Definitions of forgiven:
- No longer has the desire to feel angry about or wish to punish (an offence, flaw, or mistake).
- Cancel (a debt or an offence)
To be forgiven is a pleasure and feeling of relief. A load of weights lifted from the shoulder of the back of the offender, giving the recipient the feeling of freeing and relief from the oppressive loads. On the other hand, to forgive, the giver adopts a magnanimous disposition towards the offender in spite of the gravity of the offence. There is this same feeling, both for the debtor and creditor, a sense of freedom from the oppressive load of the burden which they carried.
God’s forgiveness of our sins or trespasses started way back to the Garden of Eden. God made clothing out of animal to clothe both Adam & Eve. Despite the absence of details in the record of animal sacrifice for the atonement of sin, we can safely deduce that God would demand payment for the trespass that was done. God being God, His “modus operandi” in the positive light is the same, yesterday, today and forever, before or after that sad expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Both Adam and Eve should have died instead of the animal that was slain for their remission and clothing. In Leviticus 17: 11, “For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”
That episode presented a prophetic picture of Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, and the substitutionary atonement for our sins. God knew then, it would take the blood of His beloved Son to pay the ultimate price for our sins. No matter how scarlet or red like crimson our sins, the precious blood of the Son of God washes us, we shall be pure white as snow stated undisputedly in Isaiah 1: 18. Jesus Christ suffered once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us back to God…. 1 Peter 3:18. The killing of sacrificial animals since the fall of Adam did not do away or permanent covered our transgression. But what it did was to foreshadow the need for the coming of one perfect Lamb of God, Christ Jesus.
Throughout the Old Testament, to obtain forgiveness for one’s trespasses, an animal sacrifice was needed. The law required that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. This vicarious atonement would be repeated umpteen times till the gift of God, Christ Jesus, and the perfect Lamb of God came. Christ was perfect. He was without sin. He knew no sin; in Him was no spot or blemish like the sacrificial lamb chosen for such purpose. In fact, the perfect Lamb of God, died once for our sin was a perfect and holy sacrifice that pleased the Father. God accepted Jesus as our sacrificial lamb whose blood was pure and holy. Therefore, we are not redeemed with corruptible things; instead, we were redeemed with the precious blood of the King of the universe, without spot or blemish, our sanctification is complete in the sight of God. He, as our high priest too, had offered for all time one sacrifice for our sins, He now sat down at the right hand of God, the Father, interceding for us. Do note that the priests or high priest in the Old Testament era, do not have such luxury to sit down for a moment as the recurrences of the practice of atonement were endless. Not for Jesus our Redeemer. So when, Jesus cried, “It is finished” before He gave up His spirit, it was precisely accurate as He completed the task of our redemption at Calvary. Hallelujah!
Let us not be like the Jews in Jesus’ time, failing to recognize the time of our visitation by divine appointment with God through our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus the Lord and Christ.