When someone asks, "How many tiomes can I commit the same sin and receieve God's forgiveness?" I answer, "Well, what's the largest number you can think of?" He gives some figure I have never heard of and I reply, "Square that" or "Take it to the tenth power (or as far as you want to go)." "Square infinity if you have to." Of course, that's impossible. "That many times?" "Yes."
But that is not really the issue. How many times can we continue to wound Christ and still be sorry for it afterwards? That's the real problem. Not that we will ever exhaust His forgiveness, but that through our indifference, through our callousness, through our failure to recognize those specific things we do that stand between us and Christ, we will get to the place where we don't want forgiveness. Our misdeeds, unless we constantly face them, will sooner or later impose a barrier between us and Christ. Sin hardens our hearts, and it is only as we recognize the specific manifestations of it that we can keep communication open.
Confession softens our hearts. It helps clean out our moral systems, to point out our weaknesses. "Lord, I'm awful sorry for what I did," we tell the Lord. "Won't you help me in this specific thing?" And our Lord answers, "Certainly I will." Confession is important because it permits God to help us where we need it.
A little boy sneaks into his parents bedroom before they awake. Going over to his father's trousers, he slips his litlle hand into a pocket, pulls out a dime, and quickly walks out. His father, though, was not sleeping. Now the father won't go broke because he lost a dime, but he feels bad. Why? Because of what his son did, because of how it will affect the boy. The father feels terrible that his son would steal from him. It is not the dime but the relationship. The father is hurt. Does he cease to love his boy? Does he think, "He is no longer my son until he makes this right"? No, he loves him even more. If at any time in their relationship a father forgives his son more, it is when the son least recognizes his need of it.
After a while, maybe several hours, maybe several days, the son begins to feel terrible for whathe has done. He goes back to his father and, handing him the dime,says, "Dad, I took this dime from you. I'm awful sorry. Will you forgive me?"
The father puts his arm around him. "Son, I forgive you." Does this mean that for the first time since the lad stole the dime he now extends to him forgiveness? No! He's been forgiven all along. But the boy now needs a reminder. He needs it pointed out. Let us consider that, instead of "I forgive you," the father declares "Son, I love you." Sometimes that's just as good as saying "I forgive you." Does the father mean that he didn't love him before, and that now, because he brought the dime back, he loves him? No, he loved him all along. But at a time when the son feels crushed, the father wants to remind him that he is loved, that he is forgiven.
So 1 John 1:9 tells us, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We confess our sins, and the Lord says,"I forgive you." Does this mean we weren't forgiven all along? No. He is reminding us to encourage us so that we can be free with Him, so that we don't have to hide, won't need to cover up. When we do that, when we keep such things to ourselves and never bring them out in the open, it becomes impossible to grow. God reminds us of His love and forgiveness so that we don't have to become defensive about our mistakes.
Some people will protest, "Doesn't that concept open up the flood gates to sin? Isn't dangerous to know that when we are in Christ we stand forgiven even before we ask?" One of the wonderful things about my family that never ceases to amaze me is that they love me even when I do unloving things. And I have gotten to the place where I firmly believe that if tomorrow I became irritable to them, they wouldn't reject me - they'd still love me. Because I know this, because I'm convinced of it, do you think that it offers an occasion for my laxity? On the contrary, it is the reason why I would be ashamed to do so. Because they are what they are, because they do love me in spite of myself when I do things that are wrong , I feel ashamed. Rather than opening up the floodgates to sin, it is as we see and fully understand God's love for us that the floodgates of sin close.
Every so often since World War II, reports would tell of another little pocket of Japanese soldiers hiding far back in the Philippine mountains. Completely cut off from the world and the news, the men lived for years unaware that hostilities had ended. They feared that their discovery would result in their death. When they were found and plans were made for their repatriation, occasionally a soldier killer himself in panic.
Other embattled men and women, separated from the news of God's acceptance, live comparably hidden, fearful lives, even in the busiest centers of civilization. Uncertain about how things stand between God and themselves, between heaven and earth, they build camouflages to cover their quaking panic. They doom themselves. The fact os that Christ won the war nineteen hundred years ago. Men need not fear God's intent or feel uncertain about His attitude toward them. The good news is that we are forgiven, that we live in complete pardon through Jesus Christ. His message to the prisoners of fear is, "Come out of hiding. The war is over!"
"Well, first of all I went to the dime store and asked for change, and then I went to another counter and asked for a dollar bill. Then I went to the grocery store and asked for change and then to the drugstore and asked for a dollar bill. Then I went down to the hobby shop and asked for change and . . ."
"Wait a minute!" the father interrupted. "You mean to tell me that you spent the whole day taking that dollar bill and asking for change, and then for a dollar bill again?"
"Yes," the lad replied enthusiastically.
"Why on earth did you do that?" pressed the father.
The youngster, with a gleam in his eye, answered, "Well, sooner or later someone was going to make a mistake, and it wasn't going to be me!"
Sometimes we think that God's viewpoint is like that. We see Him as a critical God, going through life making change for us, watching, waiting, knowing that somewhere along the line He will catch us. People feel uncomfortable with such a God. They feel insecure. What we think about God is important because our thoughts about Him determine the tone of our religious experience.
The Lord wants us to understand Him. He doesn't want us to think of Him as a God waiting with critical eye to catch us. One of the things invovled in the conflict between God and Satan is His desire that we might see Him as He is. His character is at stake. God has asked us to witness for Him, and if we are going to represent Him, we have to be convinced that He is worth witnessing for. And so the view that we have about God and His relationship with us day by day will determine the tone of our religious experience. Because they misunderstand God, some people fear that they will commit the unpardonable sin.
