How to Ask Forgiveness

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. (1 John 1:9)

I recall hearing one of my professors in seminary say that one of the best tests of a person’s theology was the effect it has on our prayers.

This struck me as true because of what was happening in my own life. Noël and I had just been married and we were making it our practice to pray together each evening. I noticed that during the biblical courses which were shaping my theology most profoundly, my prayers were changing dramatically.

Probably the most significant change in those days was that I was learning to make my case before God on the ground of his glory. Beginning with “Hallowed be Thy name” and ending with “In Jesus’s name” meant that the glory of God’s name was the goal and the ground of everything I prayed.

And what a strength came into my life when I learned that praying for forgiveness should be based not only on an appeal to God’s mercy, but also on an appeal to his justice in crediting the worth of his Son’s obedience. God is faithful and just and will forgive your sins (1 John 1:9).

In the New Testament, the basis of all forgiveness of sins is revealed more clearly than it was in the Old Testament, but the basis, namely, God’s commitment to his name, does not change.

Paul teaches that the death of Christ demonstrated God’s righteousness in passing over sins, and vindicated God’s justice in justifying the ungodly who bank on Jesus and not themselves (Romans 3:25–26).

In other words, Christ died once for all to clear the name of God in what looks like a gross miscarriage of justice — the acquittal of guilty sinners simply for Jesus’s sake. But Jesus died in such a way that forgiveness “for Jesus’s sake” is the same as forgiveness “for the sake of God’s name.” There is no miscarriage of justice. God’s name, his righteousness, his justice is vindicated in the very act of providing such a God-honoring sacrifice.

As Jesus said as he faced that last hour, “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name” (John 12:27–28). That is exactly what he did — so that he might be both just and the justifier of those who trust in Jesus (Romans 3:26).

John Piper 

Are you working toward holiness?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Leviticus 11:44 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Some people think that to be holy means to be odd—really strange.  No, we’re to be different. We have too many Christians doing—sometimes nutty, sometimes unbiblical—things, who claim to be holy when in reality they are just odd.

Holiness is not achieved by what we wear, where we sleep and eat, or how many spiritual things we do. It is not primarily a matter of dress or style of hair. And we don’t become holy if we live in a commune, monastery, or convent.

God makes us holy by the blood of His Son. And in return for this great love, we endeavor to live holy lives because we love Him. “Holy” is a state of being, not doing. It is a God-induced, God-developed character trait that grows in us as we grow in our love relationship with God.

ACTION POINT:

Instead of trying to think of ways in which you can appear to be holy or trying to convince God that you are, I recommend this: in humble submission to the One who loves you more than anyone else, ask Him: “Lord, I’m your servant. Show me throughout this day how best to honor You and serve You.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Reaching Out In Love

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  - Isaiah 1:18

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 

9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 

11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  - Psalm 51:1-12

Come as you are!

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

Know the one and only Lord!

Jesus is your mediator.

Do you know God, the mighty One?

There are false gods who will lead you into eternal damnation! 

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. - 1 Timothy 2:5-6

And he said, "See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. - Luke 21:8

God Demonstrates His Love

God shows [demonstrates] his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Notice that “demonstrates” is present tense and “died” is past tense. “God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The present tense implies that this demonstrating is an ongoing act that keeps happening today. And will keep happening tomorrow.

The past tense “died” implies that the death of Christ happened once for all and will not be repeated. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Why did Paul use the present tense (“God demonstrates”)? I would have expected Paul to say, “God demonstrated (past tense) his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Was not the death of Christ, when it happened, the demonstration of God’s love? And did not that demonstration happen in the past?

I think the clue is given a few verses earlier. Paul has just said that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3–5).

In other words, the goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations.

But how can we?

Paul answers in the next line: “Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). God’s love has been poured into our hearts. The tense of this verb means that God’s love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and is still present and active.

God did demonstrate his love for us in giving his own Son to die once for all in the past for our sins (Romans 5:8). But he also knows that this past love must be experienced as a present reality (today and tomorrow) if we are to have patience and character and hope.

Therefore, he not only demonstrated it on Calvary; he goes on demonstrating it now by the Spirit in our hearts. He does this by opening the eyes of our hearts to taste and see the glory of the cross and the guarantee it gives that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38–39).

John Piper 

God’s love redeems you

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people. Luke 1:68

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Hymn writer Fanny Crosby wrote, “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am.” Do you love to proclaim it? Oh, how I pray you do.

Isaac Watts wrote, “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small: Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Have you given your soul, your life, your all to this Amazing Love?

ACTION POINT:

Jesus did not bathe this planet with His blood to have you serve the world, the flesh, and the devil. He died to make you holy. You are not your own. First Corinthians 6:20 says, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Dirty Rags No More

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6)

It is true that any shortcoming of God’s law offends his perfect holiness and makes us liable to judgment, since God cannot look with favor on any sin (Habakkuk 1:13; James 2:10–11).

But what brought a person to ruin in the Old Testament (and it is the same for us today) was not the failure to have the righteousness of sinless perfection. What brought them to ruin was the failure to trust in the merciful promises of God, especially the hope that he would one day provide a Redeemer who would be a perfect righteousness for his people (“The Lord is our righteousness,” Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). The Old Testament saints knew that this is how they were saved, and that this faith was the key to obedience, and that obedience was the evidence of this faith.

It is terribly confusing when people say that the only righteousness that has any value is the imputed righteousness of Christ. To be sure, justification is not grounded on any of our righteousness — even Spirit-given righteousness by faith — but only on the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. But sometimes people are careless and speak disparagingly of all human righteousness, as if there were no such righteousness worked in us that pleased God. This is not helpful.

They often cite Isaiah 64:6, which says our righteousness is as filthy rags, or “a polluted garment.”

But in the context, Isaiah 64:6 does not mean that all righteousness performed by God’s people is unacceptable to God. Isaiah is referring to people whose righteousness is in fact hypocritical. It is no longer righteousness. But in the verse just before this, Isaiah says that God approvingly meets “him who joyfully works righteousness” (Isaiah 64:5).

It’s true — gloriously true — that none of God’s people, before or after the cross, would be accepted by an immaculately holy God if the perfect righteousness of Christ were not imputed to us (Romans 5:19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). That is true! But that does not mean God does not produce in those very “justified” people an experiential righteousness that is not a “polluted garment” — even though it is not yet perfected.

In fact, he does produce such a righteousness, and this righteousness is precious to God and is, in fact, required — not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ only), but as an evidence of our being truly justified children of God. This is what Paul prays for, and we should pray for. He prays in Philippians 1:10–11 “that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

John Piper 

Are you only infatuated with God?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:8

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Wisdom is not gained by seeing the works of God. It is gained by knowing the ways of God. When the Israelites were wandering in the desert, all they could see were the works of God. But Moses got to see His ways.

The Israelites were infatuated with God as long as He was providing everything for them. But when troubles came, their love affair with God died quickly. They began to murmur and complain:

“Same old manna! Where’s fresh water? We miss those leeks and garlic we used to have!”

They’d already forgotten what they didn’t miss: toiling as slaves; the taskmaster’s whip; no freedom; angry Pharaoh. 

Moses saw the wilderness from God’s perspective, however, and approached God in humility. As a result, God taught him to lead His people out of darkness into light.

ACTION POINT:

Do you know the ways of God? Have you learned to see life from His point of view? Or are you still trusting in your view of life to get you through hard times? Bow before God and ask Him to ignite a vision for His glory, a bold desire to lead the lost to Him, and an unconditional passion to love Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers