One of the goals of my blog is to remove needless barriers between us and the Father’s love. And, ironically, one of those barriers is this idea that we have to keep short accounts with God.
We’ve probably all heard this. I used to teach it. But what is this actually saying about how we see our relationship with God? What is usually implied is that we need to make sure we’ve confessed every sin that would separate us.
We get this from the Old Covenant separation because of our sin (Isa.59:2), forgetting that Jesus changed something. God seems to think that nothing can separate us from His love in Christ (Rom.8:38-39).
Not our sins, not our lack of confession…nothing means nothing.
So…how short is nothing?
Beloved, the separation you perceive is between your ears. And we’ve actually created this mixed up Grace-Law sin management theology to separate ourselves from the One we’ve been placed in. It comes from not knowing who we are and where we are in Christ. We’ve accepted religious alien identities that empower what Jesus disempowered on the Cross.
We’ve made something quite simple very complicated.
Are you in Christ or out?
Let me ask you something. If you’re “in Christ,” what does that mean to you? Because then, according to Paul, you died and Christ is your life. You need to attend your own funeral. I wrote about that here.
Furthermore, if God placed you in Christ by His grace when you believed, apart from your behavior, then how do you think your behavior will put you out of Christ? Beloved, God has placed you with Himself in heavenly places! Look at what Paul said (Bold-text added for emphasis)…
“And God raised us up with Christ
and seated us with him
in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Eph.2:6)
“For you died,
and your life is now hidden
with Christ in God.” (Col.3:3)
And do you think God would dwell with our sin for one moment if it wasn’t actually taken away by the blood of Christ? (Eph.1:7; Heb.10:10, 17-18)
Okay, some of you may want to tell me this is why we have to confess ongoing offenses, so we don’t have any unconfessed sin. Really? Let’s look at this for a moment.
Do you have unconfessed sin?
This is a popular evangelical myth that I used to teach–that unconfessed sin doesn’t damn us to hell but it breaks fellowship with God. You’ve probably heard it too, right? Well let’s put this to a simple test, shall we?
Imagine making a list of all the sins you’ve ever committed since becoming a Christian. Maybe just list the first 100,000… 🙂
Now, imagine listing of all the sins you’ve ever confessed to God.
Which list is longer?
Now, if you said your list of total committed sins is longer (which it should be for all of us) then, according to this theory, you’re out of fellowship with God.
You still have unconfessed sin in your life.
Now, before you try to say that you’ve confessed all that you’re aware of, that doesn’t cut it. Why? Because, if we’re going to put ourselves under the Law, which is the only option to grace, then all sins, including sins of omission, must be included–even those sins you weren’t aware you committed. No cheating. You must specify each sin if you’re going to go down this road.
So, how are you doing now?
One more thing about still having to be forgiven by God for future sins. When were all your sins forgiven? That’s right, 2,000 years ago on the Cross. So, how many of your sins were in the future back then? Get it yet?
Is the absurdity of this argument dawning on you yet?
Why don’t we just draw near instead?
The fact is, like the Prodigal’s father, God will not hear your probation speech. He doesn’t want your continual bull and goat offerings, your groveling like a slave and promises to “do better next time” that you can never keep anyway. He wants you to believe Him–that you’re already forgiven–that it is FINISHED. Because, otherwise, you’re trying to remind Him of something He’s forgotten.
Have you read Hebrews? The writer is pretty clear about this in chapter ten (bold-type added for emphasis)…
“By that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all… Heb.10:10
“For by one offering
He has perfected forever
those who are being sanctified.” Heb.10:14
“then He adds,
“Their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.”
Now where there is remission of these,
there is no longer an offering for sin.” Heb.10:17-18
Do you notice a common theme here? Sin has been dealt with–once and for all…forever…and there’s no longer an offering for sin. What does once for all, forever and no longer usually mean to you?
So then why are you still bringing your offering for sin to the altar?
