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He cried out to Jesus with a plaintive plea, and Jesus answered with a precious promise. But are people today saved in the same way as the thief on the cross? On our last program, we talked about what is commonly called ‘the sinner’s prayer.’ If you ask the majority of preachers today, “What must I do to be saved,” they’ll nearly all tell you to accept Christ and pray a simple prayer. That prayer typically includes confessing to Christ that you are a sinner and inviting Him to come into your heart and forgive you of your sins. Millions upon millions of very sincere and yearning people are led to believe that such a prayer is taught in the New Testament as the way a sinner is saved. But, as we read the book of Acts and we learn what the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ preached through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they never instructed any sinner to pray for salvation. In fact, if you begin in Acts 2 and read through Luke’s record of the fulfillment of the great commission, which is what the book of Acts is, you may be surprised that you will not find one example of a sinner being told to say such a prayer. The fact is that preachers such as Billy Sunday popularized the practice in the early 20^th century—not the apostle Peter or any of the other ambassadors of the Lord.

Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

What did that mean? What were they to preach? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark 16:16) Peter was the first apostle to obey the Lord’s commission, and on the day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2:38, when he was asked by those to whom he preached, “What shall we do?” this is what he said:

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Acts 2:41 “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”

Peter didn’t tell them to close their eyes and pray a prayer. He instructed every one of them to repent of their sins and be baptized in order to receive the remission or forgiveness of their sins. We don’t have to speculate or surmise about that because we can read it in black and white in God’s Word. That pattern was repeated again and again throughout the book of Acts as the gospel was taken to the whole world. Nobody was ever told to say ‘the sinner’s prayer,’ as it is called. Rather, they were shown how to obey the gospel in faith by repenting of their sins, and upon their confession of faith in Jesus, by being immersed into Christ for the remission of their sins.

Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

That brings up the question under consideration today: what about the thief on the cross? Was he saved without baptism? Does he fit the model that we see beginning in Acts 2? Didn’t the thief cry out to Jesus for salvation, and didn’t the Lord answer his plea with the promise of life after death? Let’s read the account found in Luke 23.

Luke 23:39-43 “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

That thief that turned to Jesus, we believe, is enjoying the rest of the redeemed at this very moment, until Jesus comes again. But is his “deathbed conversion” a paradigm for penitent sinners today?

The dramatic and graphic scenes of Calvary were pictured hundreds of years before they actually happened. More than 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah said the following:

Isaiah 53:12 “…and he was numbered with the transgressors…”

On this day at Calvary, Jesus was crucified and two robbers were nailed to crosses on either side of Him. They were real men who had committed terrible crimes against society. The Greek word means one who uses violence to rob openly. They weren’t burglars or shoplifters. They likely were guilty of armed robbery that may have included murder. Both were guilty of their crimes and they were getting what they deserved at the hands of the law. Hanging between them, however, was the Son of God, who had done no wrong. He was falsely accused. He was paying, not for crimes which He had committed, but He was paying the penalty for the sins of these two thieves, and for the sins of all of us. Luke tells us the most about these two men, but the other synoptic writers tell us that when they were crucified that morning, both thieves railed on Him, just as did the chief priests, scribes and elders.

Mark 15:29-32 “And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, Save thyself, and come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him.”

Matthew 27:44 “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”

It was providential that Jesus was crucified between these two sinners. In one respect, they paint a portrait of you and me, who have all been the enemies of Jesus at one time or another. Yet, we all get equal access to the Savior. Both of them initially rejected Jesus, but as the day dragged on, one of the thieves watching and listening to Jesus began to see something different about the Lord. As he stared into the jaws of death, I suppose things became clearer to him. Death has a way of changing how we think about things, and I suspect a lot of people have viewed Christ differently in death than they did in life, and left this world stepping into eternity with many sad regrets. We have no evidence that this thief ever met Jesus before they were crucified together on Calvary. But he learned enough in these few hours with Jesus to come to understand that Jesus was not a criminal, and that He wasn’t just a man. He was a King and a Savior. That plaque above Jesus’ head declared Him to be so, and this thief watched Jesus suffer quietly and graciously for his sins and the sins of the world. And in the nick of time, this thief cried out to Jesus. As the other robber brazenly and callously made fun of Christ, this thief feared the punishment of God.

Luke 23:42 “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”

He acknowledged his sins and humbly confessed the deity of Jesus. He would not get an 11^th hour pardon from Pilate, telling the soldiers to stop the crucifixion and take him down, but he heard something far better. In fact, I’d imagine he heard the sweetest words he’d ever heard in his entire life.

