A once forever forgiveness.
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“How many times do I need to have my sins forgiven?” “How often do I need to receive the blessing or go to communion?” “Why do I feel the need to have my sins forgiven over and over again?”
These are not uncommon questions. They are the types of questions that seemed commonplace in Old Testament Judaism, as well as Medieval Roman Catholicism. And they are questions many churchgoers today ask, too. And why might you ask these things? What beliefs might you have in common with Old Testament Jews and Roman Catholic adherents? Is it a works righteousness or performance based salvation? “No,” you say, “it’s definitely not that.” What, then, might the similarities be?
The book of Hebrews offers us some insight, especially in chapters nine and ten. It says that the rituals and sacrifices in the law could not purge the consciences of the worshipers. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year (Hebrews 10:1-3).
The sacrifices needed to be offered up continually. And the people continually participated in the rituals because their sins were not being forgiven through them and their consciences were not being perfected by them. The same thing happens in Christianity when people rely on ceremonies for the forgiveness of their sins. Divine pardon administered by man cannot bring about divine forgiveness nor truly cleanse the troubled conscience. Roman Catholicism established such a ceremony through the sacrament of confession where a person goes to a man to receive the blessing of absolution. Consequently, people needed to go to the confessional periodically to maintain their standing in their church and to appease their ongoing sense of guilt. Their ritual was no more effectual than the ancient Jew’s.
Many in Apostolic Lutheran churches have adopted this Roman Catholic ceremony in the form of the blessing. The belief is that one needs to receive forgiveness through another man, either a minister or fellow believer. And the results tend to be the same – there is a need for a continual receiving of pardon for continual sins committed. The laying of hands, or the hearing of the proclamation “believe your sins forgiven in Jesus’ name and precious blood,” has not truly forgiven the hearer nor cleansed his or her conscience of their guilt.
Hebrews, however, declares, “But this man [Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:12-18).
The forgiveness of Jesus Christ, administered by God Himself, is a full and perfect forgiveness. It is a once forever pardon in the eternal courts of God. Christ perfects for all time those that are sanctified, and God remembers their sins no more. Christ is a thorough Savior.
“But,” you might say, “what about the sins I haven’t committed yet? I believe that God gives me a clean slate when I repent and believe, but what about the ones I’m guilty of afterward? And what about my future sins?” For starters, all your sins were future sins when Jesus paid for them. He bore all your sins on the cross and paid the full penalty for every one of them. And further, it would be unjust for God to punish you for something He has already punished Christ for – God does not make you pay again for a debt that has already been paid. And the redemption found in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is not a temporary one. When God declares someone to be righteous in His sight through the merits of Christ, it is an eternal declaration. His decrees of pardon stand for all ages. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified…And their sins and iniquities [God] will remember no more (Hebrews 10:14, 17).
This once for all forgiveness does not come about through ceremonies or rituals, but through faith alone. This is why the New Testament exhorts everyone to “call upon the name of the Lord.” Salvation comes through believing in Jesus Christ, not through a man-administered ritual. If you have a troubled conscience, if you feel the need to go through the same ceremony over and over again to appease your guilt, you need to go straight to God for the forgiveness of your sins. Man cannot purify your conscience. God’s forgiveness and His salvation, on the other hand, is perfect. It is whole and complete and forever. Go straight to the Lord and find peace for your soul. May He purify you and grant you the assurance of His great and everlasting salvation.
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John Kastamo
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