Author: Jay Lehman

Completely Forgiven

Animal sacrifices provided a temporary forgiveness and cleansing under the old covenant system.  The old covenant system required repeated confession and forgiveness.

But what about us today?  Is confession and seeking God’s forgiveness an over and over process for us?  What if all your sins – past, present, and future – have been forgiven the minute you believed the gospel of Jesus Christ?  It is an important question to ponder.

Hidden within the pages of the Old Testament is a promise of something better; the promise of a new covenant.  And the promise of this new covenant, this new arrangement between God and His people, has been completely fulfilled in Jesus.  And this is its fulfillment:  when we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are immediately and forever forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus.  The minute we believed, Christ’s forgiveness and cleansing – accomplished on the cross – was granted to us; was credited to us.  Not because of anything we had done, but because of what Christ had done for us.

This is such an important promise to grasp.  Many of us have been taught that some process of continual confession of sin is necessary to be in right standing with God.  Friend, the blood of Jesus Christ has eternally forgiven and internally cleansed you from your sin.  Once and done.

  1. What is your reaction to this once and done idea of being forgiven and cleansed? What questions remain about your new purity?

 

Now let’s visit a passage of Scripture from the New Testament that has led to some confusion in this area, I John 1:9.  It reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Many Bible teachers hold this verse up as an example of repeated confession, forgiveness, and cleansing being required of us as believers.  I don’t believe this fits the context of John’s letter.

In the first letter of John’s epistles, the apostle is addressing infiltrators in the church who came in preaching a Gnostic-type message.  The Gnostics of John’s era placed a great deal of value on what they saw as a secret knowledge.  It was a knowledge that combined ideas derived from Greek philosophy, Oriental mysticism, and Christianity.

One of its tenets was a separation between the spiritual and material world.  The spiritual world is good.  The material world is evil.  So the Gnostics refused to acknowledge Jesus as God in the flesh.  Since the material world is evil, God the Divine One could not have appeared in a human body.  That is why John repeatedly emphasized in his letter this core belief of ours; Jesus Christ came as God in the flesh.

One of the outcomes of this spiritual/material divide is that the Gnostics treated sin with indifference. Since sin took place in the material world which was already looked at as evil, sin was viewed as a natural outcome of our material lives.  There was no guilt involved here.  A person could be very spiritual while doing something sinful with their mortal body because the body is evil anyway and divorced from our spirituality.

With this cultural background in mind, John seeks to make clear that prior to our conversion, we were all guilty of sin; sin was our very nature.  So let’s look at the context of I John 1 in light of this Gnostic challenge to true Christian belief.

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).

The contrast between God as light and evil as darkness is a prominent theme in the Bible.  The “no darkness in Him” suggests that those who walk in darkness are unbelievers with no connection to God.

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (I John 1:6).

If we say we are joined with God in His family and yet our true identity is one walking in darkness, we are lying.  Because the one walking in darkness is an unbeliever who has never come into the Light.

“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

In contrast to the lost, believers walk in the Light, not the darkness.  Believers have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus provides a one-time cleansing from all sin.  (See Hebrews 9:14)

Now we switch back to the unbeliever.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8).

This is another direct response to the Gnostics of John’s day who believed they had no need of Jesus as Savior because they were not guilty of sin.  John again calls them liars who are deceiving themselves because we all are guilty of sin.  But Christ has provided an answer for our sin in verse 9.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

This incredible promise was written as a choice offered those who are walking in darkness (I John 1:6); those who have yet to believe the gospel.

And the promise of I John 1:9 is this:  If we confess our sins – if we agree with God that here, prior to our conversion, we are sinners, and we need a savior, and that savior is Jesus – then Jesus will come to us, He will forgive us of all our sins, and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The blood of Jesus eternally forgives and internally cleanses from all sin at the time of our conversion.  This confession is a one-time agreement with God about our sin and when we agree with God in this way, He forgives, cleanses, and saves us forever.

Excerpt from Welcome to the New !!! A Study of What Christ Did FOR Us and TO Us

Your Separation Has Ended

One of the most common things I hear from believers who haven’t yet been captured by the grace message is that they have a feeling of God as being far off.  They see God as being “out there”.  Their experience is feeling and seeing God as a distant God.  As a lady recently shared with me, “God has a lot of people to pay attention to.  I am probably off in a dusty corner of His world.”  Why would someone feel that way?

