Most Christians have no trouble believing that Jesus has forgiven them of all their past sins. Many, however, have great trouble believing that Jesus has already forgiven them of all their future sins as well. Because of this lack in revelation, they feel they have to continually confess and repent of their sins and be cleansed of them, and they feel far from God until they have done so. They get caught up in what the Bible calls “dead works” or “faithless works” because they do not have a revelation of total forgiveness.
The truth is, God doesn’t forgive us our sins, He forgave us our sins! Forgiveness is past tense, not future tense. It is a completed work, not something we hope will happen one day, and is also not an ongoing process via instalments. Our forgiveness is past tense, it happened 2000 years ago. When we came into Christ, we came into total and complete forgive- ness of all the sins we have ever committed, and all the sins we will ever commit! The Cross looked ahead at every sin and dealt with it right there!
If the Cross only dealt with past sins, it would mean that only those who sinned before the crucifixion could be forgiven. Everyone born after Jesus would not be able to receive forgiveness and would be stuck with their sin! Their only hope would be for Jesus to be crucified again.
Similarly, if Jesus’ crucifixion didn’t atone for your future sin, then every time you sin, He would have to be crucified again in order for those newly committed sins to be atoned for. This is clearly impossible as Christ can never die again! Nor is it necessary. The Bible is clear, He forgave us all our sins – past, present and future!
The reason many can’t accept this, is because they still have an Old Covenant mindset of having to offer a sacrifice to pay for their sin. When you don’t see how the “once for all” sacrifice of Christ has completely dealt with all sin, from the start of time to the end of time, then you’ll feel you need to continually offer something to pay for your sin and get rid of the guilt. Look at how the book of Hebrews 10:11-14 explains this:
“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
Jesus offered one sacrifice for all sins for all time! Let that sink in and it will change your life.
