The God Of New Beginnings: Hope For The LostEsimerkki

Sin, Forgiveness, and Freedom

People have a deep longing to be accepted and loved for who they are, with all of their baggage and failures. When they get up the courage to put it all out on the table, and our response is empathy and genuine love, we have opened the door for them to believe that their broken life is not too bad for Jesus. 

Confession is the road to ultimate freedom. Opening up a person’s story is a sacred trust and comes with great responsibility. Kindness and empathy are important traits for all of us as we listen to the stories of people. As we listen, we don’t need to have the answers in ourselves. When Jesus show up in this person’s life, there truly is hope. 

Grace recognizes that sin certainly matters but also that forgiveness is available, and change is possible. God loves us in our weakness, but he loves us too much to let us stay there. The story of the gospel is not behavior modification. Jesus didn’t die to modify your behavior or mine. He died to pay for our sins and bring us into a whole new life. Sin is our common enemy. It robs, kills, and destroys. God gives us a choice between life and the death and destruction of sin (see Deuteronomy 30:15­­–20). None of us is fully what God intends us to be. And so it shouldn’t surprise us that he wants to change some things in our muddied lives. Sorting all this out can be wonderfully enlightening, but it can succeed only in the context of the most essential element: real relationships.

Once a person—anybody—reaches up and out to Jesus, the Rescuer, the Holy Spirit goes to work. The Spirit works internally, quietly saying, Here is truth—what are you going to do with it? Are you going to adjust your life or not? The Bible holds out just one solution for sin: repentance. Repentance is one of the most beautiful, hopeful words in Scripture because it means I don’t have to stay like this. Through Jesus, I can turn in a completely different direction. To receive a shot at cleansing our consciences and starting afresh is really amazing, thanks to the grace of God. 

With repentance comes forgiveness. God has seen all our human stupidity; nothing has shocked him up to this point. Now he just wants to get on with restoration. Open and forgiven hearts truly know that God has forgiven their sins, and they are free to walk with a clear conscience before the entire watching world. God’s people need to reinforce this new status. Sometimes people need very physical, practical evidences of our belief that God has forgiven and redeemed them to freely experience the new identity they have received.

Respond

How have you practiced confession in your life? How did you choose who to share your confession with? 

Have you genuinely expressed repentance and faith in Jesus? How did this impact change in your life? 

In what ways has giving and receiving forgiveness been difficult for you? How does God’s forgiveness affect the way you see yourself and others?