The Forgiveness of God
The Forgiveness
of God
This is the basis for all forgiveness. If we do not
believe that God has forgiven us then we will not be able to forgive
others.
I’m going to ask you to close your
eyes for about ten seconds and think of some sin in your life that
you might feel particularly guilty about.
Maybe something that you’re not
sure that God has forgiven you for or that God might be holding
against you.
Or just think about some sin that has
particularly plagued your life.
It could be pornography, anger,
jealously, bitterness, gossip.
It could being critical of others,
foul language, stealing, revenge, gluttony.
Or it could be any number of a host
of other sins.
So lets do that right now.
Two aspects or effects of sin:
The eternal penalty of sin
The daily oppression of sin
They differ in this way.
1) The eternal penalty of sin means
that even if we have sinned only once then we are forever separated
from a perfectly holy God and are doomed to eternal ruin.
Isaiah 59:2, “For your sins have
made a separation between you and your God.”
Realize that sin does not merely make
you less acceptable to God; sin separates you from God.
Does it take a lifetime of sin to
create this separation?
James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps
the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of
all.”
It only takes one sin.
But you may think that by trying
really hard you can bridge that gap and be on God’s side again.
Think of it this way.
Gather as many people as you can,
maybe some are great athletes and bring them to the beach at Ocean
Grove.
Then ask all of them to swim out into
the ocean as far as they can.
Some may make it a few miles; some
may even be able to swim over a hundred miles.
Some, like myself,
would be able to make as much as a hundred feet.
But no one would be able to reach the
goal, which would be to swim to England, because England is 3,000
miles away.
Even the mightiest swimmer would
eventually tire, stop, and drown.
That is how it is for us to think
that we can reach God through our efforts.
Sin places an ocean between God and
us.
Man’s false religions tell us to
swim.
False religions tell us that if we
pray enough, attend church enough, be good enough, read our Bible
enough that we will be able to swim that ocean.
The truth is that because of sin, the
magnitude of our separation means that we are in need of nothing less
than total salvation, which is accomplished by the one-time act of
repenting and asking God to forgive us of all of our sins.
This is what is called being
“born-again.”
The mercy and love of God cannot
overcome this penalty because it requires justice and it requires
payment.
2) The daily oppression of sin means
that as we go through our day we will sin in our thoughts or our
words or our actions.
This sin also has a penalty in that
it will snatch away God’s blessings from us and will drag us down
and sicken us spiritually, mentally, and physically.
But the mercy of God, in this case,
can spare us from this penalty because it is not so much a judicial
penalty but, rather, is a cause-and-effect result.
One of the moral laws of the universe
is that if you sow evil; you will reap bad things.
Is there anyone here who has never
experienced the devastation that sin can bring?
So we have the eternal penalty of sin
and the daily oppression of sin.
And as we go through tonight’s
study we will mostly be examining the second effect of sin.
How it affects us as Christians and
what God has done for us.
I don’t think that we need to spend
a lot of time defining sin or proving that we all have sinned.
Perhaps, though, we can take a moment
to try and understand the enormity of sin.
And we are going to examine that from
one perspective.
There are two of aspects of sin that
determine its penalty.
The first is the evil of the sin
itself, i.e., the worse the sin the greater the punishment.
For example, murder carries a greater
penalty than envy.
But there is a second aspect of sin
that determines its penalty.
Do you know what that is?
It is the value of the object against
which that sin is committed.
If you destroy an ordinary rock,
there won’t be any punishment because an ordinary rock has
negligible value.
If you kill a dog, you will probably
have to pay a decent sized fine because a dog has more intrinsic
value than a rock.
If, however, you kill a human being,
you will probably have to spend some years in jail.
What is the difference?
All were acts of destruction.
So why did the punishment increase?
It was because the value of the
objects increased.
And yet, for each of these acts, in
the world’s judgment, we can ultimately pay our debt for each of
these and then be free.
In other words, we can pay our debt
to society.
By what happens when we sin against
an object of infinite value?
The penalty that we must pay also
becomes infinite.
So it is when we sin against God.
And yet when you think about it, any
sin that we commit ultimately becomes a sin against God and since God
is of infinite value our punishment for any sin, therefore, becomes
infinite.
So whether we curse God or kill a man
both are ultimately against God and so both place on us an infinite
and, therefore, unpayable debt to God.
This is why it says in the verse that
was mentioned earlier, James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”
So even if we only commit one small
sin such as we lie once or we have a bad thought it is as though we
have committed every sin because either way our debt is infinite.
It is unpayable.
We’re stuck.
What is the only thing that we have
to offer that is infinite?
