How do you walk – as forgiven or still dead in your sins? When you’ve gone to the Lord repentant, seeking forgiveness, and determined to not repeat do you then walk as forgiven or do you hold on to your guilt? For many, they still walk as condemned which means that they are hanging on to their sin and that they don’t believe the Lord when He says He will forgive (1John 1:9 -2:2). I don’t mean to sound harsh but if you don’t believe you are forgiven… why would you seek the Lord’s forgiveness? Are you really not repentant? Do you believe you are beyond forgiveness? Why would we be told to walk as forgiven if we really aren’t? The ramifications from your response (belief) to this basic question can’t be underestimated.
I remember a verse in Psalms in which David is ‘making his case’ and says that he is coming in his righteousness! And in Psalm 7:8 David asks the Lord to judge him according to his (David’s) righteousness. Here is a man who has committed adultery and then had the husband killed and yet he can say ‘his’ righteousness! How? This puzzled me for years until I began to understand that one of our quests is in seeking righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”(Matthew 6:33)
It’s not our righteousness, it’s God’s. And then I read 1 Corinthians 5:17-22 and saw that in making Jesus our Lord, “…we might become the righteousness of God in Him (Jesus)” (v 22) We become, righteousness is accounted to us. Remember Abraham (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3) and his faith. Just as we have to have faith, to believe we are forgiven, this faith is accounted as righteousness.
I think it’s because we should not carry the weight of sin around but to carry forgiveness, which is considerably lighter, and walk as forgiven. What does this behavior signify? That we ARE forgiven, that this is part of the inheritance we receive. That in acting on this we can give hope to those who have no hope. That it never is because of who we are, but it’s because of who Jesus is and has purchased for us.
It has to become a mindset that we are not who we were (guilty) but it’s whose we are (Jesus’s) and we can walk as forgiven. To walk as guilty means we really are dead in our trespasses and have no hope. But we have hope, we have a promise summarized in Ephesians 2:1,4-6:
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins …
But God…made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up
together and made us sit together in the heavenly places…”
We have a wonderful message to share that brings hope and peace – forgiven.
