God stands ready to forgive us of our sins.
He has accepted that, as it says in Genesis 8:21, “…the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth,” But, as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4, He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Similarly, Ezekiel 18:32 says, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
Because God has accepted that man’s heart is evil from his youth, it is His forgiveness that will save us if we confess our sins. Even if we have come to the knowledge of the truth, but through our inclination to sin have turned away from that truth, we may ask for His Forgiveness.
For those who have once grasped God through the knowledge of the truth will never really lose the truth once they have learned it. It is with them whether they keep their faith in God or they may, through their inclination to sin, turn away from Him from time to time. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
We cannot really shake off the truth once we have seen it. We cannot really shake off the Light of God through Jesus once we have learned it. Jesus made us born again, helping us to shake off our prior sins. But in our new lives, because we are not perfect, we may sin again, turning away from God as we give into earthly temptation. But God does not stop forgiving us after we are born again.
Some have said, though, to look at Hebrews 6:4-6 which says, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and shave shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” They ask, ‘Doesn’t that mean that once we have gone astray after receiving the knowledge of the truth, we then can never get back into God’s good graces if He gave them to us to begin with? Doesn’t that mean that God will not forgive us if we have sinned after learning of the truth?’
I tell you that being born again does not prevent us from obtaining God’s forgiveness if we have gone astray. Hebrews 6:4-6 is not a condemnation, it is merely a statement of an obvious fact. If I may offer an earthly analogy, a person learns how to ride a bike, but they stopped riding for a while. Does that mean they never can ride a bike again? Who here hasn’t asserted that once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget it…and since you never forget it, you can always rejoin the people you used to go biking with?
Asking for forgiveness is our way of getting back on the bike of repentance in coming to God, after avoiding it for a time. And as it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
He has accepted that, as it says in Genesis 8:21, “…the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth,” But, as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4, He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Similarly, Ezekiel 18:32 says, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
Because God has accepted that man’s heart is evil from his youth, it is His forgiveness that will save us if we confess our sins. Even if we have come to the knowledge of the truth, but through our inclination to sin have turned away from that truth, we may ask for His Forgiveness.
For those who have once grasped God through the knowledge of the truth will never really lose the truth once they have learned it. It is with them whether they keep their faith in God or they may, through their inclination to sin, turn away from Him from time to time. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
We cannot really shake off the truth once we have seen it. We cannot really shake off the Light of God through Jesus once we have learned it. Jesus made us born again, helping us to shake off our prior sins. But in our new lives, because we are not perfect, we may sin again, turning away from God as we give into earthly temptation. But God does not stop forgiving us after we are born again.
Some have said, though, to look at Hebrews 6:4-6 which says, “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and shave shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” They ask, ‘Doesn’t that mean that once we have gone astray after receiving the knowledge of the truth, we then can never get back into God’s good graces if He gave them to us to begin with? Doesn’t that mean that God will not forgive us if we have sinned after learning of the truth?’
I tell you that being born again does not prevent us from obtaining God’s forgiveness if we have gone astray. Hebrews 6:4-6 is not a condemnation, it is merely a statement of an obvious fact. If I may offer an earthly analogy, a person learns how to ride a bike, but they stopped riding for a while. Does that mean they never can ride a bike again? Who here hasn’t asserted that once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget it…and since you never forget it, you can always rejoin the people you used to go biking with?
Asking for forgiveness is our way of getting back on the bike of repentance in coming to God, after avoiding it for a time. And as it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."