It certainly isn’t our goodness or
our money.
The answer is our time.
So if someone dies who is unsaved
they must spend an infinite time in Hell as the sacrifice for their
sins.
However, because God is of infinite
value, He can pay for our sins in one shot by offering up what?
—Himself as the sacrifice.
Only He can pay off an infinite debt
because only He is of infinite value.
2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made
Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him.”
And because He paid the debt all that
we have to do to receive this pardon is to ask.
We can’t help God out at all.
If you have a set of numbers that
goes on for infinity and you work really hard and manage to remove
one number from that set, have you reduced infinity?
And so it is if we try to do anything
to try to pay for our sins.
Forgiveness must be a work of God
alone.
The word “forgiveness” has
several meanings.
In the Hebrew it means to “lift off
a burden.”
The Greek has at least two meanings.
To cancel out a debt.
To remove; to send away. This is
the symbolism that is expressed in Ps 103:12, “As far as
the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us.”
When God
looks at you now as a forgiven Christian, what does He see?
Gal 3:27, “For all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
When God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of
Jesus Christ.
When you write a letter, you put it into an envelope,
moisten the glue, and seal the envelope.
At that point you can no longer see the contents of
that letter; it is completely enclosed by the envelope.
Now write down in a letter all of your sins.
Fold that letter, put it into an envelope, moist the
glue, and seal it.
No one can read that list of sins anymore.
In the same way, we, with our sins, are enclosed in
Jesus Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and God the Father, the
righteous judge, can no longer see that list of sins.
When we are baptized into Christ we are completely
immersed, we are completely placed in Him and our sins are no longer
visible to the Father.
Forgiveness doesn’t merely dust us off; forgiveness
cleanses us and covers us.
So now we are going to look at a story that
demonstrates the right attitudes that we need to have when we
approach God after sinning.
Luke 15:18-24
18 I will get up and go to
my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in your sight; 19 I am no longer worthy to be
called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ 20
So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long
way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and
ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said
to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I
am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the
father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put
it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; 23
and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;
24 for this son of mine was dead and has come to life
again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to
celebrate.
Of course, the repentant prodigal son
who is coming back to God after having sinned represents us. And the
father, in this story, represents God the Father.
So think about this as it might apply
to you.
There are three very important points
about this story regarding forgiveness:
1) The son does not offer any
excuses.
He doesn’t say that he went out to
try and make an honest living but he was tricked into losing his
money.
He doesn’t blame others.
He doesn’t blame his upbringing.
He doesn’t even blame his father
for foolishly giving all of that money to an immature and impetuous
son.
He acknowledges his sin and stands
before his father striped of all defenses and excuses.
If we come before God blaming others
for our sin then we are really not asking God to forgive us but are
asking God to forgive them.
Because, after all, it was their
fault.
What we have to realize, though, is
that no one makes us sin.
They may push us towards sinning.
They may make it easier for us to
sin.
But ultimately the choice to sin is
always our own.
And so when we sin, we need to come
to God without excuses.
2) It wasn’t the words that were
said in order to receive the forgiveness; it was the heart.
In fact, you can notice in verse 20
that even before the son can say anything, he is embraced and loved
and forgiven by the father.
Too often we get caught up in what we
have to say.
I have heard on many tapes on
forgiveness that you shouldn’t say, “I’m sorry” because that
implies that you are sorry that you got caught rather then that you
sinned.
Or that you shouldn’t say, “I
apologize.”
This is all nonsense.
God forgives you when your heart is
repentant.
The words must flow from a repentant
heart and it doesn’t matter how clumsy they are or how poorly they
might fit some pseudo-Christian semantics.
God forgives you even before the
words are out of your mouth.
But it is good to say those words for
your own sake and to crystallize where your heart is really at.
Of course, the other side of this is
that perfect words with an impure heart and truly unrepentant heart
are meaningless.
3) The son does not offer to make
amends; he doesn’t try to do penance or to win his way back into
his father’s arms.
He doesn’t say, “Let me work in
your fields for one year and I’ll make it up to you.”
He only asks that the most minimal of
relationships be restored.
He is basically saying, “Because of
what I have done, I don’t expect to be restored to a full father
and son relationship and all of the benefits that come from that.
I know that I am too big of a louse.
Instead, I just want to be near to
you; like one of the hired help.
Maybe just to see and talk to you a
little every day.
But I don’t expect to receive many
blessings from you.
Just give me what little I need to
get by on.”
And isn’t that, sometimes, our
attitude after we sin.
We can come to God expecting Him to
reject us outright so we bargain for a few morsels.
But what was the result?
His father embraced him and loved
him.
