Attributes of God
If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, o Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.” (Psalms 130:2,3) In God, there is forgiveness; forgiveness for all men. “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Joel 2:32) If men truly have free will then forgiveness and salvation is offered of all men.
Forgiveness is Atonement. It is to absolve an offense or grant a pardon or remission of an offense. Before Christ, an offering of an animal was given for atonement because God requires a blood sacrifice. They had to do this repeatedly as a symbol, a reminder, of their sins and as a reminder of the coming messiah. The lamb however is not a perfect sacrifice because it does not have the ability to sin. Christ is the perfect sacrifice because he is 100% free from sin, like the lamb, because he is 100% God and does not struggle with the sinful nature. He also is 100% man and has the ability to sin and the ability to provide blood as a sacrifice, so his blood is acceptable payment for our transgressions.
Your sins were taken upon Christ at the cross. At that point, those who would receive Christ, received forgiveness for their sins. The removal of your sins means that you will appear like Christ to the Father. God knew before creation who would choose him, and he determined that those who would choose him would be changed to be like his son. In order to be like Christ we have to be free from our sin. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)
God had to provide a system for forgiveness because he knew that we would not be able to be like him. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Because we struggle with a sin nature, we are imperfect and therefore unable to follow God’s rules.
Forgiveness comes when you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior. All past sins are forgiven at that point. Acts: 10:43 says, “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." Afterward, when you sin, you confess it and those sins are forgiven as well. Your sins are cast away from you. They are, in a sense, forgotten by God. This does not mean that He no longer knows of it, but that he will not hold you accountable for that sin. All those who do not accept Christ, carry their own sin with them and will be held accountable for that sin on the day of judgment. That is why Christ said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Through Jesus Christ we receive forgiveness, but this also gives us insight into the attributes of the Father. God foresaw the need for forgiveness so he knew the need to send his son from the beginning of time. This is why the coming of the Messiah has been prophesied from the beginning. God’s desire for us to be like his son is so strong that he was willing to send his son into suffering for our forgiveness, which is necessary for our salvation.
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