And think about it. If Jesus already forgave your sins–past, present and future–then what kind of God would still hold them against you? Actually, not God! He seems to think He’s not counting our sins against us anymore (2 Cor.5:19). We’re the only one’s confused here.
I talked more about the fact that our sins are already forgiven forever here.
I will end the same way Hebrews chapter ten concludes.
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness
to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and having a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession
of our hope without wavering,
for He who promised is faithful.” Heb.10:19-23
What the writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us is that we have a BETTER covenant! We no longer have to be sin conscious, like they were under the Old Covenant (Heb.10:2), we can be God conscious! Wouldn’t that be better?
You might ask, what’s the harm in making sure? Well, besides the fact that you’re trampling the grace of God under foot with your continual offerings, you’re also wasting a lot of time with a guilty conscious that you could be spending abiding in the Father’s embrace and growing in grace as a fully affirmed son/daughter.
Am I against confession? Absolutely not. What do we confess under the New Covenant of grace then? I will have to cover that next time. 🙂
For now, let’s draw near to God, having our hearts cleansed from our mea culpas of unbelief, and find life, real freedom from the power of sin, and fullness of joy at His throne of grace.
In My Father's House 
I think it’s even sacrilegious to ask God to ‘forgive us our sin’ when Jesus went through the agony of the cross to have our sins forgiven already. I mean, what did he go through that excruciating agony then? Instead I have a thankful conversation with God so that the lines of communication can remain open. I thank Him for forgiving me the sin I just committed – when I notice that I’d made one. I really like the idea though that you brought up of trying to list all our sins. The list would actually be endless I think.
Amen. That’s exactly right. We honor Jesus’ sacrifice by thanking Him for the finished work of the Cross, not drag our sins back out that He’s already paid for and forgotten. To “enter the rest” is to stop trying to save ourselves and rest in His finished work. We abide in Him instead, using our shortcomings as an opportunity to find out what’s missing in our experience–to renew our mind to His. This is what the Holy Spirit does, He continuously reveals who we are and makes us more like Christ. Thanks for your comments. Blessings.
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Thanks Mel, there is much to commend in your post. You say; “unconfessed sin doesn’t damn us to hell but it breaks fellowship with God.” – Agreed, It’s not ‘unconfessed sin’ that breaks fellowship with God, it’s persistent sin! (1 Timothy 4:2). I’ve always taken the view that ‘keeping a short account with God’ doesn’t mean that we need to keep a list of everything that we do wrong so that we can confess it to God before we go to bed. It means drawing close to God, asking for him to point out what is wrong in our lives (Ps 139:23-24) so that with the Holy Spirits help we can do something about it and become more like Christ.But I think I would also like to say that there is still a place for repentance in our vocabulary.
Thanks for your comments. If you’re saying persistent sin breaks fellowship on our side of the relationship, I would agree with you. It does nothing on God’s side. It’s our conscience that is seared (1 Tim.4:2). It reveals a big problem in our thinking/habits, which is why we should want to draw near, as I pointed out the post (which is also why my graphic). I also talked about the value of drawing near to God to find out what’s missing in the next post here, and three reasons why we should confess a fault or sin. None of them have to do with our standing with God. Repentance is also a big part of my life, to continually re-form my thinking to His. I wrote about that here.
Blessings.
The simple practice of praying the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples would correct some of the problems here! Jesus told us to pray “forgive us our debts”.
We ask for things that we know God already knows (Matt 6:25-34), but we ask for them anyway (Matt 6:11). Is it because we have uncertainty that God will answer, or that we are accusing him of neglect? Is it wasting time because we know God will answer? Of course not! In fact, the best prayers are the ones we know God will answer.
In the same way does asking for forgiveness (Matt 6:12) mean we are saying we are not forgiven, or that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough? Of course not! It is about daily relationship – when you offend someone, you admit it to them, and ask forgiveness – even if you have complete certainty in the answer. When I offend against my wife, I say sorry and ask her to forgive me – despite the fact she is obliged to do so (by scripture and by virtue of being my wife), and despite the fact that I know she will.