What was the one word that the
prodigal didn’t feel that he was worthy to ever be
called—“son”—verse 21.
Yet, in verse 24, what was the very
first name that the father calls him? —“Son.”
“Son of mine.”
The father didn’t even flinch.
He accepted him back fully,
completely, and unconditionally.
The relationship was fully restored
as far as the father was concerned.
No matter how badly we may sin
No matter how disgusting we may
feel
No matter how little we may
think that God loves and cares about us
God will always and forever think of
us as His child—as His son or daughter.
It is a lie from Satan that God will
reject you because of your sin.
Don’t believe it.
He brought shame to his family (we
know this because word had spread enough for the family to find out
that the prodigal had been with prostitutes).
He fell into lust, pornography, and
immorality.
Yet none of that was too much for his
father to forgive him.
In fact, what was the first emotion
that his father felt for him?
Verse 20. Compassion.
What is compassion?
It is “the deep feeling of sharing
the suffering of another in the inclination to give aid or support or
to show mercy.”
Matthew 20:29-34
29 As they were
leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him. 30 And two
blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by,
cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31
The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the
more, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” 32 And
Jesus stopped and called them, and said, “What do you want Me to do
for you?” 33 They *said to Him, “Lord, we want
our eyes to be opened.” 34 Moved with compassion, Jesus
touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and
followed Him.
Jesus had just left Jericho and was
on His way to His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
This was His big moment.
The crowds were excitedly following
Him.
If you had to pick the peak of Jesus’
ministry on the earth in terms of success and grandeur this was it.
Everything was moving quickly towards
this peak.
He was fulfilling prophecy.
And then right in the middle of it
what happened?
Two dirty, blind beggars yell out,
“Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”
The mood was being ruined.
The crowds told them to “shut up.”
But they cried out even louder.
Jesus’ big scene was being
destroyed.
So what emotion did He feel?
Did He feel disgust?
Annoyance?
Was He mad?
No, He was “moved with compassion.”
In the Greek, the phrase “moved
with compassion” is all one word.
It is the same word that we just
looked at regarding the prodigal son.
It is a very interesting word.
It originally was used to denote the
“inward parts” of a sacrifice, and specifically the nobler parts
such as the heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys.
I don’t know what the less noble
inward parts would be but, in my case, many might say that it’s my
brain.
Anyway, these are the parts that are
used in the sacrifice and the word eventually went on to mean the
sacrifice itself.
In later writings it came to mean the
“seat of feelings” and the “center of human feeling and
sensibility.”
I.e., it denoted the whole person in
respect of the depth and force of feeling.
So in using this particular word
here, it is saying that Jesus was moved to the very deepest part of
His being and with all of His feelings and emotions.
Mark 1:40-41.
And a leper came to Him, beseeching
Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying to Him, "If
You are willing, You can make me clean." And moved with
compassion, He stretched out His hand, and touched him, and said to
him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
A leper came up to Jesus and knelt at
His feet.
Two characteristics of leprosy are
that it causes deadening of the nerves so that there is a loss of
sensation to touch and to temperature and also that it thickens the
skin.
This is why leprosy is such a good
picture of how sin is when it becomes prevalent in our lives: we lose
our sensitivity to God and it also thickens our conscience to more
sin.
Lepers were the ultimate rejects in
life.
Oftentimes people would throw stones
at them in order to keep them away.
They were horribly disfigured and
were kept in colonies away from other people.
Recently in India, where there are
still many lepers, a man’s only daughter was getting married.
But since he had leprosy he was not
allowed to even enter the church so he had to sit out in the car by
himself during the entire ceremony.
Lepers were supposed to keep their
distance and yell “unclean, unclean.”
This leper broke the rules.
He not only didn’t keep his
distance but he even entered a crowd to get to Jesus.
And he fell on his knees before
Jesus.
Notice that because he fell before
Jesus he forced Jesus to respond to him; Jesus would either have to
address him or go around him.
So what was His response?
No. It says that He was “moved with
compassion.”
Actually, the tense that this phrase
is in is better translated “gripped with compassion.”
What seized and compelled Jesus was
not the current agenda or the pressure of the crowd; it was
compassion.
Jesus takes the rejects of society
and He works with them.
Kings, emperors, politicians all
surround themselves with the wealthy, with the powerful, with those
who can contribute to them.
Jesus surrounded Himself with those
who had nothing to give so that He could give everything to
them.
Psalm 51:3-4.
For I know my transgressions, And my
sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And
done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou
dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge.
This is the situation right after
David was rebuked by Nathan the prophet for committing adultery with
Bathsheba and then murdering her husband.
