You Are Completely Forgiven by God
You are completely forgiven by god
…a look at the powerful impact of Jesus’ death
This series is based on my book, Starting Over… finding God’s forgiveness when you find it hard to forgive yourself.
forgiven by God
Much of the book looks at a letter in the Bible, called Hebrews, a fairly complicated letter written to Jewish Christians in the early church. It’s complicated because it requires a fairly in-depth knowledge of the Old Testament.
The author wanted to show Jewish followers of Jesus that Jesus was better than the Old Testament system of animal sacrifice.
It's a bit hard for me to launch into a discussion of Hebrews in a short blog post but the concepts are so good I want to at least try. I hope you get something out of it.
Jesus is better
Hebrews sets Jesus up in stark contrast to the ineffectiveness of the Old Testament religious system that involved priests and sacrifice. In that system you needed to offer sacrifices over and over to pay for your sin.
In contrast to this, Hebrews says that Jesus…
…is able to save completely those who come to God through him, …Such a high priest meets our need…Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. Hebrews 7:25-27
You are completely forgiven
Let’s take a look at these verses.
First it says that Jesus is able to save us completely. That means that God’s forgiveness lacks nothing. It’s total. All-encompassing.
Jesus doesn’t just bring us half way to God. He doesn’t just forgive most of our sin. He forgives us completely.
When Jesus died, he didn’t leave any fragment of sin on the table. He died for every last speck of sin…even the scent of sin that might hang in the air so that when God looks at you, what he sees and even smells about you is perfect.
This is why the Bible refers to Jesus' message as "good news" (gospel). Jesus saved you from every stupid, arrogant, pathetic, immoral, shameful, and embarrassing thing that you and I ever did. He gives us a fresh start every day along with the power to live a new life instead of retreading our old life.
Forgiven ...once and for all
Next, it says that Jesus didn’t have to offer a sacrifice over and over like the priests did. He did it once and for all.
There aren’t many things in life that we do just once. We typically have to do things over and over because nothing lasts forever. We paint our houses every few years. We have to keep repairing our cars and we buy new clothes. Everything on earth wears out and needs replenishing.
But Jesus’ sacrifice was so effective that he only had to do it once. This idea is repeated a little more emphatically in chapter ten.
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices,which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,… Hebrews 10:11,12
It is finished
Jesus sat down, implying that his work was finished.
A priest never sat down until his job was over. So to say that Jesus sat down tells us that his job was over. Jesus’ sacrifice was able to take away our sins when the other sacrifices couldn’t.
I hope you see how this relates to you. The fact that Jesus sacrificed once and sat down means not only has every sin of your past been paid for, but every sin that you’ll ever commit in the future has been paid for as well. You don’t have to ever wonder or worry if your sins are covered.
God never does anything halfway. You are covered...completely.
If you don't feel a need to connect with God or be forgiven for anything, then this is all probably meaningless to you. But if you feel disconnected from God because of your past life then this is very good news.
Question: What is hard to believe about the forgiveness of God?
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