Am I Completely Forgiven?
What does the Bible say?
You’d be surprised how hard it is to convince some people that God has forgiven all their sins – past, present, and future.
“Sure, I believe God loved me enough to send his Son to rescue me, but has he forgiven all my sins? I’m not so sure.”
When I started Escape to Reality 15 years ago, I wrote about forgiveness every other week because so many people just couldn’t see it. They had all these crazy ideas.
“God will only forgive me if I forgive others.”
“God’s forgiveness comes in installments.”
“Forgiveness is like a debit card you can draw upon, but you gotta maintain short accounts with God.”
“God can’t forgive me because I have committed the unforgivable sin.”
Phew.
Jesus said, “All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men” (Mark 3:28), but some people, including many Christians, refuse to believe him. They add all sorts of qualifiers and conditions.
Which is a bit like calling Jesus a liar.
The front door to grace
Forgiveness is like the front door to the House of Grace. If you don’t receive the full and complete forgiveness of your heavenly Father, you’ll have trouble receiving anything.
“But I’ve done bad things.” See the cross. Your sins are there.
“I sinned this morning.” The love of God keeps no record of wrongs. Fix your eyes on Jesus and receive his grace to sin no more.
“But what about this verse…”
There are many scriptures in the Bible that seem to say contradictory things about forgiveness.
Seem to, but don’t.
Here’s a picture that’s worth 1000 blog posts:
The cross changed everything.
In the old law-keeping covenant, the forgiveness of God was something to earn. But we don’t live under that covenant. We live under the new covenant of grace. Forgiveness, along with all God’s blessings, is a gift to receive and in Christ you have it.
See the difference? Before the cross, the message was, “All sins will be forgiven” (Mark 3:28). After the cross, the message became, “Proclaim forgiveness of sins in all nations” (Luke 24:47).
Read the Bible through the lens of the cross and you will see that forgiveness is not something God does, it’s something he’s done!
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Escape to Reality 
AMEN!!!!!! Praying Ephesians 1-17-23 and Ephesians 3 14-21 constantly for us all.
Grazie dall’Italia 🙌🏻
Yes I’m often tormented by past mistakes. I have to constantly affirm that I’m forgiven by quoting scripture.
Thanks for reminding us that God never condemns. The only one who was qualified to throw stones (at the adultress) says in effect: “I am not a stone throwing God!”
So easy to understand but, for so many so hard to accept. Thank you Paul.
Can you address the prodigal son, those who were son’s but became dead but became alive once more when returning to the father? This may be a mouthful, but can you address these verses as well?…
Please check out my online Grace Commentary.
Pastor Paul, I want to put together a Bible study on eternal security. There are some believers that I do interact with on a different social media platform and their position is that you can be born again and then you can fall away starting with not reading your Bible, not going to church, and then eventually you walk away from the faith. I don’t see that in scripture that people throw their faith in the garbage or return the gift. I know you’re very well versed in in this, do you have any notes or references from escape to reality that I could utilized in preparing for a study? Thanks so much for your time to read my email and God bless.
I have written many articles on the subject of eternal security. I also have a list of every scripture guaranteeing the believer’s security. I trust this helps.
Thank you brother.
Hey, Paul ! I finally understand I do believe what really makes us fit for the kingdom of God. It’s not forgiveness of sins. That was accomplished on the cross for everyone for all time. But we must be individually reconciled to God by receiving His Righteousness—and that Righteousnees is the same Righteousness that Jesus said must surpass that of the Pharisees, and the same Righteousness that Abraham received , and the same Righteousness that is described in Romams:10:9-10. Thank you for this post and for providing links to other posts. It was from reading comments there that I read Johnny Henry’s sp? . That has freed me in a way that I so needed : )
Paul: great article. I minister to inmates from our curriculum. There are times I spend 4-5 sessions on trying to get across to inmates that God has forgiven them from their past, present, and future sins. It’s hard for them to believe. One of the biggest challenges is forgiving themselves. Once they see they’ve been forgiven, they find it easier to understand the word. Thx for your article.
Vic
Love this, great synthesis of your past articles, and fantastic reminders. We have to preach the Gospel to ourselves as much as anyone else.
I am so thankful for His forgiveness. It is his grace for that I have righteousness in ihm!
Thank You Lord!