Are You Stuck On The Hamster Wheel Of Forgiveness?

If you have confessed a sin over 100 times and have not changed, there isn't anything wrong with God. There is something wrong with what you believe about God. Much of Christianity has increased the problem of sin, which they desire to stop through a method that was never designed to stop people from sinning. In this video, I will explain the problem and provide a solution.

Resources: Why Confession? livinggodministries.net/living_god_ministries/radio_archive/audio_files/forgiveness_of_sins_9.mp3 https://share.google/VQF5nnopWVyyvR1Cj

Asking For What You Already Possess

"If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God." Hebrews 10:26-27

Denise, a distraught, Christian woman, called into a radio program struggling with forgiveness. She said, "I did some really bad things in my life and I'm trying to get everybody to forgive me." After admitting that she left a church she said, "I'm lost and I don't know where God is. I don't know what church to go to. I don't know anything and I feel like I'm lacking in my belief." She concluded that she feels like all of this is, "one hurdle I can't get over." After one host tried to encourage and reassure her, he referred her to a church he felt could help her. At this point the other host chimed and said. "I think it is real important to remember that ... I am sure by this point you have already asked the Lord to forgive you for the things that you mentioned are happening in your life and that you're dealing with. And when you asked Him the first time, He forgives you the first time." When I heard her say, "He forgives you the first time," red flags went up. The program is live-streamed on social media and gives the audience the opportunity to comment about what is being said. So, I took the opportunity to share my thoughts on asking forgiveness from God and that He forgives us the "first time" we ask. I said, "She was forgiven before she asked. She needs to be asked her understanding of the Gospel and start there." One of the hosts read my comment on air and took the opportunity to respond to me. He said, "The fact of the matter is we are required to ask for forgiveness. We are to confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive us (i.e. 1 John 1:9). We can do the timetable thing, if you want, and see which comes first. Really, the ultimate thing was she needs to know that God has a plan for her life and there is hope."  I must admit, I am not sure what he meant by the "timetable thing." I would only be speculating. His comment about Denise knowing God has a plan for her life, while sounding good, comes across like a platitude and not much more. I agree that she needs to know there is hope, but being reminded that she needs to ask God's forgiveness is not how one gets hope. Honestly, she appeared to already have done this and, yet, she is feeling lost and hopeless. But, in response to his affirming we have to ask forgiveness and referencing 1 John 1:9, as evidence, led me to make one last reply. I wrote back saying, "Sorry brother, 1 John 1:9 is for unbelievers; for those the truth is not in. Rather, 2 Corinthians 5:19 says God is not counting men's sins against them. Hebrews 10:17-18 says God is not remembering our sins and there is no sacrifice (i.e. asking forgiveness) for sins. We are free to approach God with confidence because He is not holding our sins against us.Time to rest in His finished work and be reconciled to God." The program ended soon after our brief encounter, so he wasn't able to respond. Although, I was not expecting a response, my main reason for saying anything was to give another perspective on the topic of forgiveness that the hosts and listeners are probably not used to hearing.

