Forgiveness of Sins in Jesus Christ: The Truth

(Colossians 1:11-14)

What does it mean to have forgiveness of sins, and do we really have forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ?

The answer might surprise you, because in truth we don’t just have forgiveness of sins, but in Jesus Christ we have our sins taken away.

That’s right. Our sins are not just forgiven, but they are removed as if they had never happened. And because of that, we receive all of the blessings noted in this section of scripture today.

The Forgiveness of Sins

As we look at these verses we see the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ.

11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:11-14)

In Christ we have been redeemed from this world. We are no longer citizens of the kingdom of this world but citizens of the kingdom of God

This is the inheritance promised to all who come to Christ.

As we begin the journey with Christ we find that sin and the forgiveness of sins starts right at the beginning.

Christ came to save us from sin and to set us free from our sins. These He took away in His death and the shedding of His blood. He became the sacrifice for sin so that we could be forgiven, and more than that, have our sins removed.

We see this in the words of John the Baptist when He said:

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)

So we are first, forgiven and second, we have had our sins taken away. They have been removed from us to make the cleansing complete. If it were forgiveness only, then the sin would remain but without the penalty for sin. But in taking it away there is no remembrance of sin in God’s eyes at all…sin is gone!

Forgiveness of Sins and the Law Contrasted

The simple answer is faith. But faith in what?

Forgiveness and the removal of sin is received through believing what God the Father achieved in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Under the law there was forgiveness of sin through the blood sacrifices. The priests offered blood of goats, bulls and sheep for the purpose of forgiveness of sin and we are told that without blood sins cannot be forgiven.

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22)

But those sacrifices could only offer forgiveness. They could not take away sins permanently because they were not a perfect and sinless sacrifice. They could not make a person perfect.

For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)

But we see that in Christ our sins are TAKEN AWAY. It is not just forgiveness of sins but so much more. And the reason why is because Christ was the perfect sacrifice. A man who had never sinned and yet was punished as a sinner even though He was without spot or blemish from sin in His life.

13 For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:13-14)

The offering of animals under the law gave people a purification of the flesh. That is, they were forgiven their sins and so were purified until the next time they sinned.

But in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we find that the purpose of His sacrifice was not about perfecting the flesh, but perfecting the conscience. The aim of the sacrifice of Christ was so that through Him, people could come to God and be perfected. And this is a required state for all Christians as we are told in the gospel of Matthew.

Therefore you MUST be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48 – my emphasis)

And that is why Christ died: so that we could be perfected in Him. If we are to live with God we MUST be perfect as He is perfect.

You may be thinking it is impossible for a man to be perfect. But you would be wrong. Since Jesus told us we MUST be perfect, then it follows that it MUST be possible. God does not set impossible tasks for His people but rather He helps them achieve what He has set before them. And that includes perfection in Jesus Christ.

Are you a sinner?

The normal response I hear from most Christians is…Yes. Or it is a qualified response along the lines of, “I am a sinner saved by grace.”

But if we have faith in Jesus Christ and we know how the covenant works and we follow it correctly, then both of these responses are incorrect.

The correct answer should be…No! And rather than saying, “I am a sinner saved by grace,” we should say, “I WAS a sinner saved by grace.” Past tense. It is past tense because Jesus has taken away your sins and removed them completely.

How does this all work?

God is a God of logic. Everything He does is logical and makes perfect sense. What we have to do is learn from Him so that we can understand His logic.

However, to call yourself a sinner when you have come to Christ and believed that He has died for your sins is illogical. It simply does not make any sense.

Think about it. If your sins have been taken away through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, how can you be a sinner? Jesus has set you free from sin. So how can you be set free from sin AND be in bondage to sin as a sinner at the same time? It is illogical. It does not make sense.

So whom should you believe? A preacher of the gospel who tells you that you are a sinner, or God who tells you that you are NOT a sinner?

I don’t know about you, but I believe God.

How does forgiveness and removal of sins work?

Quite simply it is a function of baptism. And by baptism I mean full immersion baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as a believing adult. Not infant baptism, or baptism as an initiation into a church, or any of the other false beliefs about baptism.

When we are baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we BELIEVE that we have died and been raised with Him, the we are released from our sins. He gave us His death so that we could die to this world and be raised as new creations, born from above, into the kingdom of God.

We have to believe that from the moment we are baptised into Jesus Christ, that we have died.

Furthermore, not only have we died to sin, but in His death we have been set free from the laws of Moses. Why?

Sin is the breaking of the law. So if we are set free from sin, to ensure we do not sin again, God had to remove the law.

The Bible tells us that the law does not pass through death.

Do you not know, brethren–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only during his life? (Romans 7:1 – my emphasis)

So when we die with Christ and we die to this world by taking on His death as if it were our own, then we also die to the law. So we can no longer break the law (I.e. sin) because the law no longer has any power over us. For those who have faith and believe these things, sin lies dead and the law is removed and no longer has power over us.

And when this takes place, God gives us the free gift of righteousness by faith. When we have faith and believe these things, we must also believe that we are righteous because we have no sin anymore and we cannot sin because we are not under the law. Instead, we seek to do what is right in the sight of God, not because there is a law hanging over our head to condemn us, but because we want to please God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to be perfect as they are perfect.

But how do we get perfect?

It all starts with forgiveness of sins and the complete removal of sin. Then we have the removal of the law so that we can no longer be convicted of sin again. Then the Father gives us the free gift of righteousness by faith when we believe these things to be true.

All of this happens in an instant when we are baptised in water and we have faith in what our baptism really means.

We receive perfection by faith when the above things happen. But this is not the same as perfection by fact.

We are still humans beset with all the weaknesses, lusts, passions and emotions of mankind.

However, once our sins are removed and we can stand righteous before God through faith, then He is prepared to help us achieve true perfection. He helps us to overcome and have the victory over the flesh.

He does this by giving the gift of the Holy Spirit to all who ask Him for the Holy Spirit. Contrary to popular beliefs, you don’t get the Holy Spirit when you first believe, or when you are baptised as some think. You receive the Holy Spirit by asking God for the Spirit and by having hands laid upon you to receive the Holy Spirit. You can read all about these processes in Acts 8 and the first six verses of Acts 19.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to transform us so that we are no longer ruled by the passions of our flesh but we have self-control to stand against all forms of evil. He does this by teaching us to walk in the Spirit. A big part of walking in the Spirit is through receiving the gift of speaking in tongues. This is a powerful gift to help us wen we are weak.

Again, contrary to popular beliefs, the gift of tongues was not for the purpose of spreading the gospel in the early church. Read 1 Corinthians 14 and you will see that no-one, including the person speaking in tongues, can understand what is being said. That is because speaking in tongues is a conversation between the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and God. And this conversation is for our benefit to give us strength to overcome the passions of the flesh when we use the gift for that purpose. (There are a number of purposes of tongues, but this is a big one).

The pathway to perfection in fact is a long one. That is why we walk with Christ. The journey make take our whole life or even longer before we attain perfection by fact.

But while we continue to believe and have faith in what God did in Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us through baptism, we still have righteousness and perfection by faith.

So the forgiveness of sins is just a beginning. It is the starting point for us to come to the fullness of life in Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection are meant to lead us to perfection.

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