Future Sins Are Already Forgiven

“It can’t be true that my future sins are already forgiven!” This was the protest I heard one day after somebody heard me teach that all of our sins are forgiven. I read her the passage from Colossians 2:13-14. Then I asked her these questions, which I encourage you to answer as you read them.

1. How many of your sins did God know about before you were born? (All of them.)
2. How many of them did He record on your certificate of debt mentioned in the passage in Colossians referenced above? (All of them.)
3. How many of your sins did Jesus pay for on the cross? (All of them.)
4. How many of them were future at that time? (All of them.)
5. How many sins was He referring to when He said, “If is finished”? (All of them.)
6. At the time you were saved, how many of your sins did God forgive?

If you didn’t answer number six by saying, “All of them,” I encourage you to ask yourself if you’re being intellectually honest. Would it make sense that God would see and note all of our sins; that Jesus Christ would bear all of them upon Himself; that He would declare from the cross that payment had been made for all of them and then, after all that, God would only forgive you for some of your sins — namely the ones you had committed up to the point in time at which you were saved? Don’t make the mistake of trying to put God in the “time box.” He won’t fit. He has forgiven you for every sin you will ever commit, past, present and future. The verse clearly says that He has “forgiven us all our transgressions,” not just our past ones.

For many years I believed that in order to stay in a state of forgiveness before God, it was necessary that I ask Him to forgive me for each sin which I committed. This kind of faulty theology raises some serious questions. What happens if I don’t ask Him to forgive me for a specific sin? Does it remain unforgiven until the day I die? What happens then, when I go into eternity with an unforgiven sin? Nobody can go into heaven with unforgiven sin (Imagine being eternally separated from God for calling somebody an idiot in another car on the interstate and forgetting to ask God for forgiveness.).

On the other side of the issue, consider this question: Is there anything that you know is the right thing to do that you aren’t doing? James said, “Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, it is sin” (James 4:17). Do you see the dilemma? If all our sins aren’t forgiven, then we had better make sure we are living a perfect life because not only do we have to deal with sins which occur when we do wrong things, but we also have to be worried about the right things we haven’t done. This would be enough to give the Christian a nervous breakdown!

"Then, are you saying that since His grace has covered our sin, we can go out and do anything we want?" I hope somebody is asking that because, if so, it shows I've made grace clear here. You're not the first one to ask that question. Read Romans 6:1-4 to see how Paul answered the question when it was asked of him.

Where Does God Live?

I heard about two college students whose football team was about to get a goat as their new school mascot. There was much discussion among the students about where the goat would stay. One of the boys said to the other, “Why don’t we let the goat stay in our dorm room?”
“What about the smell?” the other asked.
“The goat will get used to the smell,” the first responded.

Goats may get used to living in filth, but God won’t live in any place that is unclean. Where does God live today?

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."

In the Old Testament, God lived in the Holy Place. It was such a sacred place that no one was allowed inside except the High Priest, who only went in one time each year on the Day of Atonement. In order to enter the Holy Place, the Priest was instructed to conform to meticulously detailed instruction about how he was to approach the residence of a Holy God (See Leviticus 16). He was required to submit to a purification process and put on sacred garments before entering the place where God lived. If an unauthorized or unclean person entered God’s residence, immediate death was the result.

The New Testament reveals that God has moved from where He used to live. He doesn’t live in the old neighborhood anymore. He has built a new house where He now lives. That house is the Christian (See 1 Peter 2:5). He has taken up permanent residence inside the believer. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul states indisputably that the Christian is holy by boldly asserting three basic facts: (1)You are the temple of God. (2) The temple of God is holy. (3) You are holy. To deny the truth of the believer’s holiness in Christ is to totally reject this passage of Scripture.

Do you believe the Bible? The Bible makes clear that it isn’t necessary to pray for God to give the Christian holiness. The person you were in Adam was unholy, but we learned in chapter four that man is dead. We have been given a new life in Christ and with it came the blessing of holiness. “For if by the transgression of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Righteousness is a gift! You can know you are holy right now because the Bible says so (See 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 4:24; Romans 5:19).

Spiritual Hunger

Once we have encountered the love of our Father up close and personal, we become addicted for life. We just can’t get enough of Him. It’s as Jesus reveals Himself to us that we find ourselves hungering to know Him more intimately and to love Him more earnestly. Speaking from his own experience, St. Augustine said, “You flashed, You shone; and You chased away my blindness. You became fragrant; and I inhaled and sighed for You. I tasted, and now hunger and thirst for You. You touched me; and I burned for Your embrace.”

Spiritual hunger is the result of encountering Christ in our lives. That hunger then becomes the bridge by which we gain a heightened awareness of Him with us in our circumstances. Spiritual hunger will cause us to move through life with our spiritual antenna up, looking for signals of His presence nearby. Ask the Lord to reach into your life like He did with Augustine. Then patiently wait for Him to flash, to shine, and to chase away your own blindness to His presence. He will come to you and do just that.