There is a myriad of reasons a person may feel that way.  I can think of at least two.  First, we have been taught, very erroneously in my view, that even after our conversion there is a separation between God and us.  We are separated from God by our limits and His limitlessness.  We are separated from God by being “down here” while He is “up there”.  We are separated from God by our sin.  But the message of the New Testament is that nothing – not our sin, not our doubts, not our fears, not even His Godness – can separate us from the love and presence of God.  (Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 10:19-22.)

Second, when we bring an Old Testament mindset into our new covenant lives, we create a distorted view of God’s changing presence or distance.  The idea of separation is at the heart of the old covenant relationship between God and His people.  The keeping of the Law was a tenuous avenue to connect and close the distance.  God was at various times far off or came close in the history of Israel.  God showed up to be worshipped.  God showed up to warn them.  God showed up to get His people out of trouble.  And God sometimes showed up to punish them.  God’s character never changes, but His interaction with His people under the old covenant was often a shifting shadow.

Bill Vanderbush, in his book Unveiled Horizon, summarizes it well, “The old covenant was filled with the perspective of distance and separation from God and revealed in an endless list of activities that man could do to try to get close to Him.  The new covenant is filled with a perspective of reconciled union and reveals the unfathomable lengths God has gone to, to make His righteous redemption the very core of our identity as sons and daughters.”

Yes, the new covenant is the answer to “your separation has ended.”  All of the distance between you and God was erased at the cross.  God has now joined with you in your spirit.  “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him … Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have from God?” (I Corinthians 6:17,19).

Our friend, Max Lucado, once said in an interview, “Two hundred and sixteen times in his epistles, Paul talks about Jesus or God living inside us.”  I haven’t done the math myself, but this is a number we should not just fly past.  It is a beautiful picture of our united identity.  He is in you!!!  Your separation has ended!!!

How Jesus Found Us

Have you ever thought about how Jesus sees us, you and me, in the gospels?  When we were without hope, Jesus identified us as:

Captives who needed to be set free, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).

Lost ones who needed to be found, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ … And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ … For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:6,9,24).

Sick folks who needed to be healed, “The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’  And Jesus answered them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick’ ” (Luke 5:31).

Weary souls who need rest, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Jesus’ description of us is full of hope.  There is always hope that the captive can be set free, the lost can be found, the sick can be healed, and the weary can find rest.  All of which happened to us when we believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

And in a beautiful contrast, He DID NOT identify us as sinners who need to be punished!

Welcome to the New !!!

Are you looking for a Bible study for your small group this summer?  Welcome to the New !!! is a 13-week journey into the promise and provision of the new covenant; a path of discovery regarding your new identity and freedom in Christ.  Each week unpacks from the Scriptures one aspect of all that became new in us when we believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Within each lesson are discussion questions designed to identify where these truths intersect your personal experience.

One fellow recently told me that just meditating on the promises on the front cover changed his view of the Christian life.  My prayer for you is that you experience a greater rest, assurance, and peace that comes from truly knowing who we are in Christ.  I invite you to join this journey of discovery.

Jay

Click here if you would like to check it out on Amazon.

Running the Race

In a few of his letters, the apostle Paul compared the Christian life to running a race.  It is a metaphor we often hear in sermons and devotionals.  The writer of the book of Hebrews probably made the clearest connection in Hebrews chapter 12.  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Yes, the Christian life can be compared to running a race.  But here is a revelation you may not have thought about.  YOU STARTED THIS RACE WITH THE FINISH LINE BEHIND YOU!

Yes, the finish line is behind you.  The finish line was crossed by Jesus in your place at the cross.  Look at what He has already accomplished in you when you believed the gospel.

You are holy, “So as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12).

You are blameless, “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22).

You are righteous, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).

You are forgiven, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us ALL our transgressions” (Colossians 2:13).

You are perfected, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

You are pure, “And God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9).

Simply put, the work is finished.  The cross worked to accomplish all that God promised in the arrangement of the new covenant.

So what race are we running now?  You are running a race of rest.  You are called to run from a place of rest.  The same Hebrews author also wrote, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.  Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:9-11).

It may seem counterintuitive to have “diligent” and “rest” in the same sentence of instruction for us.  But that is our race.  To run to His rest.  To be diligent to enter His rest.  To run from a place of rest.  Our rest is resting in the finished work of the cross; the finished work of Jesus.

Jesus proclaimed His accomplishment from the cross.  “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’  And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30).  We are the recipients of that work.

Yes, stay the course.  Say with the apostle Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (II Timothy 4:7).

But remember in whose power you are running.  It is the wind of the Holy Spirit, the wind of Christ in you, that carries you along in the race.  And it empowers you to run the race from a place of trust, assurance, and rest.