THOUSANDS of persons say these words in the presence of Almighty God week by week. They are grand words, and no religion but the Christian could place them on human lips, and none can tell the blessing of so having them in the heart that he who utters them means, “I,” my own self, for myself “believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
Long ago, nearly 1,600 years gone by, a great Church Council was held in Nicaea, at which there were representatives from most parts of the world in which Christianity was professed. These men placed the Scriptures upon a chair stationed in their midst, in order to show that to it, the Word of God, they looked as authority. They discussed various questions relating to the Christian Faith, and formed a creed, from which are taken the words before us, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
Let us go to the authority to which this, the first general Church Council, went, and learn, as we declare, “I personally believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
1. Who forgives sins?
God (see Ep. 4:32). “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin” (Ps. 32:5).
2. How does God forgive sins?
God forgives sins through the name of His Son. “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man (Christ in heaven) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38).
3. What does God say of those whose sins are forgiven?
“Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Rom. 4:7).
4. Are men’s sins forgiven by God in this life?
Yes, indeed. “By Him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39). ARE. “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ep. 4:32). HATH.
5. Does God tell us why He forgives sins through the name of His Son?
He does. Speaking by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle John says: “He” (the Lord Jesus) “was manifested to take away our sins” (1 John 3:5); and the Apostle Peter, speaking by the Holy Spirit, says, “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24): and the Apostle Paul declares, “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3).
Let us each one be truly honest in the sight of God, and inquire, “When I say I believe in the forgiveness of sins, do I believe God has forgiven me my sins?”
Think and pray over these words of God, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 8:12).
“The forgiveness of sins, O God, I believe:
This mercy from Thee I gladly receive.”
H. F. W.