages
In fact, all over the world and in many churches, church leaders make this a prayer topic. Following the premise that even though you are born again and have accepted the finished work of Christ, you still have to confess your sins before you can enter God’s presence. This bothers me a bit as it makes the whole salvation plan a bit confusing. It makes me always ask myself: “are we born again or not? I’m I in the presence of God or not? I’m I truly forgiven?” This is all very perplexing.
Let me put it this way. When I was a sinner fallen from the grace of God and not under the will of God, I could not go into His presence. I was literally forbidden and I understood that. Later, I accepted God’s forgiveness through Christ’s finished work on the cross. Now, I can enter and live in His presence. I am a son of God and thus can be found in His house anytime. God, our Father, says I’m forgiven for all my sins without restrictions to any specific time or period, all means all.
That notwithstanding, when I hear that I should pray for forgiveness to allow God to hear my other prayers, I can’t help but sense that for some reason when I make a mistake, God throws me out of His presence and welcomes me when I confess that mistake. It’s almost as if God did not really forgive me at all in the first place. Hence, my question: “are we truly forgiven?”
If this has been your concern for a while, I want you to know that I have been there and know what it feels like. Don’t worry, God’s totally got you and I’m going to explain why.
Sin has no place with God.
When you live in sin because you have not encountered Christ and entered into a personal relationship with Him, you have no inheritance with God. It’s that simple. I’m not even going to get all intellectual or delve into the technicalities. On the contrary, when you accept Christ through His finished work on the cross, you enter into a relationship with Him and become eligible to actually live in God’s presence. Also, you get to enjoy all His goodness.
Many leaders tend to justify why such prayer points, as previously stated, are raised. You’ll hear all kinds of explanation of which some of them, though not right, make sense. The constant back and forth obscures God’s intention and creates more confusion.
Imagine a sinner enters the assembly of saints and hears the leader of the saints tell them to pray for forgiveness. To the sinner, that’s a valid prayer but I’m sure even he will wonder why saints are not already forgiven.
You see, the main reason for forgiveness is to remove guilt and before God, our Father, we have always been guilty of just one thing, sin. Once sin is removed, we are not guilty of anything else. Hence, no need for further forgiveness. We literally enter into a love-based relationship in which God is always good. Let me repeat this, once the guilt of sin is removed when you receive Christ, you’re then marked by the Holy Spirit and open to enjoy God’s goodness forever.
So, what happens when we make a mistake or do something wrong? You’re probably thinking about this and waiting for the answer. Let’s get to it then!
Forever forgiven!
When God forgives sin, it’s complete, He doesn’t have to do it over and over again. The blood of Jesus washes us free of sin and its guilt thereof once and for all time. With that established, let’s look at the progression of a relationship. When we are in a relationship with someone we love, we tend to learn about them and try to make them happy by not hurting them. Do you agree? It is the same with God. It’s not that complicated!
The good thing with God is that He already knows us very well and He can never get it wrong with us, but we do. Simply because we do not know Him completely. Therefore whenever we go wrong, He gently reminds us to correct our path so we do not suffer any disadvantages with regards to a specific situation. This process is called repentance, a change in the way of thinking by agreeing with God. It’s as easy as I did not know before, but now I do. I’ll keep that in mind so as to not repeat it again.
Once you are God’s, He won’t push you out because you got it wrong. Making a mistake as a born again-Holy Spirit-sealed Christian is just that—a mistake. Like in any loving relationship, you acknowledge your mistake, repent and move on!
Will Jesus be happy?
In Ghana, littering is a serious problem. When I was much younger, I used to do that sometimes until one day I was convicted in my heart to stop. How did this happen? The Holy Spirit just asked: “will Jesus be happy if He was standing right here?” My answer was no. That was the end of it. My behavior was corrected. I was a child of God before that and remained a son after that. I did not have to confess my “sin” for forgiveness because like I’ve said, it wasn’t necessarily: I was already forgiven! Matter of fact, the Holy Spirit bothered to bring it to my attention because I was already in God’s presence. I didn’t have to carry guilt that wasn’t there! With His correction, I avoided having to be caught and perhaps face some form of penalty for littering. Advantage, Ferdinand!
You are truly forgiven.
From now onwards, if you’re born again, don’t let anyone push unto you the very guilt you were saved from. Hold on to the forgiveness of Christ and enjoy being a guiltless child of God. Jesus is always saying, “I’m not condemning you”. Believe that!
Leaders, be clear on your message in this regard. Don’t ask us to pray for forgiveness of sins so God can hear our prayers or do something for us when we are already His children. Which loving father tells his child to confess his sin before he listens or feeds them?
We can always pray for our Father, through the Holy Spirit, to reveal to us the areas of our life where we are not in agreement with God. The Holy Spirit, for His part, will always gently and lovingly oblige when we are going wrong so we repent in order not to fall prey to any traps of Satan. Satan always sets traps and waits for us to fall into them so he can tell us we’re guilty of sin when we’re not.
God is good all the time and even when we’re wrong, He still loves us more and wants us to draw even closer to Him. Lean into God’s unconditional love for you and allow the freedom from the guilt of sin to help you live life to its fullest!