In addition to the Lord’s prayer, there are prayers of confession in the Psalms (e.g 32, 51) – which were made by believers, and, according to Romans 4, have the same understanding of forgiveness that we have under the new covenant.
We mustn’t let our theological frameworks run away with us – their “logical” conclusions always need to be tested against the practice given to us and commended to us in scripture. Of course I agree that we mustn’t wallow in past sin, when Christ has died. But an honesty with God over all our sin is exactly the opposite – we bring it to God to consciously have him bury it forever. And it’s in this way, according to Psalm 32, that we will live rejoicing.
I would agree. It’s about relationship–both with God and with others.That’s what I talked about in the next post, “True Confession.” Thanks for your comments. Blessings.
Hi Mel, I have found many of your comments helpful and thought provoking. I am preparing a preach on the prayer that Jesus taught us, and I am on the ‘forgive us our debts’ section. I can accept a lot of what you are saying, and the implications of the ‘Finished Work of Christ’ will take a lifetime to assimilate. However, where does the strong exhortation of Christ ‘if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive you your sins’ fit into this? I understand our salvation is based on faith alone, and all sin is covered. I see this verse as having a community application and needing to forgive those we are in community with. But the text is very specific, in my understanding, that if we don’t forgive we can’t receive forgiveness. This is not just about the damage that unforgiveness brings, i.e. ill health, or even the vulnerability to enemy attack that we will suffer ( the torturer, from the parable in Matthew 18 ) it actually says God will not forgive. Be grateful for any thoughts you have on this. I realise you may well have covered this in the last few months, so apologies for coming late to this one! Perhaps you could point me in the right direction if you have answered this? Blessings on you and your ministry.
Thanks for your comments and question, Chris. I will try to keep the answer to your question about forgiveness short here. We certainly hope that Jesus wasn’t saying that, under grace, if we don’t forgive, we’re not forgiven by God. That would be a direct contradiction to salvation by grace through faith. But there is an easy answer. Keep in mind that the context is that Jesus is burying the Jews under the Law with these teachings. He said in Matt.5:20, “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is not salvation by grace but Old Covenant Law. Jesus is essentially saying, if you don’t accept my finished work on the Cross, you will have to be perfect (Matt.5:48).
The prayer is given in this Old Covenant context. While the principles are very beneficial to us, the conditional forgiveness by God no longer applies. The New Covenant is established and God is no longer holding our sins against us (2 Cor.5:19).
The reason that these statements of Jesus are confusing to us is that many read the Bible indiscriminately, not through the lens of the cross. I wrote about that here…”What interpretative lens are you looking through?”
Hope this helps. Blessings.
Hello again Mel,
Firstly thank you for a prompt response, especially when, as a Pastor, your time is precious.
Secondly thank you for the link; I found that post very interesting. I love the doctrine of The Finished Work, and agree that is the basis of us to live life in the power of the Holy Spirit and do, as you quote, greater works! Awesome!
However, with great respect, returning to the dilemma I am trying to resolve in my own understanding, I can’t see the ‘Disciples Prayer’ as being spoken in an OT context; in the build up to this prayer Jesus has spoken of Old and New contrasts ‘ You have heard…but I say to you’ a number of times, before coming to this ‘manifesto of a Radical Relationship’
Surely this prayer, which is prefixed with ‘ do not be like the hypocrites’ is about Kingdom, it is about a personal relationship with Father God, living by faith, having no grievance against anyone – in fact how to live the life of Jesus! It is advocating a radical life far beyond the religious one. it is to disciples. Is that not the case? This life will only be achievable in the power of the Holy Spirit, so points forward to Pentecost, but it is the ‘how to walk with the Father’ guide.
Therefore, why does He put the ‘OT’ condition (no forgiveness without forgiving) as the final point in a prayer that, as it seems to me, is about the New Covenant?
