Lesson 17 – Blessed with Forgiveness

Psalm 32:1-2 (NIV)
"Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."

Surely this is the definition of the love of Jesus Christ in a nutshell. Whereas we are all sinners, through submission to the Lordship of Christ, our guilt is forgiven and our shortcomings caught up in the Lord's sacrifice. Whereas our sin haunts us, God no longer counts these sins to our account, declaring our spirits as no longer deceitful.

Doctrinally, this is a description of both justification and sanctification in the heart of the believer. Under justification, we are made right with God, just as if we had not sinned. As those who are sanctified, we've been set apart and made clean unto the Lord.

Here's the key to embracing this verse as our own. We have to set aside our feelings and live by faith. We won't always feel like one made right with God, totally forgiven of all our sins. Nor will we always feel as if we're free from the stain of our sins, for they always seem to accuse us.

What God wants us to do is set aside these feelings and accept it in faith that God has done all of what he said he would do for those who come to Jesus Christ. He blesses those who believe with salvation, bringing about justification and sanctification.

Sanctification always seems to bother us, for while we have been sanctified in Christ, there is also the sense that sanctification continues throughout this life, for we continue to battle our sinful tendencies and strive to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. But know for sure that every believer is already blessed by our Lord. Our salvation is made secure in Christ. Sanctification has already occurred, and it is still occurring in our lives.

Satan would love to immobilize the church by convincing us to live by sight and not by faith. When we do, we read this verse and wonder in our hearts if we've really been blessed by God. We look at the sins which we still battle and come to the conclusion we're not worthy of the blessing, for we seem to still be lost in our unholiness.

But this is a false picture of who we are in Christ. When we come to faith, we receive the blessing of justification and sanctification, not matter what Satan may say!