Luke 23:43 “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Paradise, according to Luke 16, is the bosom of Abraham. In other words, while the other thief would pay for his crimes even in death and pay for his sins in hell, this thief would close his eyes on the cross and open them in glory. It’s a wonderful story amid the horrible scenes of the cross. But is it an example for us today, of how to be saved? Can I be saved like the thief on the cross?

You know, what happened to that thief at Calvary is very different from what happened in the book of Acts when people were saved. Without exception, those who believed on Christ at Pentecost and forward (Acts 2 and on), were told in response to the question what must I do to be saved that they were to be baptized. So, why didn’t the thief have to be baptized? That’s a good question.

First of all, we don’t know that the thief wasn’t baptized. Obviously he wasn’t baptized after crying out to Jesus, we know that. He died there on the cross. But he was a Jew and John the Baptist had preached all through Judea that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and he baptized multitudes of people in those days preceding the ministry of Jesus. It’s very possible that this thief could’ve heard John preach and been immersed by him, but later fell back into sin. Perhaps that’s where he learned that the Messiah would establish a kingdom. Then, on the cross, as he hears and sees Jesus and the inscription over His head, maybe all of the pieces start to fit together and he suddenly comes to the realization that this man is the one of whom John had preached. Now, we don’t know that and I can’t prove that, but it’s possible. And it’s just as plausible for me to suggest that the thief may have been baptized as it is for someone else to say that he wasn’t.

But let’s lay that aside. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that this man is, for the first time in his life, coming to the knowledge of Christ and cries out for salvation—never having been baptized and never being baptized. Is that proof that a sinner can be saved in the same way today, merely by praying to Jesus? Why can’t a sinner today just cry out to Jesus and ask Him to save him, and be saved? The answer is actually found in the book of Hebrews. The writer there talks about the importance of blood in redemption, and he is showing that just as the Old Testament law was dedicated or sealed with the blood of animals, so is the New Testament sealed with the blood of Christ. In other words, Jesus had to die in order for the New Testament to have any effect. He illustrates it like this:

Hebrews 9:15-17 “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.”

The word testament (v.17) is that same thing as a will. What the writer is saying is that for forgiveness of sins to become a reality, the one appointing the inheritance had to die. It is analogous to what we recognize in most civilized nations today. A last will and testament doesn’t go into effect until the testator is dead. I can draw up a will while I am alive, and I can allot or promise my earthly possessions to certain people. I can set the conditions of that will, and when I die, the people who are named in that will and who meet the conditions specified in my will, will then inherit the said portion of my estate. What about before I die? While I’m still alive, the fact is that I can give my belongings to whomever I wish in whatever way I wish. I am far from a wealthy man, but if I were, I could take pity on someone along the way and give them a sizable sum of money and I would certainly be allowed to do that. That’s my money and I could do that, were I a rich man. But when I die, you see, my will goes into effect and only those who meet the conditions stated in my will can inherit my belongings.

Our salvation is the result of a promise. In other words, all of us who are saved are written into the will of Christ. The Bible teaches that salvation was appointed, or predestinated, in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1). The will of Christ specifically called for those who would be in Jesus to inherit the blessings of salvation. Now, once Jesus died, His will went into force and salvation was extended to all of those predestinated, which simply refers to those who would come to faith in Jesus Christ and choose to surrender to Him in obedience. Well, how do we get into Christ? How do we have faith in Christ?

Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

The writer of Hebrews is telling us that before Jesus died at Calvary, another testament was in effect: an old covenant. Jesus lived under that old covenant and so did the thief on the cross. That is key to understand: the thief on the cross lived under that old covenant. Jesus was alive and thus, when He was alive on earth and was preaching His soon-to-come kingdom, He would tell the people who came to Him in demonstration of faith, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or, as He said to the thief on the cross, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” You see, the terms of the gospel had not taken effect and had not yet been announced. It wasn’t until the death of Jesus—in this case, the death of the testator—that the gospel plan of salvation was preached. After Jesus died, His will took effect. After Jesus died, he gave the great commission (Mark 16:15-16). We are no longer saved, you see, through a personal and direct encounter with Jesus, like the people we read about during His ministry. We are saved by grace through faith, when we obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We now obtain His blessings through the terms of His will that was revealed by the apostles upon Jesus’ return to heaven and assuming His kingly reign at the right hand of God. It wasn’t until the ascension of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom that the gospel was preached. That gospel—without exception—teaches that men who believe in Christ are to repent of their sins and be baptized for the remission of their sins. Apostles and gospel preachers of the early church not only instructed penitent sinners to be baptized—they even told them why.

