Sinner?

1 John 2:2
2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

It seems to me that a great mistake has been made in the teaching and preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, across this nation and around the world. There seems to be some misunderstanding that in order to become a Christian you must first confess your sins to God, then ask, beg, and plead for His forgiveness. This flat out isn’t the truth. The truth is that both the believer and the nonbeliever have already been forgiven for their sins. Whether they are willing to accept that forgiveness, or even acknowledge it, is a completely different story!

In John 8, the Pharisees brought a whore before Jesus and asked Him what they should do with her. The law at the time stated that she was to be stoned, and that’s what they wanted Jesus to tell them to do. Jesus, being God, had a response. He bent down and wrote with His finger in the ground. The Bible doesn’t say what He wrote, but I would hazard a guess that it was the Ten Commandments. When He completed His writing He stood up and said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Whoever among you hasn’t broken a law, go ahead and throw some stones.” Jesus knew that they were all sinners, and that He was the only one worthy of casting a stone at her. When they were all gone, and it was just Jesus and the woman, He said, “I do not condemn you; go and sin no more!”

She was forgiven without asking for forgiveness. She was forgiven before she was brought before Jesus. Why? Because she is our example for life. Jesus Christ died on the Cross for all sins for all time. Before we were born, every sin in our life was already forgiven by the Father because of the death of His Son on the cross. The penalty for our sins was also put upon Him, spiritual death. Jesus bore it all on the cross. Today, all we have to do is accept His sacrifice, admit that He is God and that He was raised from the dead and we’ll be saved. (Romans 10:9)

Jesus told the woman to go and stop sinning. Did that mean that she never sinned again? Of course not, it meant that she was going to try and sin no more. We are the same today. After an encounter with God, we should realize that our sins were forgiven before we ever got to His feet, and we should leave with the plan to sin no more. Of course we’re going to sin again, but those sins were already forgiven too!

Don’t be fooled by Pharisaical rules and regulations and a “sinners prayer” that requires an open confession to God that you’re a sinner and formal request for His forgiveness. That’s already been taken care of by Jesus on the Cross. God knows you’re a sinner; He’s not an idiot. The woman in John 8 never asked for forgiveness. She never looked up into the heart-piercing eyes of Jesus and blurted out all of her wrongdoings to Him. She didn’t make a list, check it twice, then read it out loud and tell it to her neighbors. She simply looked at Him, got up, and walked away, free. If you have to confess and request forgiveness in order to get it from God, then it’s no longer completely by Grace you are saved. The request is a work that you have to do. Grace is what has been given, by God, to man, with no request. Forgiveness of sins is the Grace of God. To request forgiveness, to make an effort to gain it from God, robs Him of the blessing that comes solely through His Grace.

The only confession that you need to make is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man can come to the Father except through Him.