The perfect, holy God abhors sin and evil, yet His beloved human creation has succumbed to sin. Every human being has sinned, and this terrible blotch has separated us from the righteous God.
Thankfully, God had a plan. Jesus Christ was willing to come to earth and pay our death penalty for us. Because of that, God is willing to forgive our sins, which are paid for by Christ’s shed blood: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).
As God forgives our sins, He expects us to forgive others. We are to pray asking God to “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
After Jesus was crucified, He asked God to “forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). Jesus asked the Father to forgive those who had just beaten and crucified Him! That is a powerful example He set for all of us. Christ taught that we are to forgive others “seventy times seven” times and from the heart (Matthew 18:22, 35 ).
Read more about God’s incredible forgiveness, and the forgiveness we should practice, in the related articles.
