From our Sunday service on January 19, 2025, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 John 1, Isaiah 43, Genesis 3, Isaiah 59, and Romans 8. Watch the full message: How Can We Know We Are Forgiven? on YouTube.
This message came from a question one of our church members asked about forgiveness. If one of us has questions, it’s probably a good topic for all of us. Today I want to talk about how we can know we are forgiven.
If you looked outside this week, you saw a lot of snow, and I can’t help but think of Psalm 51:7.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalm 51:7
Look outside when the snow is falling and what do you see? Nothing but white as far as the eye can see. It’s like the joke from elementary school: “I drew a picture in art class.” “What is it?” “A snowman in a blizzard.” And it’s just a white sheet of paper. That’s the picture this verse is drawing. Nothing but pure white.
So how do we know Christ can truly forgive us and wash us to 100% purity? How do I know I’m good enough to receive that forgiveness? The Bible tells us matter-of-factly that God removes our sin so completely that our lives are transformed and we can be whiter than the snow outside. Even so, sometimes we struggle to know we’ve received forgiveness. When you leave here today, I pray the one thing you learn is that God wants you to know you are forgiven.
Our ability to be forgiven is not a mystery and not wishful thinking. It is grounded in two unshakable realities: the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the unchanging promises of Scripture.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Is Our Assurance
To have confidence in our forgiveness, we need to know two things. First, that Jesus was who he said he was: God come in the flesh to die on the cross for our sins. Second, that God truly wants to and is willing to forgive us. Paul tells us where to look for confidence in Jesus’s truthfulness.
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
1 Corinthians 15:13–14
There is no gospel of Jesus Christ if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Atheists often use this as an argument against us: “If Christ didn’t rise, then it’s nothing. That’s supernatural and impossible, so how can you believe your salvation?” They act like it’s a new revelation, but Paul and Scripture themselves say that if Jesus didn’t rise, everything we’re talking about means nothing. Our entire ability to know we’re saved comes from the fact that Jesus died, didn’t stay dead, was in the tomb three days and three nights, and rose on the third day as vindication that what he said was true. He foretold his death, and God raised him up to prove it was truly our salvation.
Why would our preaching be meaningless if the resurrection weren’t true? If Jesus didn’t keep his promise to return to his disciples, how can we trust him to keep any other? He would just be a liar and a false prophet. In the Old Testament, if a prophet failed even once, he was considered a false prophet across the board, and one false prophecy was enough to condemn you to death under Israel’s law. By that standard, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead as he said, he was a false prophet. So we need to know for a fact that he rose.
I have good news: the Bible is full of historic eyewitness accounts of Jesus. At a secular college or university they’ll tell you these books aren’t reliable, that they were written years and years after the fact. But if you treat Scripture like any other book of history, like the accounts of Alexander the Great or the pharaohs of Egypt, you have one of the most attested facts in all of history. Almost all secular historians do not deny the death of Jesus Christ. It’s not a disputed thing. If they’re honest with themselves, everyone knows that Christ died on a cross under Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, in the Roman Empire, around AD 30.
So did Jesus truly rise? First, from a secular perspective: the people who refuted Christianity in the time of Jesus don’t refute the fact that the Christians believed he rose from the dead. You’ll never find an archaeological discovery saying, “Actually, Jesus wasn’t seen by his disciples, this is what happened.” You’ll only find, hundreds of years later, the theory that the Jews stole the body. The body disappeared, and that is a fact of history. There’s no archaeological or historical evidence that it stayed there. Every account we have agrees there was no body. They just disagree about how it disappeared.
Now the Bible. We have four gospel accounts, two by eyewitnesses and two by people who talked to eyewitnesses. They all agree the body disappeared. Who are you going to trust, the Roman Empire or the person who was there when the body was gone? In any secular university, on any secular topic, that would be enough to prove an event happened. They’d be jumping up and down celebrating the evidence. But because it has to do with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they push the evidence aside and say it isn’t valid because it’s religious. It wasn’t religious when it was written. It was eyewitness testimony.
Luke was a doctor, and he didn’t approach his Gospel from a religious perspective but a historical one. He collected all the documents he could get to explain to Theophilus what happened with Jesus Christ. People were asking why the followers of Jesus were so committed to this cause, so Luke went around and talked to all these eyewitnesses and gave it to Theophilus: “This is why the Christians are so committed. This is what they saw, and they couldn’t dispute it.”
