Lesson 2: Experiencing God’s Love and Forgiveness

Your relationship with God is secure because, through Christ, you are forgiven and accepted by God. However, God also desires for you to walk closely with Him and communicate with Him throughout each day.

When we choose to sin, our relationship (our position as God’s children) is not affected, but our fellowship with Him is interrupted. Sin keeps us all from experiencing God’s love. Sin is more than cheating, lying, immoral behavior, etc. These actions are only the results of an attitude of sin. A simple definition of sin is: doing what we want instead of what God wants — both in actions and attitudes.

All of us, therefore, need to experience God’s forgiveness for our attitudes and actions.

1. The basis for God’s love and forgiveness.
“Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who were guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God, when His body was put to death and His Spirit was made alive.” (1 Peter 3:18 CEV)

Christ’s death is the basis for forgiveness to bring us into a proper relationship with God. His death is also the basis for forgiveness in our daily fellowship with God. Read the following passage:

“You were dead in sin and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then He gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for He forgave all your sin, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of His commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sin and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.” (Colossians 2:13, 14, Living Bible).

In the day when this was written, “list of sins” meant an itemized bond nailed to the prison door. It listed every crime for which the prisoner had been convicted. When the sentence was served or restitution paid, authorities removed the list and wrote, “paid in full.” The prisoner used this as proof that he could never be tried for those crimes again. The believer who trusts Christ’s payment for sin can never be tried again. His sins have been “paid in full.” He has full pardon from God.

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:10-12)