SEEKING GOD’S FORGIVENESS
When someone was asked, “Do you seek God for forgiveness?” the reply came: “I am not sure I have. I don’t bring God into the picture.”
Yet God is the center of the picture. He stands at the center of life, morality, and eternity. To remove Him is not neutrality; it is to misunderstand the very reason Christ came. Scripture tells us that it was because of our sins that the beloved Son of God was born and given for us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
If Christ died for sinners, how can we then question the necessity of seeking God’s forgiveness?
How Forgiveness Is Sought
Genuine forgiveness begins with an acknowledgment of sin. Without recognizing guilt, mercy has no meaning. Confession follows acknowledgment; we bring our wrongdoing into the light before God. The next movement is renunciation and repentance—a deliberate turning away from sin with renewed resolve to obey His Word.
This may sound like a simple, one-time act. In reality, it is a lifelong posture. Like Israel in the wilderness, we are prone to wander and fall again. Pride returns, harsh words escape our mouths, selfishness colors our motives, and we neglect the God we claim to know. Each failure reminds us why we continually need cleansing and why forgiveness can never be treated as optional.
Consider everyday examples. A person may speak cruelly yet justify it as honesty. Another may nurture envy but call it ambition. Someone else may ignore God altogether while still imagining himself morally upright. In each case, the refusal to admit sin closes the door to grace.
The Old Sacrifice and the Perfect One
Under the Levitical law, God commanded Moses and Aaron to institute sin offerings. An unblemished lamb stood in the sinner’s place. Blood was shed to atone for defilement and to bridge the separation sin created between God and humanity.
Yet those sacrifices had an obvious weakness: they were repeated continually. Priests returned again and again because animal blood could never finally remove sin.
Hebrews points us to something greater. Jesus Christ is the true and perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Sin had provoked the righteous wrath of God, and Christ satisfied that demand. Though He had no sin, He became our substitute. He stood in our place and paid sin’s wage—death.
Our debt is beyond our ability to repay. We have nothing with which to settle it. But the Lord Jesus, the Creator of this universe, who knew no sin, was crucified for us, buried, and raised on the third day, conquering sin and death forever. His sacrifice was once for all. That is the decisive superiority of Christ over the repeated Levitical offerings. In Him we are given the perfect gift of salvation.
Now risen and ascended, He is at the right hand of God, interceding for us (Romans 8:34). Isaiah foresaw this ministry, declaring that He would bear the sin of many and make intercession for transgressors (Isaiah 53:12). He is both the sacrifice and the advocate for those who draw near to God through Him.
The Danger of Denying Our Sin
Can anyone claim to be a child of God while insisting that his actions require no forgiveness? Scripture answers plainly:
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).
Religious labels—Presbyterian, Protestant, Evangelical, Bible-loving, church-going—cannot replace repentance. To say, “I do not bring God into the picture,” is to imply that Christ’s sacrifice is unnecessary. It treats the cross as irrelevant to one’s behavior. Such thinking stands against the gospel and empties salvation of its meaning.
Titus speaks with sobering clarity:
They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good (Titus 1:16).
This is the religion of self-righteous pride. It trusts personal virtue rather than divine mercy.
And again Scripture warns:
He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
To deny the need for forgiveness is to resist the very work Christ came to accomplish. That is blasphemous and contrary to the truth in the gospel. This is an undeniable fact and evidence of the works of the devil.
True Religion or Self-Deception
A person may consider himself devout—even imagine himself specially chosen—but if he does not guard his speech or remain near to Jesus, his heart is deceived. Such religion is empty. It is the posture of self-righteousness, which Scripture likens to filthy rags before a holy God.
Why We Must Continually Seek Him
We seek forgiveness because sin is real, because separation from God is real, eternity in hell is real and the sacrifice by Christ on the cross is definitely real. So, every impatient word, every hidden resentment, every act of disobedience testifies that we need mercy beyond ourselves.
The good news is that this mercy has been provided. The Lamb has been given. The Advocate is alive. Therefore we come—not excusing ourselves, not minimizing guilt, but trusting in the One who died and rose again for us.
Finally, to seek God’s forgiveness is not weakness. It is agreement with the truth and confidence in His love.