As for Denise, she said something early on in her conversation that is the key, in my opinion, to much of her problem. She said, "I'm lacking in my belief." Hearing her say this is why I mentioned in my first comment to the radio program that she needs to be asked about her understanding of the Gospel. The reason she is struggling with forgiveness is because she is believing something wrong about forgiveness. In short, the Gospel is sin, death, forgiveness and the restoration of life. Salvation is God restoring His life, lost when Adam sinned, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to all who accept Him by faith. And because of the forgiveness we have, through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, that life will never leave us; that is why it is an eternal life. Our sins have been paid in full for eternity. Therefore, it is not an act of faith to ask for something you already possess. If you believe you aren't forgiven what are the consequences? The consequences are that you will be like those mentioned in Hebrews 10:26-27. Believing that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was not once and for all, you are left to continually ask God to forgive sins He has already forgiven, no longer remembers and for which there are no more sacrifices required. Each time you ask God to forgive your sins is like performing a sacrifice God does not honor and only keeps putting Jesus Christ back on the cross. You are effectively telling the Lord that His sacrifice was not enough. You are also diminishing the seriousness of sin. Sin is so serious that it requires the death of God as payment! How is simply apologizing, asking God to forgive you, meeting that requirement? Fact is, it's not. And because you believe God still holds your sins against you, the end result is feeling like Denise. Somewhere in her mind she has a fearful expectation of judgment and thinks she is an enemy of God because her sins are being counted against her. If truth sets us free than it must be true that error puts us in bondage. Denise, and I'm afraid many others like her, is bound up by her sins because she is not believing the truth about what God has done with her sins. There will always be a sin needing forgiveness, a sacrifice needing to be performed and someone there to tell you to keep at it. Her entire Christian life becomes one of being trapped in a cycle of sin, ask forgiveness, sin, ask forgiveness, repeat. She will struggle to grow in her faith, lose the joy of her salvation, believe God is disgusted with her, always be focused on herself and not on God, bounce from church to church and live in fear, all because she believes the sin issue is still alive between her and God. And this doesn't even touch on what happens if she forgets to ask forgiveness, but believes she needs to. What then? My prayer is that Denise will one day learn the truth about forgiveness and be set free. Forgiven isn't something we get, it's something we are!

Steps to a Good Confession

“Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary (Hebrews 10:17-18).” You want to know what happens when people do not understand forgiveness. There is an article in the Denver Catholic Register entitled, “Steps to a Good Confession.” The steps are designed to help penitents’ experience “buoyancy” and “peace” in their first confession. There are five steps in this process. Step 1 says to, “Examine our conscience.” This means to determine what sins you have committed. Depending on the person this could take an extremely long time and, in my opinion, is impossible to do when you consider all the opportunities we have to sin in thought, speech or deed. Yet the Bible says for a Christian to “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).” The truth is that your conscience should already be clean because God no longer remembers your sins. 

Step 2 says, “Be sorry for our sins.” Whether a person is sorry for their sins or not, they must know that the penalty for sins is not to be sorrowful. The penalty for sin is death and even if they gave their own life God would not forgive them. All sin deserves the death of God as payment. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).” Being sorry for sin is natural, but recognize that being sorry has no power to get you forgiven. Only the recognition that God, in Christ, had to die for your sins is what is most important. 

Step 3 is to “Make a firm purpose of Amendment.” This means a person must resolve not to sin again and to avoid occasions of sin. Good luck with this. While I am all for avoiding sin, the purpose of the Christian life is not to try and stop sinning. The purpose of the Christian life is to learn to trust and depend on God. Now, a byproduct of doing that will be a diminishing of the sin in your life, but only as a side effect of knowing your God, not as an achievement for living a life you cannot live. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).” How about lining up your “firm purpose of amendment” with Jesus Christ’s expectations; your best effort versus the perfect holiness of God. Can you do it? Of course you can’t. While you may score points among fellow Christians for your commitment, you are not fooling God. You will never stop sinning. God knew that and in His love took your sins away through the death of Jesus Christ. 

Step 4 is to “Confess our sins to a Priest.” Two quick thoughts pop up on this one. The Bible says that “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11).” If a priest cannot take away sins, what good is it to confess your sins to one? Secondly, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).” The reason a priest cannot take away sins is because Jesus Christ is our Priest and the only one who mediates between mankind and God. 

Step 5 says to “Perform our Penance.” Penance is an act of kindness or prayers to pray, or both. This is nothing more than a work of the flesh that does nothing to give a person the motivation to change their behavior. This is the true license to sin that those of us who truly know God’s forgiveness are accused of teaching. The Bible says, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God (Hebrews 6:1).”Performing penance is a dead work done by people believing that if they get their flesh under control they will be deemed holy, righteous and forgiven by God, or at the very least, the religious leaders they submit to. But, because they will never stop sinning, they, by default, will never be holy, righteous and forgiven. Yet, for a born again Christian we are holy, righteous and forgiven because of our faith in Christ. 

These five “Steps to a Good Confession,” are nothing more than a convoluted way of performing a sacrifice to God He doesn’t require or accept in order to take away sins He no longer remembers. You can’t have peace with God or experience buoyancy in your walk with Him if you still believe He holds your sins against you.