Forgiveness is clearly not saying something was okay. That’s a mistake a lot of people make. Instead, forgiveness is loving the person despite what they’ve done. Yes, in some cases safety means staying away from that person; especially with certain crimes. However, that deals with punishment. People must face the consequences of their actions. And, sometimes, the consequences are that the person is no longer allowed to come around you. However, the person can still be cared about, no matter what.
When Jesus forgives your sin, He does not say, “Oh, that’s okay.” When you seek His forgiveness, His attitude is, “I went to the cross for you. I let Myself suffer and bleed and die because I love you. I will not hold that against you, because you have repented.”
To repent means to agree with God about one’s sin. Some people say you have to repent and trust His as Savior. Others say that is adding something to God’s grace, and that it ignores the fact that, as Romans 5:8 says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” I think the type of belief that is required to be saved includes repentance. So, it’s not a separate thing you have to do, like some people say.
See, the type of belief is with the heart. When a person repents, that person agrees with God about the nature of his or her sin. It’s not just head knowledge. That person chooses, by faith, to believe that their sin separates them from God. And, that were it not for God’s love, they would be separated from Him forever. They also choose to believe that God made a way to reconcile us to Him, so we wouldn’t have to be separated from Him forever. They choose to believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins, personally, and that He rose from the dead. And, they choose, because of what Christ did for them, to believe that God has made them new on the inside; they have been born again.
So, while repentance is part of believing, it is not a separate requirement from it. Salvation is by grace through faith; plus nothing, and minus nothing. When a person accepts that – in order to get to Heaven - God must place them on that path, they trust that their sins will not be remembered by God anymore. He won’t hold your sin against you once you trust Him as Savior.
However, we can’t just ignore God’s role in our lives. We must trust Him to help us to keep from sinning. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are a new creature, and the Holy Spirit can keep you from sinning. You have a desire to do what’s right. However, you still have the same, fleshly nature. You need to stay close to God so He can help you not to sin. Because, when they didn’t trust God to keep them from sinning, even the greatest Bible heroes have had their whole world crash down because of sin.
