Forgiveness & No Condemnation

His Forgiveness & Gift of No Condemnation

Exodus 34:5–9 (NKJV): Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

Not only does God want us to know Him, He reveals what and how He wants us to know Him by what He reveals. Our purpose, existence flows from who He is. That is why "Know God" is the first part of our mission - everything builds off of that. We won't know God exhaustively, however, we can know Him accurately.

Rahum & Hesed used together: Mercy - we don't get what we deserve Grace - we do get what we don't deserve. Because God is gracious and because He is merciful - we can count on His forgiveness.

The implications of God's grace and mercy - forgiveness. I want to share 3 points regarding forgiveness of sins in light of God's self-revelation of mercy and grace.

God's currency for forgiveness is blood.

Many of us are trying to purchase forgiveness from God with currency that is not accepted.

It's not works, it's not apologies, it's not even faith - it's blood. Therefore it's nothing I could earn or deserve because I am bankrupt in that dept. My blood is tainted with Sin. And then faith is believing it's because of the blood.

Blood on the doorposts.

Hebrews 9:22 (NKJV): And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

Old system of sacrifice.

1 John 2:1–2 (NKJV): My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

God isn't calculating sins against you.

It is easy for most of us to believe we are forgiven and our debt is clear when we get saved but then man our sin debt goes back up.

God will never be disappointed in you. He doesn't somehow love you less since you have sinned since becoming a Christian - He doesn't have false expectations about you and He isn't keeping a scorecard!

My sin debt wasn't just cancelled for my past but for all eternity!

The very clause and foundation that makes this new covenant work is:

Hebrews 10:16-18 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

The work of the cross, the sacrifice of Jesus was so great! It wiped out our sin debt for eternity, God is not calculating our sins against us. Jesus said it is finished:

Romans 4:7-8 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

The covenant (we cannot stress this too often) was established to deal with sin. To belong to the covenant, in the sense Paul is expounding it, is to be someone whose sins have been dealt with in the manner described in 3:24–26. To have one’s sins forgiven, not reckoned up or calculated against one’s name, is precisely what God intended when he called Abraham in the first place. Among the many glorious things about being a Christian, this will always come near the top of the list: that one’s sins have been forgiven, covered over, not calculated. David celebrated that a thousand years before the events of Calvary, and Easter placed it for all time on a secure foundation. How much more should we celebrate it today.

Hebrews 9:28 "So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

Sin has been completely dealt with for all time. When Jesus comes back it isn't to deal with sin again, it's for the fullness of salvation.

This is why faith in the Gospel is an ongoing event… The message of forgiveness is not dangerous but guilt is dangerous. We forget and don't feel forgiven. when we feel debt, guilt and shame does not lead to a holy future.

Guilt is dangerous. It:

Blinds us from the love of God Perverts the grace of Jesus in the Gospel Ultimately makes self the center.

Guilt creates a merit based system. Makes us want to earn / deserve things… i.e. For example, because of what I have done I am not deserving, or I don't deserve God's blessing because of what I have done.

Or if I feel guilty I will try to do some things to make myself feel better as if I earned or deserved forgiveness/blessing. Some give/tithe motivated by guilt (I know I have been there). Some serve out of a sense to make up for the wrongs they've done… And all of this falls short of the grace of God! This is still all about you - self.

Ultimately guilt is dangerous because it robs you of transformation. It moves the attention from the glorious gospel to self.

Romans 8:1 NIV

This is why His grace and thus forgiveness is so powerful and transformative. God says you could never earn it, you could never deserve it, you could only be forgiven and it's free.

When we get to be with the Lord before the throne no one will be boasting, we will be casting our crowns.

The Gospel is not about you! You aren't in it. Guilt puts the attention off of what He has done and on what you have done! Guilt works to place all of your attention on self instead of the transformative glorious Gospel that it is about His love, grace, mercy, justice.

You aren't the solution to sin and problems, nothing you could do could be the solution. There is but one solution - Jesus and His blood.

Because I am forgiven in Christ, I am:

In Adam I was dead, in Christ I am a New Creation

In Adam I was an heir of sin and death, in Christ I am an heir of the Spirit of life

I am a joint-heir with Christ and an heir of God

In Adam I was God's enemy, in Christ I am God's child

In Christ I am Beloved and Highly Favored

In Adam I was a slave to sin, in Christ I am a slave of righteousness and set free from sin.

In Adam I had no purpose, in Christ I am Spirit filled to fulfill my purpose

In Christ I am Empowered

In Adam I walked in darkness, in Christ I walk in the light and am full of life

In Adam I boasted in self, In Christ my boast is Christ the Lord!

In Adam my confidence was in my accomplishments, in Christ my confidence is His accomplishments

In Adam I was exiled from God's presence, in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence.

In Adam I had no eternal inheritance, in Christ I am blessed with every blessing in heavenly places

In Adam I was condemned, in Christ I am forgiven

In Adam I was stained with sin and blemish, in Christ I am cleansed forevermore!