God wants us to know we’re forgiven, that he doesn’t hold our past sloppy attitude toward him against us, because truly knowing we’re forgiven is God’s second evidence that we’re on the path to eternal life in our lifetimes now (1 John 5:13).
Which is why he had John the Baptist go “into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” Luke 3:3. God wanted these people to know they were forgiven, which was remarkable, because they were Jews, the one group of people on the planet whom God had set apart to obey and trust him, and they’d totally blown it. But here was God offering them the chance to repent and start afresh, knowing their sins had been forgiven.
It prepared the way beautifully for Jesus and his amazing healings, which he did “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” Matthew 9:6. God had given Jesus the power to do these healings so people would know they were forgiven. In healing them he was giving them a fresh start, just like John had been baptizing people to wash away their past to give them a fresh start. The purpose of John’s baptisms and Jesus’ healings was exactly the same, therefore, to help people truly know they were forgiven.
And the same thing happened when people were “cut to the heart” on realizing they’d been complicit in the killing of Jesus in Acts 2:36-37 – because Peter’s response in verse 38 was, “Repent and be baptized,” grab the chance to put that ghastly mess and all that guilt behind you, “so that your sins may be forgiven.” Because that was the whole point of Jesus dying, so they could start afresh, knowing to the bottom of their socks that their sins had been forgiven, forgotten, and washed away in his blood.
Paul wanted to get that same point across too, telling his fellow Jews in Acts 13:38, “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.” And why was that important for them to know? Because this was the path God had laid out to eternal life, and believing it would put them on it (48).
God also provides one more piece of evidence to help us believe we’re on the road to eternal life, adding up to “three that testify” to it: “The Spirit, the water and the blood”….(next blog)
