Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
When God forgives a sin does He forget it? Or does He dredge it up out of the depths of the sea where He promised He would dump it?
A verse in Amos 8 seems to say that He will recycle all our sins and hold them all against us at last if we don't "overcome" (vs. 7). And we know that there must come a judgment before Jesus can come the second time, and some people's names will be blotted out of the Book of Life, who at one time served God (for example, Judas Iscariot--he was baptized, preached, even worked miracles). Once forgiven, are we forever forgiven?
God has also said several times, "I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions ..., and will not remember thy sins," and "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more" (Isa. 43:25; Heb. 8:12). Jesus told a parable of the man who owed 10,000 talents, begged for mercy, got it, was forgiven, then demanded a poor man pay him 100 measly "pence." Then his lord sent him to prison until he paid the original debt (Matt. 18:23-35). Is our original debt of sin hanging over our heads all the time even after we have "confessed" and been "forgiven?
(a) The word "forgive" means the sin is not merely pardoned but is taken away out of the heart. That's true: if you aretruly forgiven you won't do it again!
(b) Christ did pay the full penalty for all our sins. No question.
(c) God does not put us under double jeopardy.
(d) Why then will the lost be lost? They did not receive the true forgiveness that God gave them in Christ. The man who was forgiven 10,000 talents did not receive his lord's spirit of forgiveness. He was as selfish after he was "forgiven" as he was before.
(e) The lost at last in the final judgment do not die for their sins which were indeed forgiven; God kept his word. They will perish because of their unbelief, their refusal to receive the spirit of forgiveness; they have crucified Christ "afresh" (Heb. 6:6). For that, there can be no forgiveness.
(f) They will be "Esau" all over again, who had the birthright but "despised" it and "sold" it.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 20, 2001.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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