Forgiveness of sins is not the goal of Christianity.
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The forgiveness of sins is not the aim and goal of Christianity – the aim and goal is the glory of God and our enjoyment of Him. In Ephesians 1, when Paul speaks about the spiritual blessings of God in Jesus Christ, he repeatedly says that God is doing these things “to the praise of the glory of his grace” and “to the praise of his glory.” And after spending eleven chapters in Romans describing the saving work of the Lord, Paul breaks out into worship, culminating with the verse, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” The aim and goal of everything that God does is His glory (His honor, His fame, Him being made much of). Everything serves as a means to that great end. We are to have the same mindset, for the very reason of our existence is for His name to be hallowed. This includes the forgiveness of our sins. For God, as well as for us, forgiveness is a means to an end. The reason why we should highly appreciate our forgiveness is because it makes God look glorious in His mercy and love.
Our enjoyment of God is also the aim of Christianity. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). And God, in His rich mercy and great love, is working our redemption in Christ so “that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7). In order for a just and holy God to bless us freely and to love us without any friction or hesitation or reservation, He had to deal with the thing which created the breech in our relationship: our sin. As well, we couldn’t enjoy His fellowship if we knew there were unresolved issues between us. We would not feel free to enter into communion with the living God if we still had iniquity which demanded appeasement, if we still feared that the Judge of all the earth would bring out our transgressions against Him in order to settle our account. So, God forgives us of our sins in order that we made be brought back to Him and enjoy Him forever. The reason why we should enjoy the forgiveness of our sins is because it brings us into the free and open communion with our blessed God and Savior.
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It is also true that forgiveness isn’t the finish line of Christianity. It is the starting point. Forgiveness brings us into the Christian life. When a person becomes a Christian by faith alone, God forgives them of all their sin (past, present, future) and justifies them (declares them righteous in His sight). It is a once-for-all declaration of God at conversion, and this becomes the reality in which the believer forever dwells. It wouldn’t be out of place to suggest that this is the greatest act of God a person can experience in this life. However, forgiveness of sins is but one of the many blessings of God found in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14) and justification is but one link in the golden chain of redemption (Romans 8:30). From here (forgiveness, justification) the Christian matures and grows in knowledge, love, and obedience to Christ. And the Christian can freely do good works without thinking he is trying to earn God’s favor or feel he is earning his salvation, for these have both been accomplished by Jesus Christ and have been forever given to him by faith at his conversion (and they are the reality in which he forever stands).
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But if someone is not growing in the other saving graces of God, they show that they have never been truly forgiven in the first place. For the God who forgives and justifies is also the God who sanctifies and matures the believer. The Holy Spirit who creates faith and repentance will always continue creating faith and repentance and will, with these initiating graces, produce godly desires and obedience too. The God who begins a good work (forgiveness) will also complete it (sanctification and, eventually, glorification). If the Spirit is in someone, He will bring the believer to the aim and end of Christianity: the glory of God and our enjoyment of Him.
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John Kastamo