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God is willing and able to forgive—I am forgiven.

There was once a time when I could not fathom the thought of crawling out of the pit that I had dug for myself. I didn’t deserve it. If God was real, why would He even want me? Was I not an embarrassment to my family and to myself?

Then I stumbled across this little section from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. The apostle Paul wrote it. I think he knew a thing or two about newness. He said,

…we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start—is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! “How?” you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on Him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

Wow. He’s talking to you. You are forgiven. Your burdens are shared. The old has gone, your sin is remembered no more. Your powerlessness, your fear? It’s gone. It is no more! Is this not a radical thought?

“Forgiven” is not just a thing that happened to you.

Because of Jesus, “forgiven” is part of who you are.

When God looks at you, what do you think He sees? He does not see everything you've ever done wrong. He sees you washed clean—whiter than snow—through the blood of His Son, Jesus.

Will you stumble into sin from time to time? Yes—we all do. Will that change how God sees you? Will that affect your identity before Him? No! You are forgiven.

There will be moments of disobedience, but our God always forgives, always loves, and is always making us new. Any time you stumble, you can come boldly to Him, trusting that He’s willing and able to forgive. You can have faith that Jesus’ sacrifice was strong enough to cleanse you from all your sins—of the past, the present, and the future!

Hebrews 10:22–23 says,

...let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Let us hold tightly, without wavering, to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Think about this today, and honestly ask yourself…

Do you trust Him to keep His promise?

Because of what Jesus has done, and because of God’s love for us, it’s easy for God to forgive us. But it’s sometimes hard for us to forgive ourselves. If you ever feel like you’re drowning in feelings of guilt, let these words of truth from Psalm 103 bring you comfort:

As high as heaven is above the earth, so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sin.

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus, You bore all our shame—it’s gone! Our guilt is washed away. We rejoice in all that You’ve done for us and we live in the light of Your great forgiveness. When You make us clean, we are truly clean! Amen.