APOSTLES’ CREED: The Forgiveness of Sins
“I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
Most people believe that forgiveness is a good thing. It may be therapeutic to forgive yourself, because guilt and shame sap energy, distort relationships, and poison life.
Yet what is forgiveness?
Some people believe forgiveness is not dwelling on past mistakes. When one prominent politician was asked whether he had ever asked God for forgiveness, he answered, “I am not sure that I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there…I don‘t bring God into that picture.” (Donald J. Trump, CNN, July 18, 2015)
Some people view forgiveness as a blank check, to do whatever they feel like. They glibly say, “Jesus forgives me, so I’m OK. I can do whatever I feel like.” (for example, TV show Bachelorette, 2019)
Some people say they believe in forgiveness, but they are still burdened by guilt and shame. They feel like the slate is not really clean, and they can never escape their failure and sin.
When we say in the creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins,” we are talking specifically about GOD’S FORGIVENESS. God’s forgiveness is deeply effective in making people whole.
God’s forgiveness is truthful, just, and transformational.
GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS TRUTHFUL.
1 John 1:8-9 says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
There must be 50 ways to avoid facing the truth about sin.
Hiding, like Adam and Eve in the Garden, children hiding their faces, adults avoiding people they wronged.
Covering up, with fake alibis and half-truths.
Word games, like “I didn’t lie; I just wasn’t totally truthful.”
Excuses, like “I didn’t mean to,” or “In that situation, what could I do?”
Minimizing, like “What I did wasn’t as bad as it seemed,” or “No one got hurt too badly.”
Blame shifting: “It was the people I was with,” or “They didn’t give me a choice.”
Human nature: “I’m only human,” or I couldn’t help myself.”
Community standards: “Most people don’t think that is wrong.”
Dancing around the truth, changing the subject, selective memory, reframing the situation…
The list goes on and on.
Yet what does this do to us? Our guilt is still there. Shame is not dealt with. The fear of being exposed cripples us. Truth is blurred, and sin gains a foothold.
King David in the Old Testament had sinned grievously. He had misused his position to commit adultery, and then covered up his sin by a murderous plot against the woman’s husband. Yet he was in denial, until God sent the prophet Nathan to point out his sin. David confessed his sin, and God forgave him, even though there were consequences.
After being forgiven, David wrote Psalm 32:1-5 “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
The apostle John said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves…” Because we are our living a lie, our strength is sapped, truth is lost, and the power of sin and shame is unbroken. John goes on to say, “…If we confess our sins…God will forgive and cleanse…” It’s like stepping out of the shower, clean and fresh, after being hot, sweaty, and filthy. Truth leads to wholeness.
God’s forgiveness is truthful.
GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS JUST.
1 John 1:8-9 again, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, GOD IS FAITHFUL AND JUST and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
What does forgiveness have to do with JUSTICE? Why doesn’t God just forget about sin entirely? Why does he have to get involved with what people do to each other? Would it hurt him to give general amnesty to everybody at the end of every day?
God loves us too much to do that. Like an infection, sin corrupts and destroys, and it has to be treated. It corrupts us, it corrupts our most intimate relationships, and it corrupts our good intentions.
God loves the world too much to ignore sin. Croatian theologian Miraslav Volf speaks from his experience in the conflict that caused 200,000 deaths in the Balkans, saying, “A non-indignant God would be an accomplice in injustice, deception, and violence.”
God’s justice protects the vulnerable, especially those who are defenseless and powerless. In Malachi 3:5, he says, “’I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
If God were to abdicate justice, and let sin and evil slide, there would be no justice on the earth. The powerful would be unleashed to oppress, and evil would be unchecked.
Yet what right does God have to forgive, when our sin is against other people? If you take your car keys and scratch my car, I can forgive, but if it is someone else’s car, I have no right to forgive you…UNLESS it is my parking lot, and I am taking responsibility for the cars parked there, so that I must pay to fix the car you scratched. I have to be personally harmed.
After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and had her husband killed, he said something quite surprising, in Psalm 51:3-4. “I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” What standing did God have in that case?
In order for God to forgive sin, he has to have skin in the game. Every human sin must cost him. He couldn’t sit safely in heaven, wiping off the whiteboard every night, and dropping forgiveness packages that cost him nothing. He had to be committed to justice. Ultimately, he had to share in the hurt of a world oppressed by sin.
You know where this is going, don’t you? The Son of God came to earth, to put God’s skin in the game. He was despised, unfairly criticized, and treated poorly. He was rejected, betrayed, and falsely accused, brutally whipped, and cruelly hung on a cross to die. As Jesus hung on the cross, some of his last words were, “Father, forgive them…”
God’s justice was preserved on the cross. The sins of humanity were not swept under the rug, or dismissed with a wink and a nod. No, God suffered along with humanity because of sin. The sin and wrong of all humanity caused immeasurable suffering for God. Because of that, God has the right to forgive, without tolerating injustice as OK.
“God is FAITHFUL AND JUST and will forgive us our sins.”
GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS TRANSFORMATIONAL.
“If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
***I read a story of a woman in a grocery store, who returned to her cart to find her purse open, and her wallet gone. In the next aisle, she found a man, clumsily hiding her wallet. She confronted him, and he confessed that he had taken the wallet, because he had no money to take care of his family. The woman forgave him, and then graciously paid for $27 worth of groceries. What effect do you think that had on the thief?***
God’s forgiveness cost him a lot more than $27. How will it affect us? 1 Peter 1:14-19 says, “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance…For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ…”
When we recognize what it cost God to forgive, it should get out attention. In fact, it should make us eternally grateful.
Yet God goes beyond forgiveness. He makes a commitment to us, when we confess our sins, to “purify us from all unrighteousness.”
When David asked for forgiveness in Psalm 51, he then asked God in Psalm 51:10-12, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
When we experience God’s forgiveness, it sets us free to pursue holiness. We are released from self-condemnation, shame, and fear of being found out. We can break the pattern of sin, with the help of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Paul gives us a picture of a child who has confessed their wrongdoing, and is now free to sit on their father’s lap. As they sit on their father’s lap, the sin loses all attraction, and the strength of the father flows into them. They are transformed by the forgiveness and grace of the father, and they know that the father will always be there to train and support them.
That is the kind of God we have. “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
“I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
If we do, we will be honest with God about our sins, and confess them to him and others we have hurt. We will turn from sin, and build an honest, grace-filled, life-giving relationship with God. And the joy of the Lord will be our strength.
As David said in Psalm 32:1-2, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
