June
27, 2003
REPENTANCE
AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS
"If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"
(1 John 1:9, NKJV).
Jesus
is ever ready to speak peace to souls that are burdened with
sin, doubts and fears. He waits for us to open the door of
the heart to Him, and say, "Abide with me." He says,
"Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will
come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me"
(Revelation 3:20). He is our loving compassionate Saviour
"who forgives all your iniquities" (Psalm 103:3).
"Seek
the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will
have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
"Who
is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the
transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not
retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He
will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea"
(Micah 7:18, 19). "I have blotted
out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud,
your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you"
(Isaiah 44:22).
"
'As I live,' says the Lord God,
'I have no pleasure in the death of
the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die?...
When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits
iniquity, he shall die because of it. But when the wicked
turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right,
he shall live because of it' (Ezekiel 33:11, 18, 19).
Jesus
is "longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter
3:9). And this is precisely why Jesus came to suffer and die
on our behalf. "Then He said to them, 'Thus
it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all
nations' " (Luke 24:46, 47).
Paul
admonishes us to not "despise the riches of His goodness,
forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4). God is
good, He is so good to me!
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