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God's Gift of Forgiveness

Are their rules in your house? Certainly! I can only imagine a house without rules would be full of confusion. Those living in that house would not know where they are going and what they are doing from one moment to the next.

Even if we get to make the rules or only are told the rules, we must obey those rules. They bring order and peace into our lives because we know what to expect. When the rules are not followed there are consequences; there can also be forgiveness.

Forgiveness is excusing a mistake or offense. It is to excuse the disobeying of the rules whether we meant to disobey or only forgot. Sin and evil came into the world because God's rules were not obeyed. Even after this consequence, God wanted us to know about forgiveness. He wanted us to know that he would excuse all our disobedience.

God wants us to know that this forgiveness is most important of all to him. In the New Testament book of Acts, which is the story of the beginning Christian church, forgiveness is mentioned five times. In Acts, the apostles told many people that God was forgiving them through Jesus.

Jesus himself told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven. He did this before he healed the man showing us that forgiveness of sins is more important than any physical healing.

Why does God excuse or "forgive" us? For the answers, let's look at two passages from God's Word.

John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

The second passage we will look at are the words of Jesus as told by the Apostle Paul when telling of the his call to ministry.

Acts 26:15, 17
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," the Lord replied...

"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins..."

These passages show us that He has done this because He loved us and He wanted us to be His. We receive forgiveness through Jesus and all this is accomplished.

In Paul's words,

Colossians 1:13-14
"For He (God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

We obey our house rules and we obey God's rules for they give us peace and order in our lives. But Jesus has shown us that most important of all, we have forgiveness of our sins through Christ. God helps us to live with the circumstances the world sends our way because He has made us His.