We’re always told to forgive people when they’ve wronged us. And ultimately, we should forgive them. But is there a limit for forgiveness? What if, after being forgiven, someone commits that same wrong again?
Think about ex-convicts out on parole. They’ve been released from prison on the trust of the state authorities that they won’t commit any more crimes. What good is that freedom for ex-cons if they break the law again and end back up in prison? They’re given freedom (“forgiven”) with a condition. That condition is to live a new life apart from crime.
Being Forgiven in the Bible
In the gospels, we see Jesus forgive many people’s sins throughout his ministry. Before he healed someone, he would forgive their sins and would then tell them to go and sin no more. When most people read the Bible, they get this idea that Jesus is one who will always forgive us no matter what. Even if we keep on sinning.
God and Jesus have their standard for us to live by, and that is the Bible. Yet, many people read the Bible the same way they read the terms and conditions when installing a new program. Which is to say, they don’t read it carefully. They agree with what the Bible says, or what they think it says, but don’t take the time to understand what it actually means.
The Woman Caught In Adultery
Let’s look at an example from John’s gospel. In John 8:11 we see Jesus talking to a woman caught in adultery. This woman is about to be stoned by the Pharisees. Jesus tells them that those without sin can throw the first stone. Knowing that they’ve all sinned, they all dropped their rocks and left. Jesus tells the woman that no one can condemn her and neither does he. He then forgives her and tells her to go and stop sinning. In other words, he wants her to live a changed life.
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
John 8:11
How does that apply to us?
The Condition with Being Forgiven
When you’re given a second chance at something, maybe at a job or another part of life, don’t you usually try to make the most of it? Try to learn from your past mistakes and be better the next time?
Spiritually speaking, if we truly understand the grace and forgiveness we have received, then we should automatically change how we live. Knowing the reality of what would’ve happened to us if we weren’t forgiven by God should impact us in such a way that we don’t want to go back to the life of sin before.
If you work with children as a teacher or caregiver, how do you feel when you see kids constantly fight or be disruptive after being told time and again to stop? As a teacher, it frustrates me when I tell students to stop goofing around in class and pay attention, only to see them go back to goofing off five minutes later.
You Are Forgiven – So Don’t Live Like You Used To
If we keep on sinning, after we’ve been forgiven and told to change, how do you think God and Jesus feel when they see us do that? In Ephesians 4:22-32, it talks about putting on a new self.
…to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
When we look at these verses, we should be able to see our former selves, and who we are now (or at least who we’re working to become). Our old self is one who didn’t fully know God and lived according to our own desires. We enjoyed the pleasures of the world, and may have acted selfishly. We sinned in God’s eyes without a second thought.
But after we came to know Christ Jesus and God, we should be transformed into new people. We have the chance to be made holy in the likeness of God through the Word (John 15:3). We have the opportunity for a new life in Christ.
Appreciating the Grace We’ve Been Given
Thinking back to the story of the woman caught in adultery, what would Jesus say if she went back and sinned again after being forgiven? If she had gone back to her old sinful life, and you saw that, what would you think? Wouldn’t she seem ungrateful for the grace she just received?
Have you ever received grace only to misuse it later? What if someone saved your life and asked you to do just one thing – to stop a destructive behavior – in return…but you disregard this request, the grace you received, and continue to live in the way you want. What does that show?
How about you, have you kept on sinning after being forgiven? When I reflect on my own actions after reading the Bible, I can tell you I often struggle to keep God’s Words rightly. Apostle Paul put it best in Romans 7:15-20.
The War Within
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:15-20
I sin again because my inner desires are at war with my new desire to please God. But I try each day to change and become more like Christ. I cannot do it alone, but I know that it’s Christ’s spirit that helps me change.
Do you think you’ve ever taken God and Jesus’s love and forgiveness for granted? Or have you ever done something you knew was sinful and thought, “Oh, God will forgive me,” like it’s no big deal?
It’s easy to think of God and Jesus as only loving, while forgetting that they want us to change to be more like them. It’s easy to take their love, grace, and forgiveness for granted, only to be surprised when we are judged by the Word in the end (John 12:48).
Don’t take God’s Word, grace, and forgiveness for granted. Instead, live our lives in a manner that’s worthy of the grace and forgiveness we’ve been given – worthy of Christ.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Out with the Old, In with the New
Paul writes many times in the epistles reminding us of the new life we have in Christ. The sin that kept us from God, that condemned us to death, has been washed away. We have been freed from sin like a person who was freed from prison – only for us, that prison was the law and sin. Romans 6 reminds us how we should live after Christ has freed us.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-4
Just like how ex-convicts should not continue to break the law after they’ve been freed from prison, we too should not continue to sin after being freed by Christ. We are to live a changed life and make it pleasing to God by keeping His law. Now that we’ve died to sin, we should no longer continue to live in sin.
What Does Being Made New Look Like?
If you think about it, after you’re forgiven, what would that new life look like?
Think of a fresh start. Think of being born again. When we are made new because of Jesus’s blood, when we’ve been born again because of God’s Word, we have the opportunity to become like our Father.
Instead of being a sinful flesh, now we’re able to use God’s Word, which is likened to water, to wash our sins away. As we learn the Word more, as we consume it more and apply it in our lives, we start to look more and more like it. You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat,” right? Well when we are made new with Jesus’s blood and teachings, then we should start to look like what has cleansed us.
In John 17:17, Jesus asks God to sanctify his disciples with God’s Word of truth. To sanctify means to make something holy. So after being forgiven, it’s now on us to take this opportunity we’ve been given, and use the precious Words of God to continue to cleanse ourselves of the sin that had made us dirty. And as we do that, we start to look more like God, who is holy.
Read the Terms and Conditions of Being Forgiven Carefully!
God’s Word is like a contract between Him and us. God will fulfill all He says He will do, but we need to keep our end of things as well. We have been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ’s blood, but that forgiveness comes with a condition. That condition is to leave our lives of sin. If we have been forgiven but continue to live in sin then what’s the use of that forgiveness?
If we don’t hold up our end of the contract, then God can’t give us the true blessing of eternal life and salvation. We must learn and understand the terms and conditions God has given us through His word so we can receive that blessing. I hope we work hard at changing our lives to show our sincere gratitude for the grace and forgiveness we’ve received. If we are truly a new creation then we should live as one.
Written by Kenny
Read More
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