Before Jesus rose, the disciples gave up. Peter went back to fishing. “It’s game over. My prophet’s dead.” Something happened that pulled them back, something unexplainable. No one had survived a Roman crucifixion. If the Romans were known for anything, it was that they knew how to kill a person. Nobody gets nailed to a cross in the Roman Empire and walks away alive. We even get the word “excruciating” from it, because of how cruel the Romans were on the cross.
So when Jesus, crucified on a Roman cross, came back from the dead, the eyewitnesses said, “All these things he said are no longer up for debate.” He had said, “I and my Father are one,” and now the man they saw nailed to a tree, bleeding water and blood, was walking with them with holes in his hands, eating alongside them, and teaching them for forty days. More than five hundred people saw him alive at once. That’s the only explanation we have for how Christianity could take over the Roman Empire so quickly. Historians might say, “We know they believed it, we just don’t know why they were so convinced.” They say that because they believe in a purely secular, materialistic world where no miracles can happen. But the disciples were committed even to death under excruciating penalty only because they saw something they couldn’t explain or dispute.
We even have Paul, who saw him. Paul was against Christianity and had every reason not to switch sides. He had his whole life set out, where he could live comfortably and be famous in Israel. Yet when Jesus Christ came to him and said, in effect, “You’re on the wrong side, Paul, I need you on my team,” he switched. Can a historian explain why you’d go from the side of the comfortable and praised to the side of the persecuted and outcast? Paul saw something he couldn’t explain.
Christ’s victory over death demonstrates that he has the authority to forgive and the power to transform lives. When Jesus said “It is finished” on the cross, the resurrection confirmed that what he said was true. Our confidence doesn’t rest in how we feel about our salvation or the things we do, but on the historical, proven fact that Jesus truly rose from the dead. Because he lives, we know his promises of forgiveness are true and we can live with him in eternity.
The Promise of Scripture
Now that we know Jesus is a reliable prophet, what did he promise? John was one of the closest disciples to Jesus, the disciple “whom Jesus loved,” so he knew Jesus pretty well, and he wrote 1 John.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:7–9
Here is the promise that Jesus will cleanse all who walk with him. There is a stipulation, though: to be saved, you have to admit you are a sinner. To become a believer is to believe what Jesus said is true and to trust him to do it. What he said is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that a man must be born again, that we need a transformation and a savior. If you say you’ve never sinned, you’re lying to yourself, and you’re escaping grace by denying the gift Jesus gave you. On the other hand, the opposite of “if we say we have no sin” is “if we confess our sins”: we say that we do have sin, and then God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I don’t think this is new to any of us. We’ve probably memorized this verse. The question is whether we believe it. When we say, “I’m a sinner, I’m sorry, Lord,” do we truly believe he says, “Okay, I’m going to take that and remove it,” that he will make us whiter than snow and wash that dirty life perfectly clean?
Why Does God Forgive Us?
Some of us struggle to understand how God could forgive us time and time again. Some of us have failed hundreds if not thousands of times on the same issue, and those continual slip-ups become discouraging. Is God tired of forgiving me? Can I be forgiven the 1,798th time? Let’s look at the heart of God and why he chooses to forgive.
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
Isaiah 43:24–25
This is God speaking about Israel, how time and time again they fell into sin and betrayed him. “Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money” means you haven’t given to the temple, you haven’t given me anything enjoyable. There’s been no sweetness in your offering. “Neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices”: all the sacrifices except the sin offerings were optional, so he’s saying you haven’t gone out of your way to give me gifts to thank me for being your God. You’re doing the bare minimum. And on top of that, “thou hast made me to serve with thy sins”: you’re making me deal with your sinful life.
That gets personal. We might not associate with the offerings of the Old Testament, but we can associate with falling into sin. God says, “I have to deal with your sins,” and “thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.” Here we get to that thought of the same sin over a thousand times. Is God tired of me? Here God says he is wearied. It’s been going on and on, you haven’t given me anything nice, you’re sinning, and boy, am I sorrowed and tired of watching you fall over and over. When we doubt God’s goodness, this is what we think God feels.
But look at verse 25. “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake.” Though God is wearied by our sin, though he is exhausted by seeing us fail time and time again, and despite the lack of sacrifice, sweetness, and purity, he says he will be the one who blots out our transgressions. The words “serve” and “wearied” literally mean, in the original languages, that we have forced God to work hard and made him exhausted by the length of it. Yet he does it for his own sake and will not remember our sins. He forgives and never brings it up again, not because of what you’ve done but because of who he is.
