The Forgiveness of Sins-Positional, Experiential and Perfective

At the moment of justification, when a person makes the non-meritorious decision to believe in Christ for salvation, they appropriate the forgiveness of their sins-past, present and future in a positional sense, experiential and perfective sense, respectively.

By “positional,” I mean that God views the believer as being forgiven by Him the moment He declared them justified through faith in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.

It means that all their sins-past, present and future have been forgiven by Him.

It means that God the Father has accepted them forever and that there is no sin during their lifetime which will keep them from spending all of eternity with Him.

God forgiving the believer in a “positional” sense means:

(1) This is what God has done for the church age believer as a result of their faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

(2) This is God’s viewpoint of the church age believer.

(3) It sets up the potential to experience the forgiveness of these sins in time.

(4) It provides the believer with the guarantee of experiencing the forgiveness of their sins for all of eternity.

Ephesians 1:7 In Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) we have redemption through His blood (metaphor for our Lord’s spiritual and physical deaths), the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. (NASB95)

Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (NASB95)

Colossians 1:14 In union with whom, we, as an eternal spiritual truth, are experiencing the redemption, specifically the forgiveness of our sins. (My translation)

Colossians 2:11 Furthermore, because of your faith in Him, each one of you was circumcised by means of a circumcision which was not performed by human beings, by means of the removal of your body composed of that which is flesh, by means of this circumcision which is specifically your identification with the Christ. 12 Specifically each one of you were buried with Him by means of the baptism which is essential and superior. Correspondingly, by means of which each one of you were raised together with Him by means of your faith in God the Father’s exertion of power who caused Him to be raised out from the dead ones. 13 In other words, even though each one of you were spiritually dead ones because of your transgressions, specifically because of the uncircumcision which is your flesh, He caused each one of you to be made alive together with Him. Simultaneously for His own glory, He graciously forgave each one of our transgressions for the benefit of each one of us. (My translation)

By “experiential,” I mean that the believer can experience the forgiveness sins after their justification by confessing their sins to the Father.

They will not experience the forgiveness of their sins if they refuse to confess their sins to the Father.

So this stage is only a potential.

1 John 1:9 If any of us does, at any time confess our sins, He is characterized as being faithful as well as just to forgive these sins for the benefit of each one of us, in other words, to purify each one of us from each and every unrighteous thought, word or action. (My translation)

By “perfective,” I mean that the believer will experience the forgiveness of sins throughout all of eternity in a resurrection body.

Every believer is guaranteed this and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them through their union and identification with His Son Jesus Christ.

The unbeliever does not appropriate the forgiveness of sins because they have not placed their trust in Christ for salvation.

The unbeliever’s sins will never be brought up at the Great White Throne Judgment of unbelievers since Christ paid the penalty for their sins with His death on the cross.

They will be judged according to their relative human self-righteous deeds, which do not measure up to the absolute perfect righteousness of Christ (Rev. 20:11-15).

In the same way that the unbeliever’s sins are not brought up at the Great White Throne so the believer’s sins will never be brought up at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church since the believer’s personal sins were also paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.

The believer’s confession of their sins after justification demonstrates that they “agree” with God about their sin.

When their thoughts, words and actions are not agreement with the will of the Father, they are confessing that these thoughts, words or actions are sin.

This confession demonstrates that the believer is in “agreement” with God in that they are thinking, speaking or acting in accordance with the will of the Father and thus His holy standards, which rejects all sin.

Fellowship with God is a moment-by-moment experience, thus the moment the believer commits any mental, verbal or overt act of sin, they have lost their fellowship with God, who is holy, i.e. perfect in character and integrity.

However, the moment they confess these sins, they are at that moment restored to fellowship with God because of the merits of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

This purifies the believer’s conscience, which is defiled by committing personal sin against God (cf. Heb. 9:13-14; James 4:8).

To maintain this fellowship once it has been restored through the confession of sin demands that the believer obey the Holy Spirit who speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.

When they are doing this, they are obeying the commands of Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16.

Ephesians 5:18 And do not permit yourselves to get into the habit of being drunk with wine because that is non-sensical behavior, but rather permit yourselves on a habitual basis to be influenced by means of the Spirit. (My translation)

Colossians 3:16 The teaching originating from and about the one and only Christ must continue to exist in a state of dwelling abundantly among each and every one of you. Each of you must execute this command by continuing to make it your habit of providing instruction, specifically by providing instruction for one another with regards to proper conduct. Each of you must provide this instruction by means of a wisdom which is absolute, by means of psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Each of you must execute the command by continuing to make it your habit of singing with gratitude with your entire being for the benefit of God the Father. (My translation)

Therefore, once the confession of sin has taken place the believer needs to maintain and sustain their fellowship with God by obeying the Father’s will, which the Holy Spirit reveals to the believer through the communication of the Word of God.

Obeying the Word of Truth, which is inspired by the Spirit and reveals the Father’s will, is the means by which the believer maintains and sustains their fellowship with God.