We can see here that David is being
ground away by his sin.
Notice how his sin is so great that
he can’t get away from it.
Everywhere that he goes it is in his
thoughts and before his eyes.
What would be the worldly answer to
his situation?
Possibly something like this, “You
have to understand that you aren’t responsible for your actions.
You were forced into this act. It wasn’t you. You just need to put
it behind you and move on with your life.”
Or perhaps on the other side you
might hear, “What you did was terrible and inexcusable. The only
way to absolve yourself is to do penance. This might take years.”
In the first way you are trying to
ignore your sin.
In the second, you are trying to
balance it out.
Why don’t either of these work?
What is missing?
If you said repentance that isn’t
it.
Repentance alone does not lead to
forgiveness.
Look at verses 1-2 and see
what David’s godly and proper response was.
Be gracious to me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion
blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And
cleanse me from my sin.
Here David appeals to what? –God’s
love and the greatness of God’s compassion.
What was missing in those two earlier
responses was God.
Repentance without God does not lead
to forgiveness.
You can commit some terrible act,
promise never to do it again, and, in fact, be forever true to your
promise.
But you can still be gnawed by guilt.
When we sin, can we appeal to God’s
compassion?
Absolutely.
What was the outcome in David’s
case?
Verses 14-17.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O
God, Thou God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of
Thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare
Thy praise. For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would
give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou
wilt not despise.
David’s focus was on what?
His sin?
No.
The fact that he committed two very
terrible sins: adultery and murder?
No.
The thought of how much this sin is
going to cost him?
No.
His focus was on God’s
righteousness and forgiveness.
From the prodigal son who blew it in
almost every way possible, to the beggars who were breaking into
Jesus’ big moment, and to the leper who broke God’s laws, to
David who committed terrible sins there is one common theme, one
common result.
And that is, that God had compassion.
He didn’t respond with
judgment.
He didn’t pull away with
disgust.
He didn’t wag His finger at
them and condemn them.
He didn’t abandon that person
because they were unworthy or were an outcast or had sinned.
Instead, when they came to Him, He
gave them His full attention and He loved them from the deepest part
of His being.
And He does no less for you.
You may read the Bible and think, “I
never see those kind-of miracles.”
Or you may think, “God doesn’t
show me His will using fleeces or Urim and Thummin.”
Or, “I’ve never had an angel
visit me and consume a sacrifice with fire from Heaven.”
But
even if you don’t see the miracles and divine forms of guidance and
supernatural beings there is one Biblical thing in your life that is
exactly the same as those that you read about.
And that is that God is equally
compassionate towards you now as toward those in the Bible.
It isn’t the case of “That Bible
stuff happened then but this is my life; this is real life.”
When you blow it; God is
compassionate towards you.
The only difference is that,
in your case, no one is writing it down so that people can read about
it 4,000 years from now.
Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked forsake his way, And
the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And
He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will
abundantly pardon.
You may think, “But you don’t
know what I have done.”
Or “If you could only get
inside of my head you would be so appalled that you would never come
near me again.”
Look at verses 8 - 9.
"For My thoughts are not your
thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways
higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
What is the immediate context of this
verse?
It immediately follows God saying
that He will abundantly pardon.
We oftentimes use this verse in the
context of God’s plans or how everything about God is inscrutable.
But the context of this verse is
forgiveness.
It is God using this to rebuke our
way of thinking.
“For He will abundantly pardon.
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’
declares the Lord.”
“For He will abundantly pardon.
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’
declares the Lord.”
“For He will abundantly pardon.
‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’
declares the Lord.”
God does not forgive you because you
are good; God forgives you because He is great.
God does not forgive you because you
have straightened up your ways; God forgives you because He is
compassionate.
When we sin, no matter what it is.
Whether it’s
When we come to God in repentance,
and this is very important—we must believe this:
God does not view us with
disgust.
He does not view us with
judgment and condemnation.
He does not view us with scorn
and derision.
He does not turn His back and
abandon us.
No, instead, He views us with
compassion.
He is moved to the very depth of His
being to love us, to embrace us, to forgive us and to say as He does
in Romans 8:1, “There therefore is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus.”
The world has no answer for guilt.
God gives the only solution and that
solution is His forgiveness though the death of Jesus Christ.
There is a story that one day a poor
girl ventured into the garden of the Queen’s palace, and approached
the gardener, telling him that her mother was lying very ill, and
that she longed for a flower, such as she had seen in the Queen’s
gardens.
It was winter time, and the flowers
were rare at that season.
The child had saved a few pennies and
wished to buy a rose for her sick mother.
The gardener said that he had no
authority to give away the Queen’s flowers.
