We began looking at Romans 4 and discussing some of the
great men of the Old Testament that are great examples of righteousness by
faith. Among these are Abraham and David. In our previous lesson we discussed a
bit about Abraham and today we shall look at David.
The story of David is a unique one because unlike Abraham David
lived at a time when the Law of Moses had already been given. He therefore was
supposed to be under it. And yet we see that David clearly understands God’s
heart and intent for faith righteousness rather than works righteousness. Not
only does he prophesy about a time that this righteousness would come but even
when he falls into serious sin for which the penalty is death he doesn’t even
offer a sacrifice. Instead he makes this amazing statement;
“For thou desirest not
sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the
walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar.” Psa51:16-19
The apostle Paul while discussing the issue of faith
righteousness in his letter to the Romans knows that David will be a good
example to illustrate and demonstrate this point. If any of the religious people
had a problem with his argument concerning Abraham, they would find it very
difficult to contest David’s example. Everybody knew about his great sin,
everybody also knew about the mercy God had extended towards him during a time
when he should have been killed. There was no way to explain this under law. David
must have understood something about the heart of God. We now know it as the
forbearance of God as we discussed previously. Let us look at this a bit more;
“Even as David also describeth the blessedness
of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Rom4:6-8
Note1: There are basically three
promises in these scriptures that David prophesies concerning the New Testament
believer. This blessedness that He speaks about wasn’t unto him. He was able to
see prophetically a future man whom God would bless with all these things. This
new man is the Christian.
David was
able to see into the future a man (people) to whom God would impute
righteousness without them working to earn it or them deserving it. They wouldn’t
do anything or obey any laws to obtain this righteousness. God would just give
it to them. This is the ‘righteousness
without law’ as the scripture calls it. God’s righteousness.
Secondly
David prophesied that God would forgive their iniquities and cover (take away)
their sins. Not some of their sins, He would take away all their sins. We see
that through Jesus God has already fulfilled this. Jesus has taken away our
sins as far as the east is from the west. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jn1:29
Thirdly David
saw an even more wonderful promise. God
will not impute sin unto this man. This is an amazing truth in the
Bible and one of the most unbelieved truths. There are very few Christians who
believe this truth or even try to imagine it. I know that the first time I even
entertained the thought of it I just couldn’t bring myself to accept it. I
thought that it must be heresy. But the scripture says it more than once and
here it is; GOD IS NOT IMPUTING OUR SINS UNTO US!!! That means that God is not
recording my sins in some book. It means that He is not keeping a record of the
sins I commit. Let us examine this;
Note2: ‘Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.’ Rom4:8
The
Greek word that is translated ‘will not’
(ou mē) is what is called an emphatic negative and it means ‘not ever’ or in
our language today ‘never ever’. This is the strongest possible way of saying
that something will never happen again. It will never be done. Never.
Those
who receive forgiveness for their sins will never ever have their sins held
against them. God will never ever hold your sins against you. It will never
happen. Ever!
David does
not say that God ‘did not impute your sins’ or ‘does not impute your sins’ but ‘will
not impute sin’ implying that it’s not just a past thing. It means that in future
when you sin God ‘will not’ impute your sin. God has dealt with all our sins
past, present and even future sins that we haven’t committed yet. Jesus’ sacrificial
offering was once for all sins for all time. (Heb. 10:10, 14).
Here are a few scriptures that
say the same thing;
“But this is the promise that I
will make to Israel after those days," declares the LORD: "I will put
my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I
will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will each person teach
his neighbors or his relatives by saying, 'Know the LORD.' All of them, from
the least important to the most important, will know me," declares the
LORD, "because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold
their sins against them.” Jer31:33-34 GW
“For this is the covenant that I
will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put
my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know
me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Heb8:10-12
God promises
that He will be merciful to us and our sins and iniquities He will remember no
more. Why won’t He remember them? Because He has taken them away from us as far
as the East is from the West. Because of Jesus, God no longer imputes our sins unto us.
“To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them…”2Cor5:19
Note3: Most of us believe that the
sins we committed before getting born again were forgiven at salvation, but any
sins that are committed after that time are not forgiven until they are
repented and forgiveness is asked. There is a popular saying that God can’t
forgive a sin unless you confess it. This can’t be true. When God forgave the
world through Christ, we hadn’t asked for forgiveness yet!
