When God forgives us of our sins, He also forgets our sins (Heb. 8:12). When God forgives us, He not only exempts us from suffering the penalty of sin and causes our sins to depart from us, but He also forgets our sins. Once He forgives us, He erases our sins from His memory and remembers them no longer.
Luke 5:21 says, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Hence, God alone has the position and authority to forgive, because He alone has the position and authority to condemn. Besides Him, no one has such position and authority. Man is not the Lord of the universe; furthermore, man is sinful. God alone is the Lord of the universe, and He alone is sinless. Hence, only God is able to condemn, and only God is able to forgive.
Luke 5:24 says, “The Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins.” Although the Lord Jesus is a man, He is also the very God who came to the earth to become a man. He is a man and He is also God; He is a God-man. He is a perfect man, and He is sinless (Heb. 4:15). He is also the complete God and the Lord of the universe. Therefore, like God, He has the position and authority to forgive sins.
God’s forgiveness is based on the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). Because He is righteous, God cannot forgive sins without a basis. His righteousness requires that all who sin must die (Ezek. 18:4). Unless His righteous requirement is satisfied, His righteousness cannot allow Him to forgive sinners of their sins. But since the Lord Jesus has died and shed His blood on the cross for men, thus satisfying God’s righteous requirement, God can legally forgive men of their sins (Matt. 26:28).
Since the blood of the Lord Jesus was shed in His death for men according to God’s righteousness as the price to satisfy God’s righteous requirement, it has become the basis upon which the sins of those who believe in Him may be forgiven. Besides His blood, nothing else—neither man’s good works and virtues nor man’s zeal and love—can be the basis for the forgiveness of sins. This is because in the universe only His blood can satisfy all the righteous requirements of God on sinners.
To receive forgiveness of sins from God, a sinner must repent (Luke 24:47; Acts 5:31; Isa. 55:6-7), turning back to God in his mind. Formerly he had his back toward God; thus, he sinned against God. Now, if he desires God’s forgiveness, he must turn back to God, forsaking his own way and abandoning his own thoughts, thus turning to God.
To receive forgiveness of sins from God a sinner must not only repent but also believe (Acts 10:43; 26:18). On the negative side, to repent is to turn to God from the position of being against God; on the positive side, to believe is to receive from God His forgiveness. Neither repentance nor faith is a merit by which a sinner may receive forgiveness from God. A sinner can be forgiven by God only on the merit of the blood of the Lord Jesus. It is only because of the Lord’s blood that God can grant the grace of forgiveness of sins to sinners. However, sinners can receive the grace of forgiveness of sins from God only through their repentance and faith.
Because the blood which the Lord Jesus shed on the cross has satisfied all God’s righteous requirements on sinners, God can bestow upon them the grace of forgiveness of sins. However, a sinner still cannot be forgiven unless he repents and believes. He can receive God’s forgiveness only through repentance and faith. The Lord Jesus has accomplished on the cross all the work that enables God to forgive sinners and all the work that enables sinners to receive forgiveness from God. For a sinner to receive God’s forgiveness, it is not required of him to do anything other than to repent and turn to God and to exercise his faith to receive it from God.
Matthew 12:31 says, “Every sin...shall be forgiven men.” Hence, no matter how broad or how great the limits of our sins are, the limits of God’s forgiveness are just as broad and great. God’s forgiveness is sufficient. It is sufficient to encompass all our sins and to solve all our problem of sins. On the cross the Lord Jesus made redemption for every sin. Hence, based upon the Lord’s redemption, God can forgive every sin.
God and everything of Him is complete. Therefore, His forgiveness is complete. Since God never does anything incompletely, He cannot give us an incomplete forgiveness or a partial forgiveness, forgiving us of some of our sins and not forgiving us of other sins. Once He forgives us. He forgives us of all sins and all offenses (Col. 2:13).