Acts 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Ananias speaking to Saul)

You know, in one respect, Saul was in a similar position to the thief on the cross. Both men had formerly rejected and ridiculed Christ, but both men had a change of heart and wanted to be saved. Both of them even prayed unto the Lord. But, friend, these two men lived under different dispensations of time. One lived before Christ died and he received the promise of forgiveness while Christ was yet here and dispensing His blessings as He saw fit at the time. The other man, Saul, came after Christ died, after the death of the testator, and if he would inherit the salvation that was promised, Ananias had to come to him and preach the gospel to him and he had to comply with the terms of Christ’s will. Thus, unlike the thief, Saul was told to be baptized and call on the name of the Lord. You know, the Bible tells us to call on the name of the Lord to be saved.

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

That’s very true. But how do we call on the name of the Lord? What was Saul told to do?

Acts 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

That’s how the sinner calls upon Jesus.

Speaking of the great flood through which Noah was delivered from a wicked world, the Bible says:

1 Peter 3:20-21 “…when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”

Now, he doesn’t mean that we merit or earn salvation in baptism or any other thing. Baptism is not a meritorious mechanism by which we earn God’s favor. Not at all. In fact, baptism isn’t even a work that we perform. Baptism is a work of God that we submit to, according to Colossians 2:12:

Colossians 2:12 “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

But when we are baptized, Peter says that we are saved. Not because baptism is a washing of the outer flesh. It’s not a physical bath. It’s a step of obedience where something inward takes place. Peter says that it is “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” That phrase means that it is the interrogative or the appeal for a good conscience in the sight of the Lord. And when we, like the thief, come to understand that we are sinners, and come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, like the thief, and change our will in regard to sin and repentance, then we, like the thief, desire to be right with God. We desire a clean conscience and the forgiveness of our sins and peace with God. Peter says that baptism is the answer to that appeal. Why? Because Christ appointed it as a condition of His will in Mark 16:16. Because according to Romans 6:3, Colossians 2:12 and Galatians 3:27, when we are baptized into Christ, we are united with Him in His death and His blood that was shed in His death. Thus, when we meet Him in submission to the gospel, His precious blood washes away our sins and we rise to walk in newness of life.

My friend, if you’d be saved today, don’t count on an experience like the thief. Obey the gospel of Christ like Saul did, and that is taught in the great commission. Do what every person who has become an heir to the promise of eternal life since the death of the testator has done. Be baptized into Christ today, and you can, like the Ethiopian nobleman of Acts 8, go one your way rejoicing in the forgiveness of your sins and the hope of eternal life.

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The subject under consideration today is one of the most thrilling things we could possibly discuss from the Word of God.

Micah 7:18-19 “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”

Why do we need to be forgiven of our sins? How are we forgiven of our sins? What does all of that mean?

Let’s begin our investigation with a question: what is your image of God? What is He like? How does He look at you and the rest of the world? Perhaps you think that God looks down at man and trembles with rage and is just waiting to unleash His unbridled wrath on every person who has ever sinned. Or maybe you think of God as the ultimate grandfather who sits benignly up in heaven doting on us and smiling at everything we do, a pushover who just can’t bring Himself to punish man for his sins. Well, both concepts are wrong. It is true that God not only has the capacity to punish sin, but He has also promised to do so. In fact, the very nature and character of God demands that He do so. God is absolutely holy and righteous, and He cannot be touched by sin. Sin is the transgression of His law, and His holiness demands justice for every act of disobedience. You know, if you don’t approach God’s Word with that foundation, you’re going to misunderstand it from cover to cover. It is not as simple as God just choosing to overlook our sin and acting as though He doesn’t see it. When God forgives, He does so on the basis that His law is satisfied by sin being punished and every single trace of it being removed from the sinner. The bottom line is that we can never enter the presence of God with our lives stained by sin. But the beauty of God’s plan is that He provided a vicarious sacrifice to take our blame and our punishment. He allowed the demand for justice to be satisfied, while allowing the sinner to go free in mercy, by providing Jesus His Son as the unblemished Lamb to be sacrificed for our sins. And when we reject that sacrifice by continuing in sin and refusing to submit to the righteousness of God in obedient faith, the only thing left for the sinner is to face the unlimited wrath of a jealous and holy God.

What I want you to see today is that God’s disposition toward man is not one of hatred or vindictiveness. His disposition toward even the vilest sinner is one of love and concern. God has revealed Himself in the person of His Son Jesus and in His blessed Word in that way. His heart aches when we sin. His wrath is kindled within Him, like a parent becomes angry with a rebellious child, but that anger is tempered by an undying love for the sinner, and a desire for that sinner to repent and be saved. So, I hope you don’t think of God as a mean and spiteful monster who sits in heaven looking down on man in contempt, anxious to squash him like a bug. God is longsuffering.