Please hear my heart on this, Mel, I am not trying to be argumentative, or suck you in to a tortuous debate. I find it is in preparing to teach that I really wrestle with stuff that other pastors probably did in Bible College.
I really WANT to believe what you say; I just am not at the point where I ‘get’ it!
Many blessings
Chris
Hi again, Chris. I appreciate not being “sucked into a torturous debate.” Thanks! 🙂 I am not interested in a debate about these things. I will try to explain what I mean with a little more clarity. You are free to disagree.
First, let me say that Jesus DID teach New Covenant and Kingdom truths that are very relevant to us. I love Jesus’ teachings and use them all the time. Having said that, we have to be very careful about proper context; otherwise we end up preaching “another gospel”–one that mixes the Law and grace–which Paul clearly condemned (Gal.1:6-9; 3:1-5). The New Covenant operates on faith, not our performance.
Jesus came to do two very different things. First, to bury anyone who trusted in the old, in order to establish the new. In other words, Jesus came, born under the Law (Gal.4:4), He taught under the Law, He fulfilled the Law, in order to bring in the New Covenant, which operates on grace through faith. Technically, even though Jesus’ teachings were about the Kingdom, they were all also taught while still under the Old Covenant setting (The New Covenant started with His death, not His birth). This is what I meant about the context by which we must understand what He said in Matt.6:15, otherwise, we get into legalistic error that directly contradicts salvation by grace through faith.
What you cannot say is that your behavior, good or bad, will bring you forgiveness from God. That is performance and works which, in effect, nullifies the Cross of Christ (Gal.2:21). Forgiveness is based on what HE did, not what we do. So, while we can benefit greatly from this prayer (Matt.6:10-13) and it’s a good guideline for us to live, showing us Kingdom principles, when we start saying that we will not be forgiven by God unless we forgive (vs.15), then we’ve invented a dangerous doctrine that is not the gospel. This would be in direct contradiction to what the New Covenant says about forgiveness by the blood of Jesus,or when it says that God is not counting our sins against us anymore (2 Cor.5:19). Again, forgiveness is based on faith in Christ, nothing else. Real behavioral change comes from the Spirit, not from the Law (Rom.6:14; 7:6; 8:2, 4; Gal.3:2-5; 5:18, 23). The Law was given to condemn us and make sin come alive in us (Rom.7:7-8), not to free us. Like Jesus’ teachings, a proper understanding of the Law destroys any self-righteousness so that we will trust in Christ alone and not in our efforts (Gal.3:24-25). It is the Spirit that frees us (2 Cor.3:17-18). This is why we must rightly divide what Jesus is saying, and not read the Bible indiscriminately. On this side of the Cross, everything must be interpreted through the lens of Christ and Him crucified, which is an offense to those who trust in the Law.
Again, I hope this is helpful to you. Blessings.
Hi Mel, again I appreciate the time and care taken over this reply, I need to go off and study, pray and think about it. I may be gone some time!
Many blessings.
PS – just one query – in the 3rd paragraph you say ‘Jesus came to do two things’. You explain the first, ( Jesus came to bury anyone…) but I can’t see reference to the second, unless I am missing something!
I probably didn’t make myself clear enough. Jesus came to “bury” people’s confidence in righteousness through the Law by giving its full meaning and intent (i,e., hate is murder, lust is adultery, love your enemies, turn the other cheek, etc). He did this in order to establish the “new,” which is based on forsaking any trust in our religious performance, for total trust in HIS performance. In that sense, as Robert Capon has said, Christianity was the announcement of the end of religion. The old was based on our obedience through outward effort, the new is based on HIS obedience through the Spirit. The old is living by the flesh, the new is by the Spirit. The New Testament writers proved that that the Law never made anyone right with God (Rom.3:28: 4:13;9:31; 10:4; Gal.2:16, 21; 3:11; 5:4; Phil.3:9).
