Author: Bob Christopher

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 23
“Remember 5 years ago when you did…”
“And, then 3 years ago, you hurt my feelings when you said…”
“Even last Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., you …..”
When it comes to our relationships with others, we love to keep a tally of the all the wrongs we have suffered. We have a list of all the wrongs our mates have done, one for our children, our employer, and our friends.
All it takes is one wrong word, and out comes “the list.” We remind the person of all the wrongs they have done in the past and we hold these wrongs against them.
Many times, we feel that’s how God interacts with us. As long as we’re behaving properly, He loves us. But if we mess up, out comes the list of all our past sins and we have to beg Him to stay in relationship with us.
But God isn’t like that at all. Paul made this clear in his definition of love. He wrote that God keeps no records of our wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5).
As we have learned in previous posts, God does not remember your sins. He nailed them all to the cross, Jesus blood washed them away. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, God welcomes you into relationship with Him with open arms.
Paul put it this way: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and He gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19).
Step fully into the forgiveness of God and rest in Christ’s finished work. The ‘list’ has been destroyed and you are free to enjoy His love!
Forgiveness Challenge #23– Let the forgiveness you have received spill out to those on your list. Ask the Lord to teach you how to burn the lists of resentment and wrongs and to remember the forgiveness you have received in Christ.
I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus (1 John 2:12 NLT).

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 22
“Are you saying that since I am totally forgiven, I can just go out and do whatever I want to do?”
I have heard that question more times than I can count from listeners of our daily radio broadcast, Basic Gospel.
This question isn’t new. The Apostle Paul was hit with it almost everywhere he traveled. Many today are asking the same questions. Some of the questions stem from Paul’s bold claim in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “Everything is permissible to me.”
As believers in Christ, we are free. We are free to submit to the desires of the flesh. But, just like Paul, we are also free to submit to the desires of the Spirit. Both are permissible. Only one is profitable.
Knowing that we are forgiven helps us choose the profitable path.
When we give in to the desires of the flesh, we put ourselves under the control of sin. For the child of God, this doesn’t make sense. Paul understood that. He had had enough of being mastered by sin. He willingly submitted to the control of the Holy Spirit in order to experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.
No, the truth of total forgiveness of sins does not lead to reckless living. God’s love as expressed in forgiveness always leads to a life of trust and dependence upon Him.
There is nothing more profitable in life than knowing and experiencing the love of Jesus Christ. That’s how you live in grace.
Forgiveness Challenge #22 – Understand that we have the freedom to choose what we will depend on at any given moment. Remind yourself that the right choice is to plant yourself firmly in the middle of the forgiveness you’ve been given.
“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 6:1-2 NLT)

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 21
Through Christ’s act of propitiation, God showed us that he is just. He dealt with our sin. He didn’t ignore it or sweep it under some heavenly carpet. He judged it, he condemned it, and he punished it. All obligations were fully satisfied. But that was not the end goal.
God is both just and the justifier. He freely justifies “the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). That’s you.
Not only did God take away your sins, he declared you to be righteous. This is the proof that your sins have been forgiven and that God is fully satisfied with you. This means you are in right standing with God. You didn’t work your way to that status. God justified you freely by his grace.
How does this play out in daily living? We still sin, don’t we? And each sin we commit still deserves punishment. The punishment we deserve is death.
Yet, God says to those who are in Christ, “Your sins have been forgiven.” How do we know that punishment is not waiting for us sometime in the future? What is the proof?
Justification!
God justifies sinners and declares them right in his sight on the basis of Christ’s finished work on the cross.
The work is done. Jesus wants us to trust and depend on Him. It’s in that trust that we can watch him work all things together for our good. We can trust him because he satisfied the law on our behalf. His punishment was our punishment. In exchange, His righteousness became our righteousness.
The fact that God has declared us righteous in His sight is proof that all of our sins have been forgiven – past, present and future. They have been sent away from us as far as the east is from the west and righteousness has been credited to our account. On the basis of Jesus’ shed blood, God treats us as if we had never sinned.
Forgiveness Challenge #21 – Do you believe that Jesus died for all of your sins? Do you believe that his blood satisfied the law for every sin you have committed or will commit in the future? Here is the proof:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 (ESV)

