May 27 – LD 21, Day 7: The Forgiveness of Sins
by Prof Herman Hanko
Read Psalm 51, Psalm 32
There is no greater
blessing that we can receive than the forgiveness of sins. If we have this
blessing, all is well, no matter what the circumstances of our life may be. If
we have not this blessing, we have nothing, neither in this life nor in the
life to come.
The Apostles Creed makes
this confession purely objective: I believe there is such a blessing as the
forgiveness of sins. But our teacher makes this confession very personal: “That
God…will no more remember my sins, neither my
corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle…, but will…impute to me
the righteousness of Christ, that I may never be condemned.”
It is necessary and
important to make this confession our own.
The teacher calls
attention to many aspects of this confession. Let us
enumerate them.
First, all this
blessedness of forgiveness is “for the sake of Christ’s satisfaction.” We did
not earn it, nor even desire it. It is freely given because Christ earned it
for us.
Second, we need
forgiveness of our sins, but also of “our corrupt nature, against which [we]
have to struggle all [our] life long.”
This may come as
something of a surprise to us. We are not only to ask for God to forgive our
sins, but we are also to ask for forgiveness of our sinful natures, which are
the fountain and cause of our sin. In other words, we are responsible and can
go to hell for our sinful natures.
You ask how this can be
when we are born with corrupt natures. The answer is that we are guilty for
Adam’s sin and therefore, deserve the punishment of corrupt and depraved
natures. They need to be forgiven also.
Third, when we confess
our faith in the forgiveness of our sins and our corrupt nature, we ask God to forget
them. This is a bold request. We ask God to put them so completely out of his
mind that he does not remember a single one.
Fourth, we ask God that
he will impute to us Christ’s righteousness. That is, we ask God to declare
legally before the heavenly bar of justice that Christ’s righteousness is
actually our righteousness, and that therefore, God sees us as without sin not
only, but as righteous as he is.
Finally, we confess that
we believe we shall never be condemned for any sin: not now in our consciences,
not in the judgment day at the end of time, and not ever in heaven.
That is a wonderful
confession to make. Even if the world condemns us, or even the devil, or even our
own consciences, we say against them all: “I believe in the forgiveness of
sins.”