Completely Forgiven

The fifth truth we are to believe according to Colossians 2, is that all of our trespasses have been forgiven (verse 13). Psalm 103:3 tells us that God is the one who forgives all our iniquities and then goes on in verse 12 to say, “AS far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Micah 7:19 says, “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Many times we as Christians carry our sins as though they were not forgiven. Look at the post 3 posts back where I bring up Hebrews 10. We are told in that passage that if the O.T. sacrifices had made the comers perfect, they would have ceased to be offered and the worshipers would have had no more conscience (consciousness) of sins. Christ’s sacrifice did exactly that. The O.T. sacrifices were a constant reminder of sin. But Christ has made us perfect in Him and the sacrifices have ended and to me that means the constant consciousness of sins should be gone. I don’t think that means we shouldn’t have a tender conscience or that we shouldn’t confess our sins, but we need to remember that our sins have been removed from us, the penalty has been paid and they will not be remembered against us any more.

Already there?

The third and fourth truths in this series from the book of Colossians are found in 2:12. We were buried with Christ and raised with Him. One of the great truths of the gospel is that when we come to Christ in faith, we are united with Him and identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. God looks on it as though it were our death, burial and resurrection. There is great power for victory in this truth as we shall see. Romans 6:1 asks the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” The response is that we won’t because we died to sin. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized in His death?” Water pictures this great truth of identification with Christ. When we trust Christ, the Holy Spirit places us (baptizes us) into the body of Christ and we become identified with Him. Water baptism pictures our identification with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Ephesians 2:5ff tells us that “even when we were dead in trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” So God sees us as having been raised and seated with Christ where He is. Ephesians 1:20 tells us that he is seated at the father’s right hand far above all principality and power. That’s where we are! We need to believe it by faith just like we believed Christ died for us by faith.