Unmerited Favor (15 page)

“But...but...but...Pastor Prince, God is all-knowing. How can He possibly forget my sins?”

Under the new covenant, God can declare that He will no longer remember your sins because your sins were already remembered in the body of Jesus at the cross. My friend, there is one thing that God cannot do—He cannot lie. So He
means
it when He says that He will remember your sins no more. Our part in the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor is to
believe
that God indeed remembers our sins no more!

There is power in the blood of Jesus to forgive you from all your sins! The enemy fears this truth the most and that is why he attacks this teaching on the forgiveness of sins so vehemently. If the enemy can get you to believe the lie that you are not completely forgiven and keep you sin-conscious, he will be able to keep you defeated, condemned, fearful of God and caught in a vicious circle of failure.

If the enemy can get you to believe the lie that you are not  completely forgiven, and keep you sin-conscious, he will be able to keep you defeated, condemned, fearful of God and caught in a vicious circle of failure.

Gnostic writings are malevolent because they propagate the lie that Jesus was a mere mortal, which means that His blood has no power to cleanse us from all our sins. This is a lie from the pit of hell! Jesus is the Son of God and His blood is untainted by any sin. That is why the shedding of His pure and innocent blood is able to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His blood does not cover sins temporarily like the blood of bulls and goats in the old covenant. His blood blots out and
completely erases
all our sins. This is the blood of God Himself, shed for the forgiveness of all our sins! We need to start to realize that this is not a “basic teaching.” This
is
the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the end times, people will not be anti-God, but they will be anti-Christ. The anti-Christ movement in the end times will attempt to devalue Jesus’ deity, the cross and His power to forgive all our sins. That is why, in these last days, we need more preaching about Jesus, His finished work and the new covenant of His unmerited favor. We need more new covenant, Christ-centered preachers who will put the cross of Jesus as the focus of all their preaching. The only way to stem this deception from creeping into the church is to focus on exalting the person of Jesus and the central tenet of the new covenant, which is the complete forgiveness of sins! This is the gospel and when the gospel truth is preached, people will be set free.

Believe that all your sins are forgiven— that is your part in the new covenant.

There should be no compromise when it comes to the gospel of Jesus. Forgiveness of sins is based on His grace (unmerited favor) alone and we have access into this grace by
faith
. Our part is to only believe! This is what makes the gospel the good news. Take away the complete forgiveness of sins and it is no longer the “gospel,” which means “good news.” Believe that all your sins are forgiven. That is your part in the new covenant.

Be Free From A Judgment Mentality

In the new covenant of grace, God is effectively saying, “I want you to believe that you are forgiven. I want you to believe that you are a person enjoying My mercy. I want you to believe that I remember your sins no more.” I am not the one saying this. Read Hebrews 8:12 for yourself again.

Sadly, some Christians believe the complete opposite. They don’t believe that their sins are totally forgiven. They don’t believe Hebrews 8:12, that God does not remember their sins. This affects their relationship with God. Instead of seeing that their sin debt has been completely cleared and settled by Jesus on their behalf, they expect God to deal with them according to their sins. When something negative happens in their life, their first thought is, “I knew it—the rooster has come home to roost. God is coming after me for what I did in the past!” Instead of taking God at His Word, these believers believe that negative things happen to them because God is punishing them for some sin in their life.

Perhaps someone had told them that God punishes them when they fail. Perhaps they were taught that you reap what you have sown. Beloved, today, we do not reap what we have sown. That is old covenant talk. In the new covenant, we are enjoying the benefits of the heavy price that Jesus paid on the cross. We sowed nothing, but through Jesus, we have reaped every blessing. That’s called unmerited favor!

There are passages in the Bible that have been erroneously used to justify and perpetuate a judgment mentality among believers, like Galatians 6:7–8, which says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

Sowing And Reaping In The New Testament

My friend, when reading the Bible, it is important to rightly divide the Word, and more importantly, study the scripture in its full context. The context of Galatians 6:7–8 is about sowing
money
. It has nothing to do with sowing
sin
. However, some ministers have used the principal of sowing and reaping to intimidate believers into thinking that if they sowed sin, they should expect to reap judgment, condemnation and punishment from God.

Conversely, if they sowed righteous deeds, does that mean that they should expect to reap eternal life? If that is so, where is the cross of Jesus in this equation? Such an interpretation of this passage negates the cross and places our eternal salvation on a fragile balance. In this man-made equation, our “salvation” hangs on what we do and are careful not to do, instead of being rooted in what Jesus has done.

Jesus reaped all the punishment of the sins that we sowed and  we reaped all the blessings that He sowed.

Don’t allow anyone to confuse you with faulty interpretations of the Word. The context of Galatians 6:7–8 is about sowing and reaping money. The verses before and after (verse 6 and verses 9 and 10) clearly show that the context is talking about blessing the teachers of God’s Word with all good things, and blessing the household of faith. Hence, sowing to the flesh here refers to using money for self-indulgence instead of being generous for the kingdom of God. The verse is saying that sowing money to indulge oneself leads to results that can decay, whereas sowing money into the kingdom of God leads to results that are eternal.