2 Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

One day, He WILL judge the world and He will judge man’s outstanding transgressions, but He is longsuffering toward us and wants ALL to come to repentance. But God doesn’t forgive us in our rebellion. He demands repentance, but He is ever so anxious to forgive us. He longs for us, His prodigal sons, to come home and be reconciled to Him. No matter what you’ve done or how far into sin you have sunk, God’s arms are open and His great desire is to see you come walking down the homeward trail. The Bible teaches us, in the beautiful parable of the wayward son that when He sees you coming, He will run to meet you (Luke 15). He will wrap you in His arms and He will forgive you freely. The world needs to hear that message. Maybe YOU need to hear that message today. You feel guilty, unlovable, you feel like God is unapproachable. But I want you to know that there is a God in heaven who loves you more than any parent loves a child, and He wants to forgive you. He wants fellowship with you if you’ll meet Him on His terms.

Nehemiah 9:16-17 “But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.”

Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

The marginal reading of that last verse says that He will “multiply” to pardon. God wants to show mercy to us.

Psalms 103:8-14 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”

The psalmist doesn’t say that God unconditionally and automatically forgives our sins. But he does say that God understands our weaknesses and our fragility. He remembers that we are mortals and not divine, and that allows Him to be patient and give us every opportunity to repent of our sins and be forgiven.

I mentioned ‘the parable of the prodigal son’ in Luke 15. That parable could just as easily be called ‘the parable of the forgiving father’ because it is as much about the father as it is about his rebellious son. I mean, here is a young man who had done everything to hurt, disappoint and anger his father. His father loved him, yet that arrogant kid didn’t want to live by daddy’s rules. So, one day, he haughtily demanded his portion of the father’s estate and the Bible tells us that he went out and wasted every penny of it on sin and profligacy. We have reason to assume that he spent his father’s hard-earned money on wine and harlots. At least, that’s what his older brother assumed. However, it wasn’t long until he learned what every sinner eventually learns: the good times don’t last forever. The far country, with its sinful crowd, left this young man high and dry. He was hungry, destitute, dejected and unloved in that strange land that he at one time had thought was so enticing and so inviting. So with a heavy heart and a head bowed low in shame and disgrace, he warily starts down the familiar road home. I’m sure he wondered what his father would say. I’m sure he wondered if his father would ever want to see his face again and he probably recited the apology he was going to make a thousand times as he trudged along that road toward home. He finally made it back to the country that he knew so well. The familiar sights of home and his childhood were scattered along the way as he got close to the old home place. There must have been a long trail leading up to the house. I don’t know, but I like to think of that home as having a stoop or a porch across the front of it, and perhaps his old father was sitting there with a sad, forlorn look, watching the roadway, just looking out over the distant horizon. I imagine he had spent time there every day since his boy had left home, just watching, hoping and praying. All of a sudden, he sees something way off in the distance. He sees a familiar form coming over the hill. His heart skips a beat and he watches it come closer, and in a moment, he knew that his prayer had been answered. It just had to be his boy.

Luke 15:20 “…But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

Regardless of where he’d been or what he’d done, the father smothered his humble confession in a loving embrace and he welcomed his son back home again. Do you realize that Jesus in this parable draws one of the most powerful pictures that we have of God in all of the scriptures? God is ready to forgive your sins, but you’ve got to make the first move toward home.

I also want you to know that God is willing to forgive EVERY sin—even the very darkest of sins. Sometimes people get to thinking that their sin is just too horrible for God to ever forgive. Sometimes we’re willing to forgive someone if they haven’t done something that seems too serious, but now, if it is scandalous or if we’ve been hurt by it or if it’s just too hard for us to forgive, then that’s that. It’s very difficult for us to wrap our minds around the love and the capacity of forgiveness in the heart of God.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

The word “scarlet” there means ‘double-dyed or twice dipped.’ It’s a picture of a garment that has been dipped into the vile vat of pollution time and time again, yet God says it can be made as white as snow. Wouldn’t you love for your life to be as white as the wind-driven snow in the sight of God? That’s the power of God’s grace!

Paul’s prayer was for the Ephesians to know how much God loved them:

Ephesians 3:17-19 “…that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

God’s love reaches down into the lowest gutter of sin and picks the vilest sinner up out of his condition.