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 20
Have you ever thought this about God: “No matter what I do, God is never satisfied with me.”
The Bible tells a different story. God is satisfied. The biblical word is propitiation. It’s not a word we hear very often, but it packs a powerful punch when it comes to our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Here is what we need to know. Propitiation is a God thing. It took place between God the Father and Jesus the Son. The writer of Hebrews marks it as a heavenly transaction: “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Hebrews 9:24).
The end result is this: Jesus’ shed blood satisfied the demands of God’s justice and holiness. Think about that. The wrath of God directed toward you was fully satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God accepted the blood of Jesus as complete and final payment for your sins.
This is grace. Jesus accomplished for you what you could not accomplish yourself. This means there is nothing for you to do except believe. You will know you have truly believed when you are satisfied in your heart with Christ’s death as total and complete payment for your sins.
This is “by grace through faith.”
Forgiveness Challenge #20 -God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on your behalf. If God is satisfied with the payment for your sins, why shouldn’t you be satisfied? Ask God to make this truth real in your heart and mind. God is satisfied. You can rest.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10 (ESV)

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 19
I’m Not Who You Say I Am 
We like to tell old stories, especially at family gathering. They usually start with, “Do you remember when…” Old stories are wonderful to share. And it is healthy for us to look back and see where we’ve come from.
Most of us only venture back to the past from time to time. There are others, however, who never get out of the past. They are stuck there. Time has marched on, yet in their minds, time stopped for them at some significant event that happened long ago. Have you met people like that?
If you pay attention, you’ll see this with many ex-athletes. In their minds, they are still those elite athletes who dazzled fans with their skills and talents and “super-human” abilities. They have a hard time moving past their glory years.
Those who say they can’t forgive themselves are somewhat like these ex-athletes. Except they have allowed the sins of their past to define who they are today. Rather than seeing themselves through God’s act of grace toward them, they see themselves in light of their sins.
My friend, John Lynch, says “When I wear a mask, the only thing that gets loved is the mask, not the real me.” We don’t go around broadcasting what we perceive as our identity. No one knows if we are carrying the label of adulterer, or cheater, or addict. We keep it secret because we are scared to death of how people will react if they find out the “truth.”
But you can’t hide behind a mask with God. He knows and it doesn’t change what he thinks about you and what he has recreated you to be. The Gospel changes who you are. Here is the good news. Your identity changed the moment you trusted Jesus Christ. You are brand new and bear the name, “child of God.”
Forgiveness Challenge #19 – Take off whatever mask you are wearing and let everyone see your true identity – Child of God, perfectly loved and accepted.
“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15, 16).

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 18
I am unworthy and unlovable.
We’ve all heard the story of the prodigal son.
He convinced his dad to give him his inheritance so that he could go out into the world and make his mark. The world with all of its seductive charms lured him into a life of recklessness and waste. Before long, all his money was gone.
The only work he could find was feeding pigs. He was at rock-bottom. His wild living made him feel unworthy and unlovable. In his poverty, he felt like a servant and not a son. Many people relate to the prodigal son. Like him, they feel unworthy of God’s love.
We get to those feelings of unworthiness in one of two ways. The first follows the path of the prodigal son. Shame is that fear of being disgraced if anyone finds out our real story.
Others feel unworthy because they’ve been damaged by something that happened to them, or they believe they were the cause of a hurtful situation. Perhaps they were molested as a child, or abandoned by their parents, or rejected by someone they loved.
Or they might believe they were the cause of their parents’ divorce or the reason a brother or sister died.
These are heavy burdens to carry. They keep people from ever drawing close to others and to God.
Here is the good news. God knows your real story. He is not ashamed of you. For proof, look at the cross. His choice to love you was on full display there. It was poured out in grace and mercy.
The cross of Jesus Christ tells you that you are lovable and worthy to receive love.
Forgiveness Challenge #18 – Let go of the unworthiness and let the forgiveness of God cleanse your soul. Faith says it’s worth the risk!
 ^“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 23-25a)

