The Forgiveness of Sins (The Creed, Part 19)

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

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I believe in the forgiveness of sins. You’ll often hear Christians say things like, well, why do I have to go back to church? I hear the same thing over and over again. When we hear Jesus died for us every single Sunday. Why can’t we hear something different? There are some things in life that we do need to hear over and over again.

For instance, in my marriage, could you imagine that if I were to tell my wife, “honey, I told you I loved you the day I married you. Why do you need to hear it again?” Oh, that would be nonsense, wouldn’t it? We need to hear that phrase “I love you” over and over again in our relationships. Why? Because I’m a flawed human being and I mess up every day. My wife could tell you that. We need to constantly reaffirm and reassure each other that the relationship is still real, that I’m still committed to you.

How much more true is that in our relationship with God? We sin every day and every day we need to be reminded that God has every right to cast us off forever and disown us forever in hell. But he doesn’t. Again and again and again, he reaffirms his love for you. As a Christian, I need to hear God tell me I love you. The relationship is still real. I’m still committed to you. Your sins are forgiven.

Now a Christian might come back and say, well, but I already know all that. I know God loves me. I know God forgives me. I can pray to God as often as I want and ask for the forgiveness of sins. And that is true. But God isn’t the only spiritual relationship in our lives. The other spiritual relationship is a little bit darker. It’s the relationship with the devil and the fallen angels and the demons that constantly want to tempt and coerce us into sin.

As Christians, oftentimes we think that the devil’s end game is to just get me to commit one sin, which I can just turn around and say I’m sorry for any time I want. But that’s not really the goal. The goal is influence. Every time I listen to the devil, every time I listen to his temptations and his lies, the devil gains a little bit more ground in my heart. And centimeter by centimeter, he tries to take control. And it just makes the next temptation a little bit easier and a little bit easier. You see what the forgiveness of sins does is it causes the devil to relinquish his hold on my heart. The Lord Jesus, when he gave the forgiveness of sins to his church, he meant it to be shared from person to person, to be shared through a handful of water, to be shared by eating and drinking, to be shared by a pastor’s hand on your head, declaring to you your sins are forgiven. Satan must relinquish his hold on your heart and your life.

And so my encouragement to you is one, rejoice in the forgiveness of sins. It’s wonderful. It’s amazing. But also, if there’s sin in your life, if you feel that weight on your soul, go speak to your pastor and find the comfort and reassurance that yes, God still loves you and your sins are forgiven through Jesus.

Amen.