And when she offered to pay he said,
“The Queen has no flowers for sale,” and told the poor child to
go away.
But the Queen herself just happened
to be in the greenhouse, and, unobserved either by the gardener or
the little girl, had overheard the conversation.
As the child was turning away
sorrowful and disappointed, the Queen stepped out and said to her,
“The gardener was quite right, my child, he has no authority to
give you the flowers you want, nor does the Queen cultivate flowers
for sale; but the Queen has flowers to give away.”
And then she took from her basket a
handful of rare roses and gave them to the child saying, “Take
these to your mother with my love, and tell her that the Queen sent
them. I am the Queen.
No man can give you God’s
forgiveness.
And God’s forgiveness is not for
sale.
You cannot buy it with your poor
penance of tears, prayers, or self-loathing.
But God has forgiveness to give and
you may take it by faith, but you do not barter for it by anything
that you can do.
Hebrews 10:17-18
"AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR
LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE." Now where there is
forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
When you sin, do you try to somehow
pay for that sin before God?
Do you ever do a kind of penance to
try and alleviate your guilt?
You may think, “Of course not
because I know that God has paid for all of my sins and so I can’t
do anything to gain His forgiveness.”
But after you’ve sinned did you
ever beat yourself up by perhaps:
Feeling like God can never use
you because you are such a sinner or loser.
Reviewing all of the times that
you committed this particular sin or any other sins.
Feeling that you are too “dirty”
to go to church or to serve or to read your Bible.
You do not need to add to what God
has already done.
God doesn’t want us to grieve and
anguish over repented sin.
Rather, He wants us to rejoice in His
forgiveness.
In the first instance, we are
focusing on ourselves and beating ourselves.
In the second instance, we are
focusing on God and rejoicing in Him.
Which do you think that God prefers?
2 Peter 1:5-8
5 Now for this very reason also,
applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in
your moral excellence, knowledge;
6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your
perseverance, godliness;
7 and in your godliness, brotherly
kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
8 For if these qualities are yours
and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you lack any of these qualities?
Do you wish that you had more
diligence or self-control or perseverance or godliness?
Though there may be several reasons
why you may lack these qualities, look at verse 9 for
something very interesting.
9 For he who lacks these qualities
is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his
former sins.
Why does God say that you may lack
these qualities?
It may be because you’ve forgotten
your purification from your former sins.
You lack character because you’ve
forgotten that you are forgiven.
Godly character comes from God.
And a right relationship with God
starts with knowing that you are forgiven.
When your focus is on your sin and
your guilt you are not thinking about how you can become more like
God; you are only concerned about the cost of your sin.
Forgiveness frees you to become more
like your Savior.
I encourage you sometime in the next
couple of days to do this.
Go out someplace by yourself, maybe
go for a walk somewhere, and say something like this, “God, I know
that I’ve committed this sin of ‘whatever’, but thank You that
You’ve forgiven me.”
And keep saying that until you
believe it.
It’s not a mantra that you’re
repeating until you fall into some kind of trance, but it is a truth
that you keep saying until you believe it.
And you will know when you believe it
because you will be moved to God.
And then you will know the
forgiveness of God.
A few years ago there was a cartoon
in the New Yorker that showed an exasperated father saying to his
prodigal son, “This is the fourth time we’ve killed the fatted
calf.”
God does that over and over in our
lifetime.
You are forgiven because Jesus Christ
died and paid for your sins on the cross.
You are forgiven because God is
compassionate.
You are forgiven because God is
great.
You are forgiven because you ask a
God who is generous.
Prayer
Discussion Questions:
What is your own definition of
forgiveness?
Why is it important to
understand God’s forgiveness?
God says in Hebrews 10:17, “And
their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” What
does this expression mean?
Why did Jesus Christ have to die
so that we might be forgiven?
Read 1 John 1:9
What does it mean to “confess
our sins”?
Why is God’s faithfulness so
important?
What does it mean to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness?
Do we have to diligently root
out every sin that we commit no matter how small and confess it?
What is the difference between
failure to confess a sin and refusal to confess a sin? How does God
threat you in each situation?
What are some ways that we can
try and do penance for our sins?
Why is the fact that God is so
compassionate important for us when we sin?
Why do we still feel guilty even
after we have confessed our sin?
When it comes to forgiveness,
God says that His ways and thoughts are above our ways and thoughts.
Why is this important to understand?
Why is it dangerous to think
that we can help out God with our forgiveness?
What is one point of tonight’s
study that stood out to you? Did tonight’s study change any aspect
of your thinking regarding God, His forgiveness or how He views you
when you sin?
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