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 17
I’ve crossed the line.
Some people think they are beyond the forgiveness of God. A gentleman named John was listening to the Basic Gospel radio broadcast one day. Something he heard prompted him to call. The shame and guilt in his voice were palpable. I asked him: “John, do you believe you’ve crossed a line and that there is no hope for you?”
“Yes, that’s exactly how I feel.”
What a horrible place to be. If you believe your sins are so big that they have exhausted the supply of God’s grace, you are doomed to a life of self-condemnation and will miss the grace of God for you.
Paul could have easily lived under a blanket of self-condemnation. He blasphemed God’s good name and persecuted Christians. As he said to Timothy, he was the chief of sinners. But God exercised unlimited patience with Paul and poured out his grace on him abundantly.
The gospel tells us that God’s grace never runs out. It is a limitless supply, which means there is no line you can cross. There is no place you can be that God cannot reach you.
Grace takes you out of your sin and places you into Christ Jesus. Since God does not remember your sins, there is no need for you to keep dredging them up.
Forgiveness Challenge #17 – Look deep inside and find those things that are keeping you from fully embracing the grace of God. Then let the following verse melt those things away:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 16
I’m a basically good person.
If you buy the premise that you are basically good, you will miss the grace of God. If you believe you are fundamentally good, you don’t need grace.
This mindset forces you to rationalize, defend and try to prove to others that indeed you are basically good. Some would call this perfectionism.
I believed I was basically good. Before fully embracing the grace of God, I tried to spin my past in such a way that would put me in the best light possible. Defending my fragile ego was hard work. It was an endless task.
I missed out on truly knowing and experiencing God’s forgiveness.
The truth is that in and of ourselves, we are not basically good. Jesus was very clear on this point: “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
Our hearts, as Jeremiah wrote, are wicked and beyond cure. But not beyond the cure of God’s grace. God in His goodness reached you in Christ and forgave your sins. He changed your status from sinner to child of God.
This is truth that will set you free.
Forgiveness Challenge #16 – Do you spend time trying to convince yourself or others that you are “basically a good person”? Are you willing to accept the truth of Mark 10:18 and fully embrace Romans 4:5?
“And to the one who does not work but believes in^[a] him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,” (Romans 4:5).

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 15
I meet people all the time who say, “I know God has forgiven me, but I am having a hard time forgiving myself.”
Have you heard people you know say this? Maybe it’s something you are struggling with right now. If so, you are not alone. Many people find it difficult to forgive themselves.
I wish I could point you to a verse in the Bible that teaches self-forgiveness. The Bible never addresses the issue. Jesus never said to anyone that they need to forgive themselves.
When people speak of forgiving themselves, they are actually saying they want to let go of their past and all the fear, guilt and shame associated with their past. The Stanford Forgiveness project conducted by Stanford University suggests that we use “forgiveness to make peace with the past.”
They go on to say that “forgiveness may be, as the religious traditions have been claiming all along, a rich path to greater peace and understanding that also has both psychosocial and physiological value.”
The worldly path to self-forgiveness is paved with self-love, self-acceptance and self-affirmation, which sounds good and healthy, but it misses the point.
Forgiveness means being released from punishment due to sin. It’s rooted in God’s grace and holiness. It is God’s act in Jesus to satisfy his justice. God did not let your sins go unpunished. It is crucial that you know and understand this.
Forgiveness became yours the day you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead. David painted the most vivid picture as to what this means: “…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
Forgiveness Challenge #15 -Consider this verse: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” (Hebrews 12:15). What is the answer? That we not miss the grace of God. The result of missing God’s grace is bitterness that causes trouble. Someone struggling to forgive themselves is a troubled person. They are troubled because they carry with them the stains of their past. In light of Christ’s finished work on the cross, are you willing to let go of your past?

The 28 Day Forgiveness Challenge — Day 14
In forgiving our sins, God did much more than speak forgiveness into our lives. He sent Jesus to die in our place, to shed his blood for our sins. That was a must. Forgiveness is always contingent on the shedding of blood. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).
In that sacrifice, he removed our sins, placed them on himself, suffered the punishment for them, sent them away, and then chose to remember them no more.
How can we do that for another person? Even if we did die for someone else, would our blood be sufficient to take that person’s sin away? The answer is a resounding “no”. We can’t do for another person what Jesus Christ did for us.
We can, however, extend grace to another person based on the shed blood of Jesus. To forgive others is to extend kindness and favor to another person and to do so willingly
Normally, we demand others to come back to us on their knees asking for mercy before we respond in kindness.
That’s not the way Christ forgave us. He took the initiative. God’s provision always precedes our need. His provision affects change in us.
In kindness, we reach out to those who have offended or wronged us, seventy times seven. We do so on the basis of Christ’s shed blood. The Holy Spirit works this measure of grace into our hearts and empowers us to choose not to count a person’s wrongs against them.
Your forgiveness of others merely reflects the forgiveness you already have in Christ
Forgiveness Challenge #14 – How are you to forgive others according to the two verses below? Think about how Christ forgave you.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).