Remember that cultivating a spiritual hunger isn’t something you do. It’s a sovereign work of God that He does because He wants to constantly enjoy intimate moments with you. It’s important that you don’t turn this into a legalistic effort to try to accomplish something spiritually productive for yourself. Modern ministry often suggests that there are things we must do in order to experience the fullness of Christ in our lives, but the Bible teaches to the contrary.

God promises in Scripture, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty” (Isaiah 44:3). We aren’t the reason for any good aspect of our walk with Christ. We are simply the recipients of every good thing that He does in our lives. “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10) promises the Lord. Are you hungry? Then open your mouth…wide.

Remember, nobody ever came to Jesus hungry and went away that way. Jesus once asked, “What man will give a rock to his hungry son who asks for bread? Would he give him a snake if the son asked for an egg?” Then the Lord promised, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11)? You can be sure that in your search for intimacy with Christ, you won’t be disappointed. He can’t resist a person who is spiritually hungry. Are you hungry for the food of intimacy with Him? He will satisfy it!

Who Is Saint Nickolas?

Saint Nickolas is the most popular name for Nickolas of Myra,a third century Bishop who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for today's version of the Christmas St. Nick. He lived in what is modern day Turkey.

He became Bishop of Myra in the fourth century, and there are many stories of his love for God and for his neighbor.

The best-known story involves a man with three unmarried daughters, and not enough money to provide them with suitable dowries. This meant that they could not marry, and were likely to end up as prostitutes. Nicholas walked by the man's house on three successive nights, and each time threw a bag of gold in through a window (or, when the story came to be told in colder climates, down the chimney). Thus, the daughters were saved from a life of shame, and all got married and lived happily ever after.

Because of this and similar stories, Nicholas became a symbol of anonymous gift-giving. Hence, if we give a gift to someone today without saying whom it is from, it can be called "a present from Saint Nicholas (or Santa Claus)." Some parents explain this to their children and invite the child to join them in wrapping a toy (either something purchased for that purpose, at least partly with the child's allowance, or else a toy that the child has outgrown but that is still serviceable) or an outgrown but not shabby item of the child's clothing, or a package of food, and then going along to donate it to a suitable shelter that will give it to someone who will welcome it. This gift is then called "a present from Santa," so that the child understands that this is another name for an anonymous gift given to someone whom we do not know, but whom we love anyway because God does.

Here's an interesting site that shows what the real Saint Nickolas probably looked like, based in an excavation of his bones and reconstruction based on skeletal remains:

http://www.imagefoundry.co.uk/index.php?page=2&cat=3&pid=12

I hope you and your family are having a great Christmas. I thought I'd post this information while I'm sitting here waiting for Christmas Dinner to be finished!

Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

Some people are offended by Santa Claus. Others think the following is silly but I've always like it.In fact, I think a childlike attitude is a Godlike quality.


Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

How Do NT Commandments Fit With The Teaching of Grace?

Since rules stimulate us to sin (Romans 7:5), what is the believer to do with the commandments of the New Testament? Didn’t Jesus say that if we love him, we will keep His commandments? (See John 14:15) He did indeed. Yet when grace rules one’s life, he will approach the commandments of the New Testament with a totally different attitude than the legalist. Legalism presents the commandments as divine ultimatums coming from a harsh Judge. When law rules a person, the tone of the words of Jesus are heard like this: “If you love me, you had better keep my commandments.” A grace walk causes the Christian to face the commandments with eager anticipation, not with fear and intimidation. This believer understands the words of Jesus when he said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” When we love Jesus, we will keep His commandments. Obedience is the natural response of the Christian who loves Jesus. We have already learned that without love, the only thing we have to offer is lifeless compliance. Love is the basis for our obedience, not laws.

John stressed the relationship between love and our obedience to God’s commandments when he said, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). It’s not a strain for a Christian who is walking in grace to obey the commandments of God. It is a pleasure to be obedient!

As I write this, I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I will spend the whole week. Suppose I were to ask for your advice concerning my responsibilities to my wife when I return home. How would you respond if I asked you whether or not I must kiss my wife when she picks me up at the airport on Saturday? What would you think if I were to seriously ask you what I should do when she greets me at the airport? You would probably assume that, since I asked a question like that, something must be wrong with my relationship to my wife. In a healthy marriage, a man wouldn’t ask such a foolish question. The fact is that when I see Melanie on Saturday I will kiss her. I can assure you that it won’t be duty which motivates me. My love for my wife will animate my actions at that moment.

The commandments of the New Testament do have a place in a life of grace. They present a beautiful blueprint which illustrates what a lifestyle looks like when it is empowered with the divine expression of the life of Jesus. When grace rules, we approach the Bible saying, “Lord, show me in Your Word all the ways that Jesus can express His life through me.” Then when we come across commandments, we may exclaim with excitement, “Great! Here’s a way that Christ can express His life through my lifestyle!” So the commandments are not a burden, but instead are a great blessing.

Grace causes our motivation toward obedience to be love and desire. There was a time before we were saved when we had no inner desire to live a godly lifestyle. “ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter” (Romans 7:6). In this newness of the Spirit, we remind ourselves that we died to the law and are no longer obligated to religious rules. Finally we are free to serve God because we want to, not because we have to do it. Legalists aren’t free to serve the Lord, they are obligated to do it.

