Your Sins are Forgiven

“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.”(1 John 2:12 ESV)

 John uses the statement “I am writing to you” several times in this letter. It makes it easy for us to understand his purpose in writing to the churches of Asia Minor (think of the 7 churches in Revelation Chapters 1-3). In Chapter 2 of this letter, John states that he is writing so that his readers 1) May not sin, 2) To remind them that they have an advocate with the Father, 3) That their sins are forgiven, and 4) Because they know the truth. Amazing, is it not when you look at these four reasons that John is writing to “my little children”? John has spent the last 60 years of his life proclaiming the truth about our Lord Jesus and God's marvelous love for this world.

In this letter, John is combating false teachings against the humanity and deity of Jesus, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”(2:22). But rather than spending his time identifying the lies that are being taught, John spends his time reminding his “little children” (believers) of the truths that they already know. Namely, they should not sin, but if anyone does sin, they have an advocate with the Father, and our sins have been forgiven (remember 1 John 2:1).

Sometimes, as believers, we “forget” the truths or the fundamentals of our faith. We get so caught up in the lies and deception that false teachers are propagating that we spend all our time disproving their lies. Not that we should not defend against false doctrinal teachings, but we also need to “remember” the precious truths that we can now “walk in the light” as we follow our Lord and Savior. We can live victorious lives as we strive to bring honor to Jesus and the Father. We know that we, as believers, do not live sin-free lives but that because Christ lives in us, we can indeed be sinless. As we walk in the light of the truth of our God, we can focus on Him and not on ourselves. We can stop loving this world and follow John’s exhortation of “Do not love this world, or the things in the world…” (2:15).  All throughout this chapter and in fact all throughout this letter, we see John’s focus is on loving God, our Savior, and others so we can indeed bring honor and glory to Jesus.

Please note that in 2:12, John says the believer’s sins “are” forgiven. Not that if we try hard enough, make promises that we cannot keep, or “prove” that we are sorry, our sins will be forgiven. But once we accept Jesus as our Savior, we receive complete forgiveness of ALL our sins, past, present, and future. Jesus died to provide forgiveness for ALL our sins. (Hebrews 10:10)

This truth of the complete forgiveness of our sins is a fundamental doctrine but one that many struggle to accept. People like to “deserve” things and forgiveness; we like to think we deserve the nice house or lifestyle we live because we have worked hard to achieve it. After all, it is the American dream. If you work hard, you will be rewarded. While that might be true for our culture, it should not be carried over to our doctrines. We can do nothing to deserve salvation; it is a gift from God that we receive by faith. All of us have had to accept this doctrine of salvation. We had to “repent” (change our minds) that working for God’s love is something that we cannot achieve and that only through God’s unmerited favor (grace) can we receive by faith everlasting life. This is not news to many of us. However, working for forgiveness of sins after salvation is something that many are still trying to do. They want to “earn” God’s ongoing forgiveness; they think they have to give enough, go enough, or pray enough to “earn” God’s daily love, which is not true.

Once we understand that our way of “earning” God’s love is wrong and God extends His love to us as a gift through the death of His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, we also need to understand that God’s grace does not end at the cross or the empty tomb. Jesus’ death and resurrection are sufficient to pay the price of ALL of our sins. not just part of them. There is nothing more that we need to do to receive complete forgiveness of sins besides our initial repentance, changing our minds that we were wrong and that we cannot earn salvation by doing or being good and accepting by faith the free gift of salvation offered by God through His grace. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

You see, this marvelous truth is why John said, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.”(1 John 2:12).

And to that, I must say, “Thank you, Father, for the gift of complete forgiveness.”

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"