Stop Asking for Forgiveness
That’s right! Knock it off. Don’t you know, you’ve already been forgiven?
I started writing an article about Balance in Faith when this thought came to me and I wanted to share it with you. I believe it will help you in accepting Faith, in raising your children, in your marriage and beyond. Forgiveness wasn’t dependent on anything you could do – not once, not twice nor as many times as you could do it. Forgiveness was offered once, for all, and it is available always and without condition. Dozens of flowers never gained forgiveness and neither does begging for it.
I found an article called Living in the Balance of Grace and Faith from Andrew Wommack Ministries which has some things in it that I can’t jive with, but this jumped out at me and I had to share with you. I nearly jumped out of my chair shouting ‘Wrong!‘ when I read this…instead I started studying and realized…it’s right!
Most of us believe that in order to be saved, we need to ask God to forgive us of our sins, but that isn’t what the Bible teaches.
As a Christian who has grown up in several different denominations as a child and then spending fifteen years in the Apostolic Pentecostal faith, there is no end to how many times I’ve heard ‘You must ask God to forgive you of your sins’. Or experienced many altar calls that started with ‘If you want the Lord to save you, you must ask him to forgive you of your sins!’
This just seems to be a staple to the Christian faith. So I turned to my favorite resource – the Bible. I searched…I searched for ‘forgive’ and ‘forgiveness’, I searched OpenBible.com and BibleGateway.com, checked out GotQuestions.org… I found several website results…that were not what they said they were.
Yet – in all the results to be found, the Bible never, ever teaches that you must ask for forgiveness to be forgiven – or for salvation! As a matter of fact, in the book of Acts Chapter 2 and verse 38 it is clearly suggested that our behavior of repentance, baptism, and spirit filled faith is in response to..that’s right, being forgiven!
“And Peter said to them, “Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 2:38, AMP
Can that be right? Is our works of faith, starting with repentance and being baptized in response to being forgiven? Perhaps this puts a new light on James’ talk about Works of Faith.
“But someone may say, “You [claim to] have faith and I have [good] works; show me your [alleged] faith without the works [if you can], and I will show you my faith by my works [that is, by what I do].” – James 2:18, AMP
Our faith seems to be in response to the knowledge that the Son of God came to take away our sins – and he did – he has already forgiven you!
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. – John 1:29, KJV