All our sins, past, present, and
future were forgiven us through the one offering of Jesus. Jesus took away all
sins. That includes the ones we haven’t committed yet!
I know
you may be asking how God can forgive a sin before you commit it. I am not sure either. But I know that He must have done it
honestly!
God is
an eternal God and the sacrifice of Jesus was an eternal sacrifice. It was for
all time, for all sins and for all people. The bible is clear on this.
Let me
say this in another way, If God can't
forgive a sin before you commit it, then none of us were forgiven because Jesus
only died once, more than 2,000 years ago, before we had committed any sins.
We didn’t even exist! All our sins were future sins at the time that Jesus died
on the Cross and provided forgiveness to the world.
We have
to understand that the Cross is the point at which God forgave us. This is
because that is where Jesus shed His blood. God didn’t forgive us at the moment
when we became born again. He had already forgiven us. It was us who received
this forgiveness at that point.
There is
only one thing that brings forgiveness of sins and that thing is not
confession. It is blood. The blood of Jesus. When that blood was shed, God
forgave the world of all sins. Look at these scriptures;
“As Moses' Teachings tell us,
blood was used to cleanse almost everything, because if no blood is shed, no
sins can be forgiven.” Heb9:22 GW
“Indeed, under the law almost
everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness of sins.” Heb9:22 ESV
“In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace” Eph1:7
“In whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Col1:14
“Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood…” Heb13:12
“But if we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1Jn1:7
“And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the
kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood” Rev1:5
We can therefore conclude from all these scriptures that God forgave all our sins at the Cross when Jesus shed His
blood for us and said that ‘it is
finished’
Why then
1 John 1:9 which says, "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
First I
think we need to look at what this verse is not saying. This verse is not saying
that if we do not confess a sin God will not forgive it. If we had to confess
every sin committed after our born-again experience in order to maintain our
salvation, no one would ever make it. What if we forgot to confess some sin?
That puts the burden of salvation back on us.
Let me
make it more personal to us; Are you sure you have confessed all the sins that
you have ever committed? What if there is a sin you haven’t confessed, does
that mean that you will go to hell?
When we
are born again it is our spirit that gets born again and is made perfect. Sin
will never be imputed to our born-again spirit.
Our spirit has been sanctified
and perfected (made holy) forever.
“By his will we have
been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Heb10:10 NET
“For by one offering
he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.” Heb10:14NET
“But you have come to
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads
of angels, to the assembly and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled
in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous,
who have been made perfect” Heb12:22-23NET
Our born again spirit
cannot sin;
“Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God.” 1Jn3:9
Our spirit is sealed
from sin forever.
“In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise” Eph1:13
“And grieve not the
holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph4:30
However our soul is not saved. That part of us that contains
our personality, the mind, the emotions and feelings and the will. This part needs
to be renewed to reflect the perfection of the spirit man. This is where sin
can affect us and ruin us if we don’t confess it and repent. In fact the
scripture speaks of the salvation of our souls as an ongoing process right now
by the grace of God.
“Wherefore lay apart all
filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” Jam1:21
“Whom having not seen, ye love;
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:”
1Pet1:8-10
When we
sin we open ourselves up to the devil to destroy us and afflict our souls and
bodies as the scripture says;
“Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether
of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Rom. 6:16
How do
we get the devil out once he has gotten in? We confess it and God brings that
forgiveness that is already a reality in our born-again spirit out into the 'soulish' realm and the devil has no right to stay.
God has provided for us
confession of sins as a way to receive the forgiveness that He has already
provided through the Cross of Christ. It is like an avenue or a means by which we are
able to receive forgiveness for specific issues and sins that afflict us.
It is
why the verse says He is ‘faithful and
just to forgive us…’ instead of saying that He is merciful and kind to
forgive us. Why does it say ‘faithful and
just’? Because through the Cross He has already forgiven us. Therefore He is
faithful to His work on the Cross. He is also a just God that will not refuse
to forgive us for a sin that He already punished Jesus for. God is a just God. He
already punished Jesus for our sins and forgave us. He will not change this, as
far as He knows ‘it is finished’
This is
the blessedness that David saw and wished to enjoy. It is the blessedness that
belongs to us today. If you have been born again, this is your blessedness. God
is not imputing your sins unto you. This is faith righteousness. Be free today.
“Stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage.” Gal5:1
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