February 6, 2025 | By Jay Ashbaucher
Here are two truths about God’s forgiveness. The first is “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). The second is “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). The truth of these two verses can be stated thus, “By God’s gracious gift to us, and by the death of Jesus on the cross, and by being ‘in Him’ and having a life-saving relationship with Christ, we are forgiven for our sins.” The God who tells us this truth is the God who created all things, including us, and this God does not lie (Titus 1:2). Not only are we forgiven, but in Romans 6:12-14 God says we can be freed from the sins that control us, and we can live the way God created us to live.
However, there is in this world an enemy of God who is called “the Satan”, which means “the adversary”. Jesus calls Him the devil and says, “he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan will attack our minds and try to destroy our belief in God’s forgiveness by tempting us to doubt and not be sure we are forgiven. Satan will also try to get us to live a defeated life by using our belief in God’s forgiveness as an excuse not to have to change our sinful ways. Those two lies are: “God can’t forgive a sinner like you”, and “You can’t change”. Following is a brief description of the two lies Satan uses to try to get us to live defeated lives.
We all say that Jesus died so we can be forgiven for our sins, but do we really believe we are forgiven? Satan is an accuser of Christians. He reminds us of our sins so that we focus on them, and then he accuses us of not being a good Christian. We are tempted to believe his lie because we see the truth of what he is saying. We think, “It’s true, I am a terrible sinner”. Satan wants to get us focused on our past sins and on the daily wrongs we wish we could overcome. We may be struggling with drinking, or gambling, or pornography, or sexual misbehaviors, or anger, or how selfish we are, or gossip, or how we are hurting people we love. We probably sin some way every day allowing Satan to use this truth to say to us, “See what kind of person you are? Does God really forgive you?” Satan tries to get us to doubt God. Maybe we keep doing the same sin over and over and we can’t overcome it, and Satan tempts us to doubt God by saying something like, “God, how can you keep forgiving me?” We plead with God, “please forgive me”, or “I hope he forgives me”. Instead of focusing on our sins, we need to counter Satan’s lies and accusations. If we sin, we immediately confess it and say, “Thank you Lord, you paid for my sin, I am forgiven.” Every time we sin or are tempted to put ourselves down because of our sin, we need to say, “Thank you Jesus that you paid for my sin, I am forgiven!” Believe that you are forgiven so you can get on with your life and not have your sins bother you and get you down. That is one way Satan tries to get us to fall. If I doubt God, and agree with Satan that “I’m no good”, we can fall into depression and lose the positive and encouraging things God says about us.
Another problem we can have with forgiveness is that we believe we are forgiven for our sins, but we don’t take sin seriously. We take God’s forgiveness for granted by using it as a way to excuse our sin instead of doing something about it? It’s like in a marriage when a spouse says, “I sorry I hurt you, forgive me”. Then, he or she does it again and says “I’m sorry.” Then they do the same thing again, and again, until the other finally says, “You keep being sorry, when are you going to do something about it?” Satan doesn’t want us to take sin seriously. He feeds our mind with another lie. He says “you can’t change. You are only a human and being human means you’re going to sin.” So we excuse our sins by saying, “I’m only human, I can’t change.” Don’t believe Satan’s lie. You can change. God gives us everything we need to change and shows us how to live like Jesus. The truth is that Jesus is the true human, and as we become more like him, we become what it means to be human. Our humanness is a fallen humanness. But we are a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). We don’t have to continue being who we were as sinners (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:1-10). Now we are restored and put on the path to become like Jesus. He is our role model for what a true human is like. We will not have sin-free bodies until Jesus comes and completes our salvation, but we keep working with God toward becoming like Jesus until he comes.
Therefore, let’s not let Satan accuse us and cause us to be unsure of our forgiveness. Jesus paid for my sin; I am forgiven, no matter what! “Thank you Lord! Thank you Lord, I am forgiven.” Also, let’s not let Satan cause us to take sin for granted and excuse it by saying we are only human and can’t help it. I am forgiven by God, and I can and will change and stop sinning. Jesus and the Spirit of God live in me and God is helping me to change. When we see Jesus and the meaning of his death, we can and will never be the same again. So proclaim his death for you and know you are forgiven. Die to yourself and your sin and focus on living to please Him. “Lord, you redeemed my life to free me from sin. I don’t want to keep hurting people around me, and myself, and Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for being patient and gentle with me. You have given me a new heart that wants to live your ways. I can’t keep doing the same thing over and over. Teach me how to change, Lord. With your help, I can and will be changed. Your completion of my salvation is a sure thing, for whatever you have promised believers in Jesus will happen (Philippians 1:6).
