Are You Forgiven?

From: The Gospel Messenger: Volume 4 (1889)

THIS is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15¹⁵This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)).

Reader, are you a sinner? For Jesus the Saviour says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17¹⁷When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:17)). Pardon is for the guilty (Jer. 33:8⁸And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me. (Jeremiah 33:8)). Forgiveness is for sinners (Luke 7:37, 47³⁷And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, (Luke 7:37)
⁴⁷Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. (Luke 7:47)). Salvation is for the lost (Luke 19:10¹⁰For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)). Justification is for the ungodly (Rom. 4:5⁵But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). Blessed news!

Dear friend, are you forgiven? Are you happy?

There was lately a man, over eighty years of age, living in a country place in the north of England, who, being taken ill, began to be anxious about his soul. His sins came up before him like a cloud, and he was unhappy. As he became increasingly so, his wife and friends thought his mind was affected. She advised him to put his head out of the chamber window, and open his mouth wide, that he might get the air, for she said it was air he wanted. He did so, but was no better. Then she said she would take him round the garden to get the air, and this was tried without effect. Hill misery increased. His soul was weighed down with the burden of his sins. He felt himself a sinner in the presence of God. But he remembered being told in his youth, that it was written in the Bible, that if we confessed our sins to God, we should be forgiven. And in his distress, with honest simplicity, he knelt down in his room and said, “O God, I cannot read, and my wife cannot read, but I am a great sinner, and I have been a great sinner, and I have been told that it says in Thy Book that if we confess our sins to Thee, we shall be forgiven, and so I have come to be forgiven” (1 John 1:9⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)). And peace flowed into his soul. He was happy in the sense of the forgiveness of his sins.

A few days afterward he said to his wife: “Wife, God has forgiven me my sins, and I should like to forgive everybody, if thou dost not mind.” She agreed. Now they kept a huckster’s shop, and mantelpiece and doors were marked in chalk with crosses and strokes indicating sums of money owing to them by customers. So the wife took a wet dishcloth and wiped out all the marks. And the old man says, “I am so happy now, since God has forgiven me, and I have forgiven everybody.”

Dear friend, allow me to ask you again in all affection, Are you forgiven? Are you happy?

What about your sins? For God says, “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Eccl. 7:20²⁰For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)). God cannot accept your thoughts about yourself. You must accept His. But He is able, He is ready, He is willing to forgive you, if (needy, guilty, helpless as you are) you trust His blessed Son, whose precious blood cleanses from all sin the one who believes on Him (1 John 1:7⁷But 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. (1 John 1:7)). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).

Jesus died! What for? Sins (1 Cor. 15:3³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3)). Where is He now? At the right hand of God in heaven (Mark 16:19¹⁹So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. (Mark 16:19)). And where are the sins which He bare on His own body on the tree? (1 Peter 2:24²⁴Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24).) Gone forever! (Heb. 9:26²⁶For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Hebrews 9:26).) So that God can say of those who believe on Him, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17¹⁷And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:17)).

After the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead, He said to His disciples, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among, all nations” (Luke 24:46,47⁴⁶And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: ⁴⁷And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46‑47)). And since he has ascended up into heaven, the Holy Ghost has come down and testified by His servant Paul, “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts. 13:38, 39).

J. G.

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