“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”
(Colossians 2:13)
Pardon or forgiveness is the removal of original sin and guilt. Pardon cuts away the knot of guilt that ties man’s sin and God’s wrath together. It cancels the bond obliging the sinner to pay his own debt, reverses the sentence of condemnation, and places that sinner under the covering of Christ’s work and outside of the Law’s condemning reach.
Christians obtain full pardon only through Jesus Christ, as Colossians 2:13 says, “Having forgiven you all trespasses.” God awards no half-pardons; for doing anything in halves does not suit either the riches of His grace nor the sinner’s need. Great and small sins, sins against the gospel of God and His Law, the most and least heinous sins, in the happy hour of pardon all sink down together into the sea of the Redeemer’s blood where every sin is fully pardoned.
This pardon is free. “Being justified freely…” (Col. 2:13). It is free to us who believe by faith in the Redeemer, though it cost God the death of His Son, and it cost Christ the price of His blood. Thomas Boston asked, “What have we to give for a pardon? Could we weep as many tears as the sea has drops, afflict ourselves as many years as the world has stood minutes, it would not buy a pardon, since it is not infinite.”
God’s pardon is unalterable and irrevocable. It is a gift of grace that is given to those who believe (Rom. 11:29), a gift that God never repents of bestowing. A child of God may lose the sense of his pardon, but the pardon itself is written in the Mediator’s blood, so it can never be lost.
What more can be said to show the fulness of God’s pardon? People may forgive, but they will never forget the offences done to them. But when our God pardons the sinner, He not only forgives… He also chooses to forget the injury done to His glory by the sinner! Though God’s perfections cannot include a proper forgetting, the believer’s sins are forgotten in terms of judgment by God’s law when He imputes the righteousness of Christ to our account.
This irreversible act of pardon is passed to each and every believer in the court of heaven. God extinguishes our guilt, thereby removing our due punishment, and He thereafter deals with us as kindly as if we had never offended Him because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He looks at us through the righteousness of Christ and beholds us without spot, perfectly pardoned.
- Lord, what an unspeakable benefit is the gift of Your pardon to me! I sing along with David, Ps. 32:1-2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.”
- It is unbelievable that a sinner such as I am can be accepted as righteous in Your sight. You not only pardon my sin but accept and account me in my person as righteous in Your sight! (2 Cor. 5:21).
- It is a blessing that salvation is by Your grace, Lord, and not by works. By the obedience of Jesus Christ, I am made righteous. You declare, accept and account me righteous in Christ, such a wonderful truth I can hardly believe. Though my good works are stained with sin on their own, when they are covered with the Redeemer’s blood, they become acceptable to You. Thank you for this incredible gift of grace, Lord, for otherwise, my prayers, my reading, my mediations, my worship of You would all be worthless.
Further References for Col. 2:13
Eph. 2:1, 5; 1 Tim. 5:6; 1 John 2:12; Ps. 32:1; Isa. 1:18
