While walking along a country road one Sunday, I overtook a man who was going to a church a short distance off. As we talked together I asked him if his sins were forgiven. The question surprised him, and he answered: "I cannot say that they are.”
"Would you like to be able to say they are?" I asked.
"Well, sir, I would like to know for certain they are, but we cannot know in this life that God for certain has forgiven us. We must wait and see!”
"Indeed!" I said. "That is something new to me. I do not find it in God's Word. May I ask where you are going?”
"To church, sir. I always attend.”
"Do you join in saying the Apostle's creed?"
"Certainly I do.”
"Then you say, 'I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' If you believe in the forgiveness of sins, how is it yours are not forgiven?”
He told me he had never thought of that! As we walked on, I showed him how God could be just and the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus, and could righteously forgive on the ground of Christ's atoning death. Before we parted, he took God at His word. He said he knew for a certainty now that his sins were forgiven, and would be remembered against him no more.