FORGIVEN
BREAD
25 “I,
even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers
your sins no more.” Isaiah 43:25 (NIV)
1 Blessed
is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin
the Lord does not count against
him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my
groaning all day long. 4 For
day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the
heat of summer. Selah 5 Then I
acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will
confess my transgressions to the Lord”--
and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah Psalms 32:1-5 (NIV)
23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 (NIV)
23 For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
8 But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)
8 For it
is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God-- 9 not by
works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians
2:8-9 (NIV)
21 Once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil
behavior. 22 But
now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present
you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is
the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under
heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1:21-23 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Christianity
simply does not make sense until you face the sort of facts I have been
describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them
forgiveness. It therefore has nothing
(as far as I know) to say to people who do not know that they have anything to
repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you
have realized that there is a real moral law and a power behind the law and
that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that power - It is
after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to
talk...(Christianity) tells you how the demands of this law, which you and I
cannot meet, have been met on our behalf. How God himself becomes a man to save
man from the disapproval of God. It is an old story...All I am doing is to ask
people to face the facts - to understand the questions which Christianity
claims to answer. And they are very terrifying facts. I wish it was possible to
say something more agreeable. But I must say what I think true. Of course, I
quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run a thing of
unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay
I am describing and it is no use at all to go on to that comfort without first
going through that dismay. In religion, as in war and everything else comfort
is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you
may find
comfort in the end: If you look for
comfort you will not get either comfort or truth. - only soft soap and wishful
thinking to begin with and, in the end despair.” CS Lewis, Mere Christianity
“I
realize that I am not used to the image of God throwing a party. It seems to
contradict the solemnity and seriousness I have always attached to God. But
when I think about the ways in which Jesus describes God’s Kingdom, a joyful
banquet is often at its center…This invitation to a meal is an invitation to
intimacy with God…Celebration belongs to God’s Kingdom. God not only offers
forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing, but wants to lift up these gifts as a
source of joy for all who witness them.” Henri Nouwen
“Grace remits sin
and peace quiets the conscience. Sin and conscience torment us, but Christ has
overcome these fiends now and forever. Only Christians possess this victorious
knowledge given from above. These two terms, grace and peace, constitute
Christianity. Grace involves the remission of sins, peace and a happy
conscience. Sin is not canceled by lawful living, for no person is able to live
up to the law…the fact is the more a person seeks credit for himself by his own
efforts, the deeper he goes into debt. Nothing can take away sin except the
grace of God. In actual living, however it is not so easy to persuade oneself
that by grace alone, in opposition to every other means, we obtain the
forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.”
Martin Luther
“The
only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is
through the Cross of Christ. There is no
other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy
for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary.
We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy
Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous
cost to God that made all of this ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God,
this price had to be paid. Never accept
a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the
atonement He cannot forgive – He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being
brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the
supernatural realm……Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you
will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.” Oswald
Chambers
“I
was the enemy of God. I was stamping
through God’s universe, shaking my fist in His face. And in the very moment when I was shaking my
fist in God’s face and tramping through the Creator’s universe, muddying all
His streams, that’s when Jesus died for me.
And if this is when Jesus died for me, what hope it gives me now! Now, even when I fall, the blood of Jesus is
enough. He didn’t save me because I was
strong; He saved me when I was weak. He didn’t save me when I was a pretty
thing; He saved me when I was a mess. On the basis of this reality, I can have
comfort.” Francis
Schaeffer
HEART
SAVOR
- · Through belief on the atoning sacrifice of Christ on my behalf, my sins are forgiven.
- · I was once an enemy of God BUT now I am reconciled through faith.
- · Sin and conscience torment while grace and peace quiet my soul.
