Pyotr Alekseyevich reigned as czar in Russia in the early 1700s. Today we know him as Peter the Great, for he earned this title by his life and leadership. Pushkin, a Russian author, described Peter as “The eternal toiler upon the throne of Russia.”
Peter’s reign was full of bold, imaginative projects to make his country stronger. He imported tradesmen and industries to improve his nation’s economy. He built St. Petersburg on marshlands along the Baltic Sea to increase commerce and trade. He established colleges and universities. He started a navy for his country’s protection. Although he was an autocrat whose word was law, he dressed as an ordinary laborer and worked for some months in the shipyards of Holland to learn improved techniques of shipbuilding.
When he died, Peter’s last words were, “I hope God will forgive me my many sins for the good that I have tried to do for my people.” Peter hoped that God would forgive and forget his sins in exchange for his good works, but such a hope has no foundation. God has never said that good words or works can remove bad ones. God never has and never will forgive sins because of personal merit.
God forgives sins freely because of the suffering and death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross. By His work salvation is offered free to all. It is a work begun and finished on the cross, not begun on the cross and finished by anything that we could ever do. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-98For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8‑9).)
No one has anything to boast of when it comes to salvation. The great as well as the small of the earth, the rich as well as the poor are alike sinners before God. No one has anything acceptable to offer God to remove their sins. All must depend upon what God will do for them, not upon what they can do for God. Who can forgive sins but God only? (Mark 2:77Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? (Mark 2:7).)
Don’t make the fatal mistake of searching for something good in your life by which you may earn God’s favor and hope that He will forgive your sins. Remember, though you are a sinner, before you ever thought about your sins, Christ died for you. Now God commends His love to you, urging you to receive His forgiveness through Christ who suffered and died to save sinners.
When a person believes on the Lord Jesus, the world’s only Saviour, he is entitled to be sure of his forgiveness with God. While it is presumptuous and wrong to believe that God will forgive sins because of good deeds, it is never presumptuous for a sinner to trust the Lord and have all sins forgiven. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7).)
“ We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”