“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Acts 26:18
I would like to point your attention to the word
“forgiveness” once again. I have preached and written on this subject many
times, because the greatest gift God gives the lost sinner is the forgiveness
of their sins. This extremely gracious act on God’s part is a true blessing to
all saved. This scripture says that God opened our eyes, God turned our
sinfully dead darkness to light, and God turned us from Satan’s blinding power,
so that we lost sinners could see Jesus Christ as our Saviour, forgiving all
our sins through His blood. God did all this so that He could “sanctify us”
which means - to make us holy, or to purify us from our sins -. What a blessing
to us, more than we will ever realize in this lifetime, only in heaven we as children
will ever understand this blessing in its fullest. Now, please understand this
act of grace and mercy is only for the saved in Jesus Christ, the lost soul
will never be forgiven one single sin, they will never experience what
forgiveness is, they continue to live in darkness, destine for the eternal
fires of hell. The lost has their hearts, eyes, and ears, darkened by Satan and
he does not allow them to hear or see eternal forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
However, the Christian, those whom God has brought light, should be able to see
and understand this gracious act of forgiveness. Think about it, we, who were
lost, sinful, blind, and our spirits were dead, have been quickened from
Satan’s power of darkness. However, I must serve this warning, since the
Christian can see God’s word and have a limited understanding of His word, we
must abide in His word. God said, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (25) If we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:16, 25 As
Christians, as recipients of God’s grace and mercy, as those who have been
cleansed or made holy by the blood of Jesus, receiving a complete pardon or
forgiveness from all our sins, we are to walk in that holiness in this life
given by God. Please understand this, if we are walking in God’s word, we will
never fulfill the lust of the flesh, because the lust of the flesh is ungodly.
God said of Christians, “And that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luke
24:47 and the Lord went farther with our responsibility with these words,
“And ye are witnesses of these things.” Verse 48 Meaning we are to
“testify” these things to the world, not in word only but in our life actions. I
believe, since forgiveness is the believer’s greatest gift in Jesus Christ blood,
it should be the believer’s greatest asset in the way we live our life. Think
on this, there is not one sin God will not forgive the saved, the only
unpardonable or unforgivable sin, is the sin of unbelief in the gift of the
Holy Spirit which is forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ. This is “a sin
unto death” 1 John 5:16 – 19 but not for the believer, not for one who has
all their sins forgiven. I also believe that as Christians there should not be
any sins that we cannot forgive other believers. Our hearts should be
gracious because God is gracious to us. I see a lot of Christians that have
a hard time forgiving other Christians, but how would we feel if God would
refuse to forgive even one of our sins? We would all be in hell for
eternity, salvation would be for nothing and Jesus would have died in vain.
Christian, we cannot find ourselves with unforgiving spirits because being
unforgiving would be a sin, not on the sinner but yours, for not walking in the
Spirit of God’s word. Jesus said, "Then came Peter to him, and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven
times? (22) Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but,
Until seventy times seven." Matthew 18:21 – 22 Therefore, if we
fail to forgive one another over sin, then we become the sinner. This is
talking about believers, Christians, those who have been cleansed by the blood
of the Lamb. The lost has no forgiveness, God has never pardoned their sins and
therefore they will die and go to hells eternal and unquenchable flames, not
one single sin has God ever forgiven a lost soul. This shows us what a blessing
it is to be saved. We see these words in Luke 17:3 - 4 "Take heed
to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he
repent, forgive him. (4) And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day,
and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt
forgive him." However, we also see in our time Christians often fail
to rebuke one another, and if they do the responsible party gets angry, and it
seems that a lot of Christians just find it hard to forgive one another, going
through life angry at other Christians, how sad. Please allow me to also
say this, if a Christian sins against you please tell them, it is your
responsibility to tell them. Second, if someone tells you please do not commit
another sin by being angry with them, they are following God’s word. Third, if
your told of a sin then ask for forgiveness, and fourth, forgive the sin and
move on as though it never happened. This is a revolving cycle “seventy time
seventy”. As Christians we ought to be gracious to each other as God has been
gracious to us, if we fail to do so then the sin is ours. Thank you Lord for
forgiveness. God is our example, please let us all walk in the steps of His Son.
