Q: Thank you so much for your reply back to my question, in reference to the question it helped clarify a lot of questions that I needed answered, also I wanted to bring to your attention that although I'm sure this fact does not correct their situation. She has confided in me that their is no longer any intimacy in fact their has not been such for "many, many" years. I was told by her that she made the decision to [abstain] from sex after she came into the knowledge of God's disapproval. Could you please explain more detailed about what it means to be forgiven for your (Past,Present and Future sin's) would the term (Future Sin) relate to this situation? Thank you in advance and God Bless.
A: You are very welcome. I am glad that something I said helped you out and answered some questions for you. It is encouraging to hear that the woman in this situation is starting to realize the inconsistency between living in an adulterous relationship and her faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord is not going to lead a person into a life of sin. As for your question, understanding the forgiveness issue is probably the key to growing as a Christian. To begin, let me ask you a question. How many of our sins were in the future when Jesus Christ died on the cross? Unless you are two thousand years old, the only answer is that "all of them" were in the future when He died. In fact, all of us were born into this world forgiven. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8)." One thing that I want to stress is the fact that the death of Jesus Christ does not save anybody. Many false doctrines have arisen from a misunderstanding of the Gospel and in particularly the issue of forgiveness. For many, their understanding of the Gospel is to say that Jesus died for their sins and if they believe in that then a person is saved. While that is not wrong, it is incomplete. There is an entire portion of the Gospel that is missing.
When God created Adam the Bible says that "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7)." The life that God breathed into Adam was the very life of God, His Spirit. Adam became "alive" because the life of God was indwelling Him. However, God gave Adam a warning. God said to Adam, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17)." Not long afterward Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Yet, we do not see Adam die, at least not in the manner in which we have grown accustomed to observing. Adam went on to live 930 years and had many children with Eve. So what kind of death did Adam experience when he ate the forbidden fruit? Adam died spiritually. The "breath of life," the life of God, was removed from Adam at that moment. Adam was physically alive to the world, but spiritually dead to God in sin.
This all happened prior to Adam and Eve having any children. Therefore, all of their children and, subsequently, all of mankind are born into this world spiritually dead to God in sin. You will often here people say that we are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). While that is true in the sense of the human race, it is not true when it comes to our spiritual condition before God. Genesis 5:3 says, "When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth." Notice how it says that Seth was born in the image and likeness of Adam, not God. You have Adam, created in the image of God, and Seth, born in the image of Adam. Seth, as well as all mankind, are not born with the "breath of life" indwelling us. Thankfully, in His love, God put a plan in place in which to restore His life to us. However, before God could restore His life to us, He had to deal with the sin that caused Him to remove His life from Adam back in the Garden of Eden. That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture. The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)." However, no man or woman had a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for our sins. Therefore, God did it Himself.
Jesus Christ, being God in the flesh, was the only man born into this world with a life to give that would satisfy God as payment for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ is "the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2)." The death of Jesus Christ took the sins of the world away from the eyes of God for eternity. Now, God is able to offer His life, the "breath of life" that once indwelt Adam, as a free gift to all who accept Jesus Christ by faith. This life is made available because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:10)." When were we God's enemies? We were God's enemies when we were spiritually dead in our sins. What does it mean to be reconciled to God? To be reconciled to God means that He is now satisfied that our debt of sin has been paid in full. What does it mean to be saved by His life? It means that the life of God, originally lost when Adam sinned, has now been restored to those who have placed faith in Jesus Christ. We have been saved from an eternal separation from God, because of our condition of spiritual death, by receiving God's provision of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Now, here is the answer to your question. The death of Jesus Christ purchased eternal redemption. "Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12)." What is the only thing that can cause the life of God to leave a Christian? It is sin. What did Jesus Christ do with our sins? He took them away from the eyes of God for all eternity. Therefore, is there any sin that can cause God to remove His life from us again? No! The life we have is an eternal life because there is no sin God is counting against us that will cause Him to ever remove His life from us. Remember the following verse. In 2 Corinthians 5:19 it says that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them." If God is not counting our sins against us, then what sin can cause us to lose His life? None. That means that none of our past, present or future sins will ever come between us and God. The only sin that Jesus Christ did not die for is the sin of unbelief in Him and His death, burial and resurrection. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit came it "will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me (John 16:8-9)." Nobody will go to hell because of their sins. They go to hell because of their sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ. Those people refused to come to Jesus Christ for His life and thus they remain spiritually dead to God in their sin. I pray this has shed some for you on the subject of forgiveness. May God continue to reveal to you the blessings you already have received through faith in Jesus Christ.
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