After sinning against God, man needed God’s forgiveness and cleansing of sins. Since we have offended God, we need His forgiveness; yet we cannot be forgiven before His righteousness is fulfilled. So, we must die to satisfy God’s righteousness. But, if we die, God would have no one to receive His life for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. The perfect solution to this problem was for Christ to come and die for us. Because of His death, God’s righteous requirement has been met, and we can now be forgiven by God.
According to Jeremiah 31:34, for God to forgive our sins is for Him to forget them, too. When we forgive someone for offending us, we seldom forget what they did to us. However, God is different. When He forgives our sins, He does not remember them anymore. Hallelujah! Because of Christ’s death and our believing in Him, we can be forgiven by God. When God forgives our sins, He forgets them. To Him, it is just as though we have never sinned! Just by believing this, you are forgiven!
[The Son’s redemption through His blood is the forgiveness of our offenses (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:22). Redemption is what Christ has accomplished for our offenses; forgiveness is what Christ accomplished applied to our offenses. Redemption was accomplished on the cross, whereas forgiveness is applied the moment we believe in Christ. Redemption and forgiveness are actually two ends of one thing. We have seen that the forgiveness of offenses is the redemption accomplished through the blood of Christ. However, two terms are used because this one thing has two ends: the end of the accomplishment on the cross and the end of the application to us at the time we believed. Although redemption was accomplished on the cross when Christ shed His blood, it was not applied to us at that time. The application did not take place until we believed in Christ and made confession to the righteous God. At that very moment, the Spirit of God applied to us the redemption Christ had accomplished on the cross. Hence, redemption is the accomplishment, and forgiveness is the application.]
[What is the difference between forgiving and cleansing? In order to know this difference, we need to know the difference between sins and unrighteousness. Sins refer to offenses, and unrighteousness is the mark, the stain, on our behavior caused by the committing of an offense. Whenever we sin, we commit an offense. This offense then becomes a stain on our behavior, and this stain is unrighteousness. For instance, suppose you buy two items, but you are charged only for one. If you pay for just one item, that will be an act of sinning against the store. With respect to the person who sold you the items, that is an offense. But with respect to your character, that is a mark of unrighteousness. For this reason, others would not say that you are sinful, but would say that you are unrighteous.
In a similar way, when we commit sins before God, with respect to God those sins are offenses. But with respect to us, they are stains of unrighteousness. We need to confess our sins. Then, on the one hand, God forgives our sins, our offenses. On the other hand, God washes away the mark, the stain, of our unrighteousness. This is the reason John in (1 John) 1:9 speaks both of the forgiveness of sins and the cleansing from unrighteousness. The forgiveness of sins is actually the cleansing, the washing away, of the stain of our unrighteousness.]