“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” (Rom.3:20 NLT)
But the new covenant is effective, based on believing promises—it working from the inside-out. Our old nature was crucified and buried with Christ (Rom.6:6), now we live His life by faith (Gal.2:20). Obedience is the fruit of the power of the Spirit and grace working in us, not because of threat of punishment, which the Law could only do. Jesus was the catalyst and dividing point for ending one way of relating to God for a new way of living, and His earthly ministry was the model, which was the point of His teaching in John 14-17, to show us how He lived in His Father’s embrace.
I’m sorry, but this way of handling Jesus teaching is dangerous in the extreme! Almost everything Jesus said was in an OT/pre-cross context. With this interpretation, how exactly do you handle “Go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey *everything* I have commanded you?”. In one swoop, you have reduced “everything” to “everything post cross” (which is virtually nothing of what he teaches in the gospels), or “everything that fits with how I think the new covenant should work, the rest I will explain away as being old covenant”.
The sermon on the mount is not old covenant, but new covenant, from beginning to end, and there is no hint that what he says doesn’t need to be applied today. In the new covenant, God’s law is written on our hearts, and we have new power to obey – which is why the righteousness of true disciples will indeed exceed that of the Pharisees.
The requirements on obedience and a life that demonstrates a changed nature are stressed again – e.g. Matt 7:15-20, and Matt 7:21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven.” We cannot set these things aside.
I agree with you. I tried to clarify what I meant by “context” in my second reply to Chris. You can read that. I was not saying that Jesus didn’t preach the Kingdom of God, or that it’s not relevant to us, but that we have to be careful with our interpretation of verses like Matt.6:15, making God’s forgiveness conditional to our behavior, because He said that in an Old Covenant context. Interpreting it as forgiveness dependent on our forgiving others would put us on very dangerous ground, directly contradicting New Covenant truths. So dealing with Matt.6:15 is the context of my answer, not on Jesus’ teachings in general.
But I agree, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t forgive. The only difference is, now, we’re empowered by the Spirit to actually walk in grace and love toward one another. It’s not the Law, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. Paul called it the “law of love” (Rom.13:10); James called it the “law of liberty” (James 1:25), which is NOT the Law, but of the Spirit. It’s actually the opposite of the Law in how it operates. In other words, this is what it automatically looks like when people are walking in the Spirit. We can look at the Sermon on the Mount this way also; as what it looks like when we operate in love and grace. Again, I explained everything above so I won’ repeat it here. I hope this clarifies for you. Blessings.
Hi Mel,
Thanks for your response. The problem is this: how did you decide that that part of the Lord’s prayer was Jesus saying that “in an Old Covenant context”? There is nothing in the context that tells you that. Rather, it is simply presented as how disciples should think and pray. Your lens of “that doesn’t fit with what I think the New Covenant is like” has trumped actual exegesis of the passage.
I believe in the importance of systematics, and it is also inevitable that our theological framework will influence how we handle each passage. But exegesis and being honest with every single text must be given priority, and allowed to call our framework into question. If, at the end of the day, we can’t produce systematics that are completely satisfying to us (in terms of being fully consistent in our way of thinking, or simple enough), then it is better to leave them in that incomplete state than to do violence in our handling of texts.
It seems to me that is entirely possible to believe in justification by faith alone and also believe Jesus plain words “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”, just as you can also believe and obey “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord”.
We are not accepted because of our holiness, or our ability to forgive. But those who have been changed by grace will pay attention to these warnings, and will respond, and so be holy and forgiving people, and if they are not, they will be excluded from God’s kingdom. So there is no contradiction here.
Our understanding of what the New Covenant is like needs to include this passage, rather than preclude it on the basis of other texts.
“We are not accepted because of our holiness, or our ability to forgive. But those who have been changed by grace will pay attention to these warnings, and will respond, and so be holy and forgiving people, and if they are not, they will be excluded from God’s kingdom. So there is no contradiction here.”