One of my favorite hymns has an incredible story behind it. There was a mentally ill, deranged man locked away in an insane asylum for many years. He had a pitiful life, lonely and dejected. But perhaps he understood much more than people gave him credit for, and more than many of us understand. He died, and when a worker was cleaning out his cell, he found some words penciled on the wall near his bed:

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

You know, the Bible tells us about some people who were rescued from the depths of depravity and it’s demonstrative of God’s love. The very people who constituted the first converts to Christianity, for example, were a bloodthirsty mob who called for the murder of God’s Son. Yet, God loved them enough to forgive them when they repented and obeyed the truth. Consider the people who made up the church at Corinth. Those weren’t your good neighbors down the street. They were moral lowlifes. Their sins were as bad as sins can get.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “…Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

That’s quite a list! That’s a dark picture. Here were the lowest of the low, yet Paul said that they had been redeemed and washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Friend, if God can forgive people like that, I assure you that you haven’t done anything that God cannot forgive YOU for, if you’ll turn loose of it and seek God’s pardon on the terms of the gospel.

But what does it mean to be forgiven? Perhaps one of the best ways to understand it is to look at what God does with our sins when He forgives them.

Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”

That literally means that God removes the notation of the offence from His record. The fact that God KEEPS such a record should concern all of us. Did you realize that God makes a notation of every sin, every offence that you commit? That’s filed away in the infinite mind of God. He knows about it and He’s writing it down and one day, if you refuse to confess it to Him and seek His forgiveness, He is going to read that list off one by one, as it were. But how wonderful to know that just as easily as God can write a sin down, He can erase it from His book and He WANTS to do that.

Hebrews 8:12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

Once He forgives our sins, He remembers them no more. He restores the offender to his former position of love and grace. Not only that, but the Bible says that God covers our sins.

Psalm32:1 “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

He removes our sins from us.

Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”

He obliterates them from His memory forever.

Jeremiah 31:34 “…for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

He hides His face from our sins.

Psalm 51:9 “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.”

Also, the Bible says that He does not impute sins that have already been forgiven.

Romans 4:8 “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

That word ‘impute’ is actually a mathematical or bookkeeping term. Sin incurs a debt to God. God is keeping a ledger of our debts. However, when He forgives us of our sins, He no longer has a record of it on His ledger. The Bible also assures us that when God forgives, He will never mention those sins again.

Ezekiel 18:22 “All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.”

Often, we humans fall very short of that. It’s always a temptation to hold someone’s past over their head. Maybe if they sin again, we go back and dredge up their deeds of the past. Not so with God. When He forgives, we are given a clean slate upon which to write.

We can also discover the meaning of forgiveness by looking at its synonyms. That is, words meaning the same thing. For example, the forgiveness of sins is also called the remission of sins.

Matthew 26:28 “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…”

That’s a good word, because remission means to remit payment for. After all, sin renders us in debt to God. In other words, when God forgives our sins, He marks the debt ‘Paid in Full.’

The Bible also calls forgiveness a cleansing. Why? Sin renders us unclean in the sight of God.

Psalm 19:12 “…cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

Psalm 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

1 John 1:7 “But is we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.”

Forgiveness is also called justification because sin renders us guilty.

Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

The Greek word for ‘justified’ means to set right; to regard or show one as innocent or just. You know, if the facts of the case were all that were shown and we had no advocate in Christ and no sacrifice of His blood, we would immediately be declared guilty in the courtroom of heaven and condemned. But because of the advocacy and the reconciliatory work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, the person who is washed in His blood is declared innocent of all charges, even though he did in reality commit the crime and the offence.

The word pardon is also used to describe forgiveness.

Psalm 25:11 “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”

That’s the case because sin automatically renders us as worthy of punishment. A criminal is irrevocably convicted in a court of law, and all that’s left for him to hope for is a pardon from the governor or the president. You see, salvation is our pardon. We didn’t deserve it, but by His grace, it is our pardon from the consequences of our crime.

Forgiveness is the same thing as healing because sin leaves our souls diseased to die. Forgiveness is freedom because sin binds us and leaves us enslaved. To be forgiven means to be reconciled. That’s why the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is called an atonement. We must be reconciled because sin leaves us estranged from God.

Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

You see, God’s holiness demands that He separate Himself from the sinner. It puts man at odds with God—eternal odds with God. But when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, He, as it were, reached up and took the pure and holy hand of God and reached down and took the wretched and defiled hand of man and clasped them together on His bloody chest and said, “It is finished.” “Echei teleiosei.” “Paid in full.” And He repaired the broken relationship between God and all who would turn to Him in repentance and obedience.

How does God forgive us? It’s only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Zachariah 13:1 “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.”

That blessed fountain was nothing less than the blood of God’s own Son.

Acts 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

Have you done that? If not, I hope you will today.