"Since
Grace forgives us for our sins, has God forgotten them?"
I begin with a brief review of salvation and forgiveness:
From Adam forward, every human being is born a sinner. Since our Creator
God is perfect and cannot look upon sin, upon death the soul of a sinner cannot
come into His presence. That is why He created place the unseen world to
"hold" those sinners unrepentant until the Day of the Judgment of the
Great While Throne, Revelation 20:11-14, which will follow:
(1) The seven years of Tribulation (which could
come at any time)
(2)
The thousand years of literal rule and reign of Jesus as Lord.
At the close of that thousand year reign there will be a final
judgment
for the unbelievers, called the "Second Death". This is
the final hell (the Lake of Fire), Revelation 20:14, 15.
(There is no one in the final hell yet)
In verse 13 the Scriptures say: "....and death (the bodies in the
graves) and Hades (the unseen world of the unbelievers where there were two
compartments, one of comfort and the other of torment, see Luke
16:19-26). At the time of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, He took the
souls of the redeemed from the unseen world and placed them in the Third
Heaven, Paradise where they are in a spiritual body awaiting the day when Jesus
will comes in the clouds and resurrect the bodies of the redeemed and take we
believers in a glorified body into His presence. Then when He
returns to this earth, seven years latter to establish His kingdom, He will
bring the redeemed with Him, in their glorified bodies to live with Him and
serve Him for one thousand years.
What happens to the sins of the person who receives Jesus Christ as their
Savior?
Salvation comes by repentance, a turning from sin and a turning to Jesus
Christ. When a sinner repents and receives Jesus as his substitute, all sins in his life to
that day are forgiven.
The believer still lives in a fleshly body and is subject to the temptations
that Satan brings upon him each day. When a believer sins, he is instructed
to confess that sin, and it will be forgiven, 1 John
1:9. But what if he does not confess those sins that he commits after
being saved? They will be revealed at the Judgment Seat of Christ, Romans
14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:10.
This is not a judgment for salvation since only saved
people will be there. This will be a time of examination of our
"Christian Life", from the day we were saved until the day of our
death. That "judgment" will produce "rewards" and
"loss of rewards". Again, this has nothing to do with
salvation.
Look at what God's Word has to say to the repentant sinner: Psalm 103:12
"As far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our
transgressions from us"; Isaiah 38:17, ".....You have lovingly
delivered my soul from the pit of corruption, For you have cast all my sins
behind Your back"; Isaiah 43:25, " I, even I, am He who blots out
your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins",
etc. etc.
What have we learned? Yes, after receiving Jesus as our personal Savior,
we are still in our fleshly bodies and we are tempted to sin every day.
So we have a choice: Do I yield to temptation and open the way for God to
chasten me? Or do I overcome the flesh and live with His blessings?
The choice is ours!
If we sin, and we all do, then we must confess that sin, name it in our prayer
and accept the forgiveness that is ready to be
given. As believers if we do not confess those committed sins, then they
will be revealed at the Judgment Seat of Christ where they will be forgiven
since no sin can enter into the presence of God.
So, every day examine your heart and when he Holy Spirit convicts you of a sin,
confess, accept the forgiveness that is offered.
I trust that this has been of some help. If you have any questions,
please feel free to write me.
In
the Word,
Jim
Nelson