Micah 7:18-20 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
“18Who is a God like You,
who pardons iniquity
and passes over the transgression
of the remnant of His inheritance—
who does not retain His anger forever,
because He delights in loving devotion?
19He will again have compassion on us;
He will vanquish our iniquities.
You will cast out all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
20You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and loving devotion to Abraham,
as You swore to our fathers
from the days of old.”
Forgiveness of Sins
Our God is a God of justice, but He is also a God of mercy.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth to be
born as a baby to a virgin woman, conceived of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus is
God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And
when He lived on the earth He was fully man and fully God (God incarnate). He
was not born with a sin nature as we are because He was conceived of the Spirit
and not of man. And when He lived on the earth He never sinned once.
Now God sent His son into the world for a purpose. At the
age of 33 (I believe it was), after 3 years of ministry on the earth along with
his 12 disciples, Jesus was put to death on a cross, although He had done no
wrong. Some of the Jews hated Jesus and His ministry and so they plotted to
have Him put to death, and they convinced the majority of the Jews to call for
His crucifixion, which they convinced the Romans to carry out for them. But God
resurrected Jesus from the dead on the third day, and He was seen by many
people, including the 11 disciples He had left (Judas was dead).
But in Jesus’ death and resurrection He put our sins to
death with Him and He conquered sin, Satan, death, and hell on our behalf so
that, by faith in Him, we will now deny self, die with Him to sin (repent) and
follow Him in obedience to His commands in daily practice. He died and rose
again to forgive us our sins, and to give us new lives in Christ, not like our
old lives, so that we would now live for Him to do His will and to follow in
His footsteps in being the people of God He died to save, living for our Lord in
holy living.
Not Permission to Keep Sinning
Now, Jesus’ forgiveness of our sins is not “carte blanche”
to continue in sin, guilt free, or to live however we want to live without
conscience or remorse. Jesus put our sins to death with Him so that, by faith
in Him, we will now die to sin and live for God in holiness and in
righteousness. And this is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in
every way from then on, but that sin should no longer be what we practice, what
we live by. Now obedience to our Lord and to His commands should be our daily
practice in devotion to God. And all habitual sin should be put out of our
lives for good.
And when we forgive other people of their sins, especially
their sins against us, it means we refuse to get even. We refuse to retaliate.
We choose to give them another chance. We choose to love them despite their
sins against us. But love and forgiveness is not permission given to them for
them to continue in their sins against us. Especially if those who sin against
us are those who profess Jesus as their Lord, we can call them to repentance
and we can encourage them to walk in holiness and no longer as slaves to sin.
And we can set boundary lines for them and for ourselves to not cross over.
And this is what Jesus did for us, too. He didn’t just
forgive us, but he set down boundary lines for us to not cross over, too. So
many people today are lying to the rest of the people and they are teaching
that once God forgives you of your sin you are guaranteed life eternal with God
in heaven and forgiveness of all sins from that moment forward. But Jesus and
His New Testament apostles taught that if sin remains our practice, and not
obedience to God, we will not have salvation from sin and eternal life with
God. So we need to believe God and not play “Russian roulette” with sin.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts
26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans
8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians
5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14;
Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24;
1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation
3:1-22]
Don’t Play “Russian Roulette” with Sin
An Original Work / August 31, 2026
Christ’s
Free Servant, Sue J Love
Myopic
Based off 2 Peter 1:3-11
An Original Work / August 19, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Jesus has given
ev’rything
Needed for life and
godliness.
His great and
precious promises
Free us from our sin
and distress.
Add to your faith
His goodness;
Knowledge; patience;
godliness;
Brotherly love and
mutual affection;
Kindness and
unselfishness.
If you possess these
qualities,
Growing in your
maturity,
They will keep you
from vanity.
You will bear fruit
effectually.
Nonetheless, if you
lack them;
Forget you’ve been
cleansed from sin,
Nearsighted are you;
you can’t see Jesus.
You have closed your
heart to Him.
Therefore, beloved,
confirm, then,
Your calling and
your election.
Do this by showing
diligence:
Obey your Lord; be
repentant.
Practice all these
qualities
God provided on a
tree.
He died for our sins
so we’d be given
Life with Him
eternally.
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