Unforgivable!

is normal for Christians to find themselves strongly tempted to think that they are beyond God’s forgiveness. This is so common because we all have the same spiritual enemy. Relative to the God who dwells in us, our enemy is such a weakling that he can do little else but tell us cunning lies in the hope of tricking us.

The devil is like a school bully. He hates you furiously but he is powerless to hurt you because your best friend towers over him. As long as you and your friend remain inseparable, the bully can only fume in utter frustration at his helplessness. Your friend is faithful and will never desert you. The bully’s only hope is if you wander away from your friend. But why would you be so stupid? You would only do so if you imagined your friend no longer cared for you and would not defend you.

The devil knows his options are limited. For as long as you cling to Christ, you are a thousand times more powerful than him. So he hatches a plan. Somehow he has to convince you that God is no longer devoted to you. If you believe that lie you will wrongly imagine that prayer and staying close to God is pointless. You might therefore gradually drift from the only Person who can foil the Evil One’s plans to destroy you. If he can fool you into not calling upon the devil-crushing power of God when he attacks, he can turn you into his plaything.

So the Accuser of the brethren feverishly tries his old con job on you, just like he does with every other Christian, hoping to trick you into thinking the loving Lord has rejected you. If he could bring this off in your life, he could twist you around his little finger, like someone ordering people around because they do not realize that what looks threatening is nothing but a toy gun. If you see through the devil’s trick, he is a goner. He’ll have to run for his life.

No one on this planet deserves divine forgiveness. God offers forgiveness, not because of what you have or haven’t done, but because of what Jesus has done. In his extravagant love God wants to treat everyone as if they were sinless. All that Justice requires is that you make it legal for him to pardon you. This happens when through faith you so identify with Christ that a divine exchange takes place whereby Christ receives your sin (that’s what killed him) and you receive his sinlessness (that’s what gives you spiritual life).

Remember that when Jesus was tempted, the devil quoted from the Bible. Jesus exposed the devil’s lies by quoting Scripture back at him, proving that the devil had distorted God’s Word. That is what I have done in this webpage and in the next, and indeed in this whole series of pages. Don’t let the Deceiver mess with your mind. Instead, resist the Evil One’s powerfully persuasive brainwashing by continually immersing yourself in the truth of these pages. Don’t give him license to deceive by dwelling on his lies.

For effective medical treatment you must take identical pills day after day. Likewise, you need to absorb these truths by reading them over and over. Jesus overcame the devil’s lies by quoting Scripture from memory. And he was so conversant with the full teaching of Scripture that despite the deceiver’s powerful intellect, Jesus saw through every cunning attempt to distort God’s Word.

Who was the greatest first century Christian? Some would say Peter. Some would say Paul. And yet both committed sins so grievous as to seem unforgivable. When we gloss over the gravity of their sin we miss something very significant about the extent of God’s forgiveness.

It was not false modesty that moved Paul to label himself the ‘chief of sinners’. Though his mind had been saturated with Scriptures that told him the opposite, he sought to murder powerful Christians like Stephen who, if allowed to live, could have saved thousands of souls from eternal torment. Even worse, he tried not just to end their precious lives, but to torture Christians in the hope that they would blaspheme and turn their back on their only Hope of salvation. Even mass murderers and violent, hate-crazed rapists rarely try to violate their victims’ eternal destiny. Some people have tried to banish Christianity from their country, but few people in history have tried like Paul to obliterate every trace of Christianity from the entire planet. Above all men, Paul was most worthy of destruction, yet God was so eager to forgive him that the Lord dramatically took the initiative by powerfully intervening on the Damascus Road.

And consider Peter, the other contender for the title of greatest first century Christian. When he first came to Jesus he was so overwhelmed by his sinfulness that he fell at Jesus’ knees, begging the holy Lord to leave him (Luke 5:8). Jesus welcomed Peter not only as a beloved follower, but as an apostle, and not only an apostle, but one of the inner circle of three (Peter, James and John). And yes, even among these three, Peter’s name regularly topped the list.

Yet we find Peter committing one of the most grievous sins imaginable – being used as a tool of Satan to tempt the holy Son of God. And this was no minor temptation. He sought to use his special friendship with Jesus to entice the Lord to reject the way of the cross – the only means whereby anyone on this planet can find salvation. Had he succeeded, we would all have been spiritually doomed! And coming from someone so close to Jesus’ heart, and from someone who had just delighted Jesus by his sensitivity to the Spirit, Peter hurled at Jesus a most enticing temptation. ‘Get behind me Satan!’ Jesus was forced to retort. [Comment]

Still later, Peter disowned his Lord, not once or twice but three times, using oaths and everything he could think of to totally disassociate himself from his only Hope of salvation.

Years later, Paul had to confront this powerful church leader, compelled to publicly accuse Peter of hypocrisy, lest he lead many astray (Galatians 2:11-14).

Yet Peter was fully forgiven and showered with spiritual blessings. And that same offer of divine forgiveness – that same extravagant love – is eagerly extended to you.

Here’s a prayer I suggest you read to God.

Lord,

I am overwhelmingly aware that I have nothing to boast of in your presence. And yet this realization is bringing me into line with exactly the attitude you say we should have. ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9). And again you say you chose the lowly and the despised things of this world so that no one may boast before you (1 Corinthians 1:28-29). So here I am, finding myself utterly unlike the Pharisee Jesus spoke of, who could boast, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ Whether I like it or not, I am the opposite of this man, who saw no need to ask forgiveness. Instead, I find myself like that despised tax collector of whom you said, ‘He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” ’ And yet you said of this tax collector, ‘This man, rather than the other, went home justified before God’ (Luke 18:10-14).

You say, ‘If we claim we have not sinned, we make him [you] out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives’ (1 John 1:10). I am certainly in no danger of that. I am overwhelmed by my sin, and yet you say, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:10). I might think myself the greatest of sinners, but the apostle Paul was certain that title belonged to him (1 Timothy 1:15) and you clearly accepted him.

You say repeatedly in your Word that the basis of salvation is our faith in you – faith that you are so loving and so powerful as to purchase our forgiveness despite the magnitude of our sin. Since faith is critical to salvation, it is obvious that the one you call the Father of lies would focus his deceptive powers on trying to undermine my faith in your forgiveness. I determine with your help not to dishonor you by surrendering to satanic lies about your power and willingness to forgive those who seek your forgiveness.

I regret everything I have ever done to dishonor you, and I refuse to continue to dishonor you by doubting your willingness to forgive me. I exalt you, Lord Jesus, as the sinless Son of God who chose to die and rise again, thereby enabling me to live with you forever.

I choose to believe you, not satanic attempts to twist your words against you. I choose to believe you when you said, ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20) and, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5).

You say your relationship with Christians is like that of a husband and wife, and you say you hate divorce (Malachi 2:16). If a husband will not leave his wife, the only way they could possibly split up is if the wife refuses to live with her husband. That’s not me, Lord. I long to live with you.

Obviously, it would delight the Deceiver if I were to doubt your love and shrink from you in despair. So I choose to draw near you, conscious of your promise that you will draw near to those who draw near to you (James 4:8) and that whoever comes to you, you will never drive away (John 6:37). So I put my faith in your faithfulness. I trust not my righteousness, but your righteousness. I refuse to accept the Liar’s attempt to slander you as being a liar. I praise you that because you are righteous you will keep your word. And because you keep your word about forgiving those who repent and put their faith in Jesus, I am one of the millions who enjoy your undeserved forgiveness.