Forgiveness Under Grace Today

Some three thousand years ago, and about one thousand years before Christ, the Psalmist said:

³ If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? ⁴ But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Psalm 130:3-4 (KJV)

“We have… the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

The climax of Paul’s first recorded sermon is reached in Verses 38 and 39 of Acts 13, where he declares:

“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man (Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

In Romans Chapter 3 the Apostle Paul declares that God has set forth Christ as a satisfaction for man’s sin and that redemption is obtained by faith in “His blood,” or His payment for sin at Calvary, entirely apart from works, religious or otherwise (Rom. 3:21-26 below).

Rom 5:1 [Christ] was delivered for our offences (sins) and was raised again for our justification. THEREFORE, BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, we have peace with god through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Forgiveness Under Paul's “Gospel of the Grace of God”

The dispensation “of Law,” given to Israel through Moses, continued even while Jesus of Nazareth was in His earthy ministry (Matt 5:18). Jesus told His disciples, in order to be forgiven you must FIRST forgive.

“Forgive, and (then) ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37)

“Therefore If Any Man Be In Christ, He Is A NEW CREATURE (CREATION): Old Things Are Passed Away; Behold, All Things Are Become New.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

In the case of my own salvation, in November of 1968 I visited a church in New Jersey. My intention was to protect my wife and keep her from becoming involved with what my family used to refer to as "religious holy rollers.”

The Apostle Paul wrote: "We… are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:11). There is much that we all do for our own sake, for the sake of our children, our loved ones or others, but the real test of the believer's love for the Lord is what he does "for Jesus' sake."

Under the dispensation "of Law." which continued even during Jesus' earthy ministry to Israel (Matt 5:18), our Lord told His disciples that to be forgiven they must FIRST forgive:

Three times in Paul's letter to the Romans we read that Christ died for us, that is, in our place - for us.

5:6: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

5:8: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Most of us know we have some defects but we innately hate to admit we are "sinners." But only admitted sinners can be forgiven of their sins and saved through faith in Christ alone.

 “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (I Tim. 1:15).