If God felt this way in the Old Testament, in the age of law before the blood of Jesus Christ, how much more is he ready to forgive in the age of grace? When we doubt God’s ability to forgive, it’s not about who God is but who we are. We think, “I’m the sinner who has fallen a thousand times. I’m the one who can’t get out of this bad habit.” We start focusing on ourselves and stop focusing on God. Stop thinking about what I’ve done and start thinking about what God did. He says, “It’s done. I’m ready to forgive you, no matter how many times or how hard it is, for my own sake.”
This isn’t a one-off. It’s repeated time and again in the Bible.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:34
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:8–12
This beautiful poem paints a picture of God’s grace. God doesn’t treat us a certain way because of the number of our sins. He doesn’t reward us according to how many bad things we’ve done. His mercy is as great as the heavens are high above the earth, infinitely higher. And just in case we didn’t get the idea that the heavens are infinitely high, the psalmist adds another picture: as far as the east is from the west. No matter where you go, you can keep going east, or keep going west, looping around forever. That’s how far he has removed our transgressions from us. He has dealt with us according to his mercy and grace, which means our sins are never coming back.
Forgiveness Means Transformation
Forgiveness isn’t just wiping the slate clean. It’s also about transformation. God doesn’t desire our suffering. He desires our growth and restoration. He doesn’t want to just beat us down for our sins. He wants us to live life, as Jesus said, more abundantly, a life full of joy and peace and hope through him.
In Romans 7, Paul describes sin as something like a disease that infects us, an intruder in our lives. It isn’t what defines us. Paul says the things I don’t want to do, those are the things I do, and the things I want to do, those are the things I don’t do, and so it’s not me but the sin that dwells in me. Sin is not me, and I am not sin. Sin is an infection that has a cure, and the cure is the resurrection. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, but for those who are saved we will be resurrected and restored, and the sin that lives in us will be removed. God says, “I know in this world you’re going to mess up and struggle, but one day I’m going to remove that sin. It’s not part of you, so I can pull it aside. Ultimately you will find victory, and all you have to do is trust in me through Christ.” As Romans 8 teaches, we find freedom and victory over sin. This transformation reflects God’s mercy. He delights in fixing the brokenhearted, in restoring the lost, in making us whole again, and the resurrection is the promise that this work will be completed in us. Paul also says in that original passage that the reason we know there’s a resurrection is that Jesus was resurrected. So the resurrection is proof not only that our sins are forgiven but that we will be resurrected and sin will ultimately be removed.
Does Sin Separate Us from God?
Now we know Christ is who he said he is and has both the desire and the power to forgive sins. Yet sometimes we still doubt. I think part of this is due to the greatest lie ever told, a lie Satan wants believers to believe: that sin separates believers from God. One of the most damaging lies in Christian teaching is that sin separates the Christian from God. Satan wants us to believe it so that we never choose to live for Christ or devote ourselves to him. Scripture paints a different picture. Let’s go back to the first sin and see who actually draws away from God.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
Genesis 3:8–10
Satan wants you to believe sin separates us from God. But look at the first sin ever committed: was it God who separated from man, or man who separated from God? When sin separates us from God, it’s not God removing himself because he can’t be around sin. It’s us moving away from God because of our shame. God doesn’t want us to run away when we sin or to be far off from us. In the garden God didn’t wait for Adam and Eve to repent. He came to them, to the sinner, to talk. Why do we believe God is so far from us when we’re sinful? Because of our guilt, because we feel that’s what we deserve. It wasn’t God who withdrew; it was Adam and Eve who hid out of shame. It’s our own shame and guilt that separates us from God. God never moves away from us; we move away from him.
Look next at Job 1, where we see that even Satan, the fallen angel, the deceiver and accuser of mankind, is allowed in God’s presence.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:6–7
If God can’t be around sin, why can Satan go to the throne room of God and accuse the believer? If God permits Satan, the original tempter of man, to be in his throne room, why do we as Christians feel afraid to approach him because we’re too sinful? Why do you think sin keeps God away from you? Do you think God is too afraid to be around a sinful, broken person? What about Jesus?
