Why can’t a loving God just forget our sin?
It would be immoral for a righteous God to forget what we have done. A Righteous God cannot forget sin. He cannot until it is paid for. At the cross, God shows that he can remain just. He did not ignore our sin but deal with it perfectly and completely through the death of his Son. He is loving, because He freely gave Jesus, who was righteous and without sin , to die in our place allowing us to escape his anger against our sin (2 Cor 5:21). Without God’s merciful action, we would have been held accountable. God save us, and the way He saves us reflects His righteousness, a right way.
God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us when we put our trust in Christ and so before God, we are declared righteous. This is what it means to be justified by faith. It is by grace, a gift from God, to those who believe.
When we repent of our unbelief in Jesus, we are in a position to be sanctified. Sanctification is the process of being sanctified, of being made holy and righteous. We begin to see other sins that we need to repent from. Christ will begin to show us how to follow Him, to think, to talk and to act more like Him.
And this is what being a Christian, a follower of Christ is about. It’s a process. A very long process. A lifelong process.
God has given us the Holy Spirit who will impart righteousness on us as we seek to follow Christ and be more Christ like. How are you living out your Christian faith? Will others see the fruit of the Spirit in us (Gal 5:22)?
Elder Freddie Lee
