Colossians 2:13 contains a little phrase with enormous meaning.

“having forgiven you all trespasses”

Did you grasp its implications?  When you trusted Christ as your Savior, He cleansed you from every sin, past, present, and future!  Think of it.  He died once and for all on the cross so that you could have freedom from that guilt.

Think of it this way:  He died approximately in the year 33.  Correct?  When He died, what sins of yours did He die for?  Since all of your sins were future to the cross and that “finished work”; which of your sins were included?  How many of them were included?

To better understand this, draw a straight horizontal line on your paper, approximately 4 inches long.  On the left side of that line draw a simple cross, representing when Jesus died.  At the end of the line, to the right, put your name.  After your name, draw another line approximately 2 inches long. 

This line is a “time-line” to represent you in relation to the cross.  Now, at the point of your conversion were all of your sins past or future to the cross?  Right! Future.  So which of your sins did He die for?  Your past sins?  Your present sins?  Or your future sins?  He died for all of your sins, past, present, and future.  We tend to look at ourselves in relation to today, which is normal.  However, you must look at the time sequence of the cross juxtaposed to the time of your life.

Now some people say this belief gives people a license to sin.  God forbid!  I say, people who know Christ will seek to limit their sins.  People who sin constantly and do not sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit probably were never “saved” to begin with.  Oh, yes.  There are many in our churches that made a profession as a child or teenager who never were truly born-again.  Why do I say that?  Because God’s Word makes it clear that a genuine Christian does not continue to practice sin as a habit. 

You see, grace is such a wonderful privilege from God that a genuine believer will not want to abuse His relationship.  Though he fails many times, he gets up and keeps trying to get his or her life back on track with God.  Listen, only God knows who is genuinely saved.  I certainly do not.  I just take people at their word, but God knows who His genuine children are and He nurtures them.

I do feel it is my duty as a preacher to warn people of the devil’s deceptiveness.  He is out to destroy all that he can.  Many preachers neglect this message because they are afraid that people will just go out and sin without any limitations.  But, its message is much deeper than that and it ought not be neglected.  Let’s rejoice in what God has given us through Christ Jesus.

An old time preacher, Dr. Bob Jones Sr said:  “People ask me if I think I can lose my salvation.  I tell them, I’m going to stick as close to Jesus as I can so I won’t have to worry about it.”  I may not have remembered his quote exactly, but I heard him say this many times.

Now, I do not think that God gives you salvation one day and takes it back on another day.  That does not equate with Scripture.  What kind of a God would do that?  What uncertainty that causes.  I do know that He died once and for all and when I trusted Him as my Savior, He forgave me all my sin, past, present, future, all, all, and all, just means all.  And for that, I am indebted to Him forever and rejoice in the God of my salvation.

Listen to what John Gill said (I believe this was written in the 17^th Century so the wording will be a little different):  “This was a past act, being done and over; not only at first conversion, when a discovery of it was made, but at the death of Christ, whose blood was shed for the remission of sin; yea, even as early as Christ became a surety, when the sins of his people were not imputed to them, but to him: and this was a single act, and done and complete at once; forgiveness of sin is not done by piecemeals, or at different times, or by divers acts, but is done at once, and includes sin past, present, and to come; and is universal, reaches to all sin, original and actual, before and after conversion; sins of thought, word, and action: and this is God’s act, and his only; not men, nor ministers, nor angels, can forgive sin; this is the peculiar prerogative of God, and is owing to his abundant mercy and free grace, and which is signified by the word here used.”

I don’t know about you, but God’s grace makes me want to fall on my face before God and worship the Lord Jesus Christ.  It does not cause me to want to go out and live in sin and serve the devil.  On the contrary, we all should desire to be more like Christ. 

I am always amazed at people who call themselves believers and yet they live their life filled to the brim with worldliness and vanity.  Is that why our big churches are so big?  Have they quit preaching God’s word and separation from sinful living?  I am afraid we are living in a time of coldness to the truth of Scripture.  Professing believers want to do their own thing instead of living at a higher standard which reflects Christ and His teachings.

Listen!  Christians sin.  We still have our old sinful nature that will not be removed until we die.  We fight it daily.  It causes distractions, conflicts, pain and sorrow.  Our response today is to submit to God and let Him have more control of our lives than we did yesterday.

Where do you get the strength to go on?   Oh, dear one, you need to be reading His word often and pray without ceasing.  Life can be good.  Remember, Jesus died for your sins once and for all and you are forgiven.  Live in that celebration of forgiveness and enjoy each day to its fullest!

Here is the whole section on that verse from the NKJV.  It is so powerful in thought.

Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

Col 2:14  having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Col 2:15  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

 

May God Bless.