While it is true that in the old covenant, he who sows to the wind shall reap the whirlwind
⁴
(in the context of sin), it is no longer true. Jesus, at the cross, changed EVERYTHING! He reaped all the punishment of the sins that we sowed and we reaped all the blessings that He sowed. Hallelujah!

In the new covenant, there is no verse on sowing and reaping that is used in the context of sin! The principle of sowing and reaping is only used in the context of sowing and reaping money, and sowing and reaping God’s Word.
⁵
It is never used in reference to sin! So don’t let inferior interpretations of Bible passages rob you of the certainty that ALL your sins have been forgiven. Your total forgiveness of sins is clearly spelled out in scriptures like Ephesians 1:7, which declares that in Christ “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according
to the riches of His grace [unmerited favor]”!

Your Forgiveness Is Based On His Perfect Sacrifice

You are forgiven not according to the riches of your good works, but according to the riches of God’s grace (unmerited favor). All your sins—past, present and future—have been forgiven. Don’t draw a timeline of God’s forgiveness of your sins. There are some Christians who believe that the forgiveness they received spans only from the day they were born to the day they became Christians. From that point onwards, they think that they need to tread very carefully in case they lose their salvation. Did you know that this belief is not scriptural? Colossians 2:13 states clearly that we have been forgiven of all our sins:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you
all
trespasses.

—Colossians 2:13

Does “all” mean the same thing to you as it does to me? My Bible says that all our sins have been forgiven by Jesus’ one sacrifice on the cross. We have been forgiven once and for all! The high priests in the old covenant had to offer sacrifices for sins daily. Jesus, our perfect new covenant High Priest, “did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
⁶
On the cross, He took upon Himself all the sins that you will commit in your lifetime, and once for all paid the full price for all your sins. Christ does not need to be crucified again for your future sins. In fact, all your sins were in the future when He died on the cross. So when you received Jesus into your heart, ALL your sins were completely forgiven!

Why A Revelation Of Your Forgiveness Is So Important

“But...Pastor Prince, why is an understanding of the complete forgiveness of my sins so important for me to walk in God’s unmerited favor?”

That is a great question. Let me share with you some of the implications involved. First, if you have no confidence that all your sins have been forgiven, then your eternal security and salvation will always hang in the balance.

Second, if you think that your sins were not fully dealt with at the cross, then you can never have the confidence to enjoy the Lord’s presence because you can never be sure if He is on your side, or if He is waiting to punish you for your failures. You will constantly feel unworthy because of your assessment of your conduct, and you can never really have the boldness to ask God for big things, or believe that He will give you success in your life.

Third, if you do not believe that Jesus has already forgiven all your sins, it means that when you fail, you will believe that you are not “right” with God and that fellowship with Him has been cut off. And instead of depending on His unmerited favor to overcome your failure, you will feel that you need to confess your sin, be remorseful and make amends with God before you can restore fellowship with God and depend on Him again.

Once you don’t have a clear sense of your complete forgiveness, you will constantly be on an emotional seesaw.

It comes down to this: Once you don’t have a clear sense of your complete forgiveness, you will constantly be on an emotional seesaw. Sometimes, you feel that things between you and God are all right, but at other times, you don’t think that it is so. Sometimes, you feel confident that the Lord is with you to make you a success, but at other times, you feel like you blew it and the Lord will not help you until you confess your sin and make amends.

You will be in a constant cycle of feeling insecure, where you are always hopping in and out of God’s favor. All these feelings depend on how well you think you have performed, and ignore the cross of Jesus altogether. My friend, God does not evaluate you based on your behavior. He sees only Jesus’ perfect work. But because you do not believe that Jesus has indeed forgiven you of all your sins, you end up feeling like a total and complete hypocrite and failure.

I hope that you are beginning to see that understanding the complete forgiveness of your sins is not just for theologians. Thinking that your sins are not completely forgiven will fundamentally affect your relationship with Jesus. While He is all ready to bless you, give you favor and make you a success, unbelief in His finished work robs you of the ability to receive His goodness, His blessings, His unmerited favor and His success in your life.

While Jesus is all ready to bless you, give you favor and make  you a success, unbelief in His finished work robs you of the ability to receive His goodness, His blessings, His unmerited favor and His success in your life.

The cross of Jesus qualified you, but unbelief in the main clause of the new covenant disqualifies you. Meditate on what God says about your sins in the new covenant and free yourself to receive from Him today. The new covenant is based entirely on His unmerited favor. There is nothing for you to do, nothing for you to perform, nothing for you to accomplish. Look at the table on the next page. It encapsulates the essential differences between the old and new covenants. Your part in the new covenant is just to have faith in Jesus and to believe that you are totally forgiven and free to enjoy the new covenant blessings through His finished work!

The Differences Between The Old Covenant Of Law And New Covenant Of Grace

Under the old covenant of law...

• God demanded righteousness from man.

• God will visit your sins to the third and fourth generations(Exodus 20:5).

• The children of Israel were blessed only if they obeyed God’s commandments perfectly—inwardly and outwardly (Deuteronomy 28:13–14).

• The children of Israel were cursed if they did not obey God’s commandments perfectly (Deuteronomy 28:15–16, 18, 20).

• Depending on self-effort produces behavior modification without heart transformation.