Although believers in Christ have been regenerated, given a fresh start in life, have become new creations, and are totally forgiven of sins, we can still cling to feelings of guilt and failure, as though the blood of Jesus didn’t include some of our sins. How could it have, we think, since we continue to struggle with past sins? My deeds seem as fresh and ugly today as they did when I committed them. If I was forgiven, why do I still struggle with being cleansed? 

We refuse to accept His forgiveness because we still feel so bad. The tragedy however, is not how we feel, but that we deny His cleansing and forgiveness. We cut short His loving and forgiving hand stretched out in love and healing to us. Basically, we are saying something like: “I don’t deserve your forgiveness. My sin was so bad I do not deserve your grace and mercy.” Doesn’t sound so good when you read the words does it? 

I have searched and searched but cannot find a verse that says, “I have forgiven all your sins, except for these…” As our loving Lord and Savior Jesus was breathing his final few breaths he said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Well, except for those guys over there. They knew exactly what they were doing and cannot be forgiven!” Of course He did not say the part in italics. His forgiveness included all sins. Everywhere. For everyone. As we repent and ask forgiveness, Jesus forgives. He washes us clean with His blood that poured down Calvary’s cross and flowed across the centuries to include our sins. 

It’s time to release the baggage of past sins and accept the total forgiveness of Jesus Christ. If we hang on to our guilt, we are calling Him a liar and saying His death on the cross was not good enough. His blood cleanses all mankind of their sins. That is, if we choose to accept His atoning gift. Forget the past. Accept His total forgiveness and walk in your miraculous new life so you can share His love, mercy and peace with everyone.  

Philippians 3:10-14  “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! 

 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” 

Luke 9:62   But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”  According to Believer’s Bible Commentary: The expression, fit for the Kingdom, does not refer to salvation but to service in the kingdom after entering it through faith in Jesus Christ. And the NLT Study Bible adds, “The ancient farmer guided a light plow with his left hand and his oxen with the right. Looking away would turn the plow out of its path. For a believer, looking back meant placing earthly concerns ahead of God.” 

1 John 1:8-9  “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 

Romans 8:33-34 “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”