I have to respectfully disagree here. That is an impossible contradiction. You cannot say that we’re not accepted based on our ability to forgive, but by grace through faith, and then go on to say if we don’t pay attention to these warnings we’re excluded from the kingdom. That’s not the good news, that’s a nightmare! We’re left in a position of never knowing if we measure up or have done enough to be in God’s good favor. It’s fear-based, not faith-based. We are saved by faith in Christ’s performance, His forgiveness, not ours. We are kept by faith, not our behavior. Our faith is in the finished fact that our sins WERE taken away–past, present and future–on the cross. We died with Christ and now His life is now our life. We behave because of grace working in our lives. It’s a fruit of the Spirit, not because of the threat of punishment or exclusion. Faith is the only thing that pleases God (Heb.11:6), not our behavior. Our willingness and obedience follows faith. That’s the very essence of the New Covenant. That is the good news.
I would agree with you that we must include Matt.6:14-15 in our exegesis, but doctrinally speaking, this statement cannot trump the very heart of the New Covenant, which is based on faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross for salvation and forgiveness. If our understanding of a passage contradicts the bulk of other passages on the subject, we must re-look at our conclusion and see why.
The fact remains, if we’re not forgiven if we don’t forgive others, then we have an impossible contradiction. We have negated grace and faith and created of performance-based gospel based on our proper behavior. This conclusion cannot be added to justification by faith, salvation by grace through faith and not works, or that God is “no longer holding our sins against us” (2 Cor.5:19). Both concepts cannot be true. They are mutually exclusive. In other words, you cannot have Jesus taking our sins away, once and for all, and God not remembering them anymore, then having Him take them back again whenever we don’t act properly. That violates everything about the cross.
Again, we should and will forgive others and live holy lives, but not because of threats of punishment or exclusion, but because of grace working in our lives. It’s the fruit of walking in the Spirit.
Hi Mel,
It’s interesting that when someone does something wrong to someone else like a child to a parent or between friends, and then they come and ask to be forgiven, many of us might just say “it’s cool,” or “don’t worry” or something to that effect to the person who wronged us before one word is ever spoken. How much more does God do the same thing?
Yes, absolutely. God forgives because He loves. Like the Prodigal’s father (Luke 15), He forgives before we give our speech. All He wants is for us to run to Him. The ultimate point is not forgiveness, it’s relationship. From my point of view, I am sorry anytime I do something that I shouldn’t have done, but from His side, I’m always the son of His love. His arms are always open. He’s just waiting for us to want Him. We run to Him; He fixes us. 🙂 Blessings.
I agree that the sermon on the mount is in the larger context and exposition of the Law. I would say with the Lord’s prayer however that Jesus means what he says and says what he means. There are certain evidences of grace and forgiveness seems to be one. So the warning goes, “if you are not a forgiving person, you cannot be walking by faith in the radical forgiveness you have been given.” There is no fine print to the gospel it is by faith alone, but that grace has a particular effect on the heart of the one who receives it. In other words if I see a lack of forgiveness in my life I need to urgently return to the gospel! The fact is that Scripture says salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but it also warns believers to preserver. They seem to contradict at first but they do not. Now the real problem–how to convey that to laypeople 🙂
You makes some good points, Matt. First, Jesus is interpreting the Law in its purest form, piercing the spirit and soul, inspecting our thoughts and motives (Heb.4:12). If the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t make us give up our delusion of being saved by our performance, nothing probably will. 🙂
As you point out, ultimately for us, it’s a heart issue. If we’re not forgiving, what does that say about us? And what does it do to us. Unforgiveness is like a toxic poison that poisons the soul. I like how you said, “I need to urgently return to the gospel.” That’s what should happen when our heart is not right. Healing comes when our hearts return to His heart.
Blessings.
also from one blogger to another check out mine at tworoses.org
Thanks. Will do when I get a chance. Blessings.