“Ought to” is the ammunition for the legalist’s gun. It will kill your joy every time it hits you. Is your life built around rules? Are you fulfilled in life? Sin’s secret weapon is the power of the law, but our weapon against legalism is our love for Jesus Christ. While laws ultimately lead to certain failure, grace always produces the victory that only Christ can give.

(This article is an excerpt from my book Grace Rules. For more information on the book, click this link: Buy Grace Rules Here

God As The Divine Lover

He entered into the room, which was filled with noise and activity. There was music, laughter and talking. His eyes scanned the room, searching for that one whose very face caused his breath to quicken and his heart rate to increase. He loved her, yet it was more than that. He wanted her. He wanted her to be his, and not just tonight, but forever.

Then he saw her. Across the crowded room, she stood — as if she had been unknowingly waiting for him all her life. She was beautiful. No, not beautiful. She was stunning. “God, I must have her!” every fiber of his being resonated. “I want to spend my life with her. I want to love her and cherish her and hold her. I want to take care of her and spoil her.”

He walked across the room, never taking his eyes off her for even a moment. The room was filled with people, but his eyes were on her. As he approached her, his presence caught her attention and she looked upward into his penetrating eyes. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the time he had longed for as long as he could remember. Gently and lovingly he spoke: “Would you care to dance?”

The description I have given is a true story. The two did begin to dance that day and they have never stopped. He asked her to marry him and she said “yes.” His plan is to do exactly what he intended from the beginning — to share his life with her and to love her so much that she will never regret the day she met him.

Not only is the story true, but you actually know the people involved. The one He desired to have so much is you. The Person who wanted you so badly is Jesus Christ. One day He walked into the room of this world to find you. He was captivated by you and determined that He would make you His own. He knew in His heart that He must have you, that He wouldn’t live without you.

If you doubt my words about His love, read the following marriage proposal that He wrote you. These aren’t my words, but are His, copied here word for word exactly as He wrote them to you:

How beautiful you are my darling. How beautiful you are! There is no blemish in you! Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along. You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes. How delightful you are, My love, with all your charms.

This note to you is recorded in the Bible, in the Song of Solomon. (Song of Solomon 1:15; 2:13; 4:1,7,9; 7:6.) This book of the Bible is a love story about you and Jesus. Its words are sometimes so graphic, so intense, that throughout church history there have been those who have argued that it shouldn’t even be in the Bible. However, your Divine Lover has made sure it is there. The Song of Solomon is a love poem written for you. It’s eight stanzas call you beautiful no less than fifteen times!

Jesus is consumed with you. Speaking about you, He said, “Who is this . . . fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars (Song of Solomon 6:10)? You may not feel that way about yourself, but it makes no difference. What He says is an objective fact, whether you believe it or not. If you don’t believe it now, rest assured that you will believe it, because He is going to keep telling you how beautiful and precious you are to Him throughout all eternity. One day, either now or later, the reality of His words will transform you.

Do you remember the day that He asked you to dance? It was the day you believed the gospel. Maybe it was in church, or perhaps it was when a friend shared his faith with you. Maybe it was when you were all alone and heard the voice of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember what you experienced then, as He reached out to you? The bride in the Song of Solomon spoke for us all when she said, “My feelings were aroused for him” (5:4). That happened to us all when Jesus swept us off our feet and we trusted Him.

Don’t think it irreverent to view Christ in a romantic way. He is the One who calls us His bride. He is the One who wrote to us in terms of passion and romance. We simply respond to Him. “We love Him because He first love us” (1 John 4:19). We didn’t initiate or set the pace for this relationship. He did. We have simply responded to His irresistible charm, affirming by faith, “My beloved is mine and I am His” (Song of Solomon 2:16)! Like every new bride, our profession of faith in Him is nothing less than the thrilling realization that, “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me” (7:10, emphasis added)!

I didn’t imagine the idea of the dance as a literary metaphor to describe your relationship to Him. That is how He described it. In Zephaniah 3:17, the Bible says, “He will exult over you with joy” (emphasis added). Strong’s Concordance defines the word “exult”(sometimes translated “rejoice”) in the following way: “To spin around under the influence of a violent emotion.”

One character quipped, “I grew up in a church where we were taught that premarital sex was wrong because it might lead to dancing, and now you tell me that the Lord dances over me??” It’s true, He does. The love of Jesus Christ for you is not just a “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” kind of love. It is a love filled with passion. It is a love that caused your Prince Charming to wield His sword (of the Spirit) and fight the dragon (the devil, see Revelation 12:9) for you!

His love for you is great! One might say that the love of Jesus for you could be X-rated, not because of impurity, but because of intensity. Does that idea make you feel uncomfortable? It shouldn’t, because He really does love you with an intensity beyond human comprehension. You are the pearl of great price for which He paid everything He owned in order to possess you. (See Matthew 13:45-46) Don’t be afraid of an intense love from Him. His love is intense, but His ways are gentle.