Why We Are Forgiven

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 1, 1906

Why We Are Forgiven

God's forgiveness does not carry with it permission to sin again. If that were its purpose, our sins had better go unforgiven. To be forgiven is to be freed from the death penalty of sin. No man can be fairly expected to do good work in any line who is staggering along under the load of the sentence of death. In order to release men from that crushing burden, God in Christ forgives their sins. And we are forgiven in order that we may live, and seek the way of life; not in order that we may return again to the way of death. When a father wipes clean the sheet of his son's debts, he does it, not in order that the son may safely incur new debts, but that the son may have a fair chance once more to live within his income and keep out of debt. Yet how strong is the temptation to feel, after we have squarely faced and acknowledged yesterday's sin, and asked and received forgiveness for it, that now we have secured the right to little carelessness or laxity! God does forgive seventy times seven, but the only confession of sin and prayer for forgiveness that is worth the making is uttered in the determination to fulfil the purpose of God's forgiveness: final and complete victory now through Christ.—Sunday School Times.