The Forgiveness of Sin

     Luther spoke of the forgiveness of sin as life and blessedness, and we ought to thank God for the real forgiveness of real sin.  Real guilt is only forgiven through real forgiveness.  If there is not real forgiveness there is not real peace.  There is a forgiveness, peace or comfort that is not authentic.  The only authentic forgiveness comes from God alone.  Only real forgiveness brings real peace.  We get forgiveness by the Word and the Spirit that changed our hearts.  Confession of sin is a continual lifestyle for the Christian. When we fall into sin, it does not mean we lose our justification.  It means that we have displeased God and we must ask for forgiveness.  We may miss some sin in our lives but these sins are covered also.  There is no greater joy or happiness then forgiveness of sin.  Real happiness and real joy is the real forgiveness of sin, but without it we are truly nothing.  We ought to forgive our neighbor and forgive ourselves of what we have done.  We should forgive and forget because it is how God deals with our sin.  He forgives and forgets our sin through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  We have sinned against God and our neighbor.  We must recognize the problem of being forgiven for a particular sin and repent.  Understanding forgiveness is a question of accountability.  We have the personal responsibility to hold ourselves accountable to repent of our daily sins, because it is an offense against a holy God.  We must discover the reality of genuine forgiveness.  The Christian faith teaches that there is no sin so great as to take you out of His hand.  We ought not to worry that continual sin will take us out of His Hand.  In fact, no sin will take us out of His Hand.  There is an offense that people have when they behold the Cross because His love is free and everlasting, but also offends people that God is so gracious, loving and compassionate.  Regret and repentance are two different things.  Sometimes people may regret something but they have not repented.  We must repent of our sins when we realize it has caused others harm.  We ought to have a humble and contrite spirit and tremble at His holy Word.  We can’t separate Jesus from His Cross; we must take the two together.  Without the Cross there is no forgiveness, but with the Cross there is forgiveness of sin.  Repentance is an acknowledgement of reality.  We ought to own up to what we did that was wrong.  We ought to reverse our behavior in what we did that was wrong and confess our guilt before God.  We ought also to confess our sins before our responsible brother to have him or her pray for you.  We ought to restore what was lost and rebuild our character.  Repentance must change our attitude, but if we find ourselves reoccurring in sin we must battle the flesh in a war between good and evil.  We have the gift of repentance by God through His Holy Spirit.  Forgiveness cannot be earned but it is a gift from God.  Amen.