And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Mark 2:15–17
Jesus, who was God, was known for hanging around the sinful. Where was Jesus when he was on earth? Did he spend all day teaching at the temple, walking with the faithful? No. He went to the sinners living in sin, to the prostitutes, the thieves, and those who defrauded each other, and sat down at the table and said, “I know you’re sinners, but let me tell you what God thinks about you.” He went to the woman at the well, who was living with a man she wasn’t married to, and said, “I’ve got a solution to your problem of sin.” God didn’t wait for them to repent. He went to the sinner and put his influence on their life until they changed.
So, Christian, why do you feel God is so far from you if everything in the Bible tells you he’s near? The people who need God the most in any given moment are those in sin. Didn’t Jesus say that a good shepherd leaves the ninety and nine in safety and chases after the one that is lost? He makes it clear he wants to be near those in sin because he has the solution.
What Isaiah 59 and Psalm 66 Are Actually Saying
Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1–2
We read this and think “he will not hear” means he’s ignoring us. But the word “hear” in Hebrew is synonymous with the English word “listen,” and it carries the idea of obedience, listen and obey. When you tell your child, “You need to listen to me,” you’re not saying they need to hear the audible words. You’re saying they need to follow your commands. So when God says he will not hear you, he’s saying he’s not going to answer your prayers, because why would God bless someone living in sin? It’s not that he’s ignoring your whole life. It’s that he’s not going to bless you when you’re walking the wrong direction. He won’t reinforce your self-destructive behavior with blessings while you reject the good he’s given you.
And in Isaiah 59 the problem has been resolved. Verse 11 says, “We look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.” Skip to verse 20: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.” Even in this passage the separation will be solved through a Redeemer. Jesus came, the iniquity will be removed, and the unity restored.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38–39
Paul is convinced nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. After Christ died on the cross, the unity was rejoined. Christ says, “I’m going to remove your sins, make you a new creation, and put my Spirit inside you, 24/7, 365, so we have a direct line of communication at all times.” Christian, why do you believe your sin has separated you from God? He has put himself inside your very being to help you every step of the way.
Psalm 66 is another one we get tripped up on.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psalm 66:18–19
There’s that word “hear” again: he will not listen, he will not obey. But the next verse says God has heard me. So if we think of that verse as one that separates us, it doesn’t really apply. The word “regard” has the idea of noticing sin in my life and then watching over and protecting it. If I’m protecting my sinful lifestyle, God’s not going to answer my prayers. Again, if I’m living in sin, God’s not going to bless me in my disobedience. The application of these two verses is that God is not far from you. He’s paying attention. He has “attended to the voice of my prayer.” When you pray, he hears it. He just chooses to say, “I’m not going to bless you until you get right with me. I’m not going to give you a solution to that problem until you realize you need me in your life.” God is paying attention to you and waiting for you to do what is right so he can answer your prayers.
A more accurate statement than “sin separates us from God” would be this: if we choose to live a sinful life after we are saved, we choose to break fellowship with God. He hasn’t withdrawn from us, but we choose not to have fellowship with him. The second we’re ready to turn back, God is waiting.
God is not so tired that he says, “I don’t want to forgive you anymore, please don’t ask me again.” He has never once said that to anybody. He forgives for himself. Do you understand that? It’s his pleasure. Was it easy? No. Was the cross enjoyable? No. But he says, “You’re worth it. I am willing to go through it for you.” If he was willing to die on the cross and change history, wouldn’t he be willing to forgive you one more time? It’s us who end the conversation with God. We are the ones hiding from God in the garden.
God is the father waiting for his child to return home. Remember the story of the prodigal son. He rejected his father and ran away, and when he returned, the father threw a party. That’s supposed to represent God. The father ran to meet him, kissed him, and welcomed him with open arms. When Jesus told that story, he wanted us to know: it doesn’t matter how much you’ve messed up or wasted of what I’ve given you. Even if you take every blessing I’ve ever given, live in sin, and waste everything, when you come home I’m going to celebrate that you are back where you belong and that I can protect and care for you like I did before.
Whiter Than Snow
Back to the first verse. Psalm 51:7 reminds us of the beautiful truth that God’s forgiveness is a cleansing that makes us whiter than snow, and God really means it. His forgiveness is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promises of Scripture, and it’s built on the character of God, who will never stop pursuing us when we confess our sins. God doesn’t just forgive; he opens up an opportunity for our transformation. He will never let sin come between us and his love. So let’s leave today with the assurance that because of Jesus our sins can truly be forgiven, our lives can truly be transformed, and nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God.
God wants you to know you are forgiven. Will you start acting like you’re forgiven today?
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