Episode 003: God's Not Your Probation Officer

Most Christians believe Jesus forgave their sins… but aren’t quite sure how finished that forgiveness really is.

Is forgiveness something we receive once or something we have to maintain through confession and effort?
 Are our sins covered or completely removed?
 And what does it actually mean to be forgiven?

In this episode of Renegade Grace, Jess unpacks one of the most misunderstood topics in modern Christianity: finished forgiveness.

You’ll discover:

• Why forgiveness in Scripture means pardon, not probation 
• How the cross didn’t start forgiveness—it completed it 
• Why confession isn’t payment for sin (and never was) 
• The difference between sins being covered vs. taken away 
• How to understand the “but what about…” verses without fear or confusion 

If you’ve ever felt like you’re constantly trying to stay forgiven, this episode will challenge that belief and invite you into a freedom that is already yours.

Because the truth is—  you’re not on probation with God. You’ve been fully pardoned.

Show Notes:

Link to Jess’s Books: CLICK HERE

Instagram: @renegadepastor

Email: jess@renegadegrace.com

Website: renegadegrace.com 

Verses Referenced in Today’s Episode: Colossians 2:13; Hebrews 10:17–18; Hebrews 8:12; Jeremiah 31:34; Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 10:10; Hebrews 10:12; Romans 6:10; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 9:26; John 1:29; Colossians 2:14–15; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20; Hebrews 4:16; John 15:1–6; Romans 11:17–24; 1 John 4:13; 1 John 4:15; Matthew 7:21–23; 1 Corinthians 8:3; Galatians 4:9; 1 John 1:7–10; Colossians 1:13–14; 1 Peter 1:18–19; John 6:28–29; 2 Peter 1:4

Greek/Hebrew Words: Metánoia (Strongs 3341); Charizomai (Strongs 5483); Aphesis (Strongs 859); Athetésis (Strongs 115); Kaphar (Strongs 3722)

Listener Reflection Questions

• In what ways am I living my life like I’m on parole?
• Where do I treat forgiveness like it’s on a payment plan rather than free & finished?
• When I sin, do I run to God in confidence or hide in fear?
• What would change if gratitude replaced anxiety in my prayers? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most Christians agree Jesus forgives sins, but we're not really sure just how finished that forgiveness really is. Did the cross start forgiveness? And it's up to us to maintain it through confession and contrition. Is the work of the Christian life to constantly remember and repent of our sins day after day? Are our sins covered or cleansed? We're going to tackle all of these questions and more in today's episode. So buckle up, Buttercup. Welcome back to the Renegade Grace podcast. I'm your Grace Obsessed host, Jess Hayes. Today we're continuing our series called Relearning the Gospel. And today's topic is forgiveness. Specifically, forgiveness that is finished, final, and completed by the cross. My goal for today's episode is that by the end of it, you will know and be confident in the fullness and completeness of your forgiveness, and that any fear of losing it or living unforgiven as a believer will be crushed and kicked out of the door. Alright, so I want to start out our episode today by asking what may seem like a really silly question. What exactly is forgiveness? I bet you've never really stopped to ask that question, have you? We all know what forgiveness is, right? We're not little children, we're good Bible-believing Christians, we've been hearing about forgiveness our whole lives. We know about forgiveness, obviously. But maybe, just maybe, it would do us well to be a little bit more childlike in our faith and ask silly questions like this. I think some guy named Jesus said something about that once. Webster's dictionary says that forgiveness is release from the guilt or penalty of an offense. Release from guilt. Hmm. Interesting. Super interesting considering how often we use guilt as a driving force within the church to push people towards better behavior. Can we really call what God did forgiveness if we also say he places guilt on us? Wouldn't that by definition be contradictory? Oh, well, chess, that's the English definition. Biblical context is important. Good point, Mr. Devil's Advocate, sir. Why don't we look at the biblical context, shall we? I did some research because I'm a nerd and that's what we do. And I found out that there are a few Greek words used for forgiveness in scripture. I'm gonna save you all the pain of having to hear me attempt to pronounce them with my Texas accent, but I'll include them in the show notes in case you want to look them up later for yourself. All of them have a common meaning, and that common meaning is to pardon or to release. One of them, my new favorite, actually means to graciously in kindness pardon or rescue. And that's the one we see used in Colossians 2.13, where Paul writes, even though you were dead in the transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. So that word there forgiven means that he is graciously in kindness pardoned all your sins. That's what Scripture says, right there in black and white. Pardon all your sins. The problem is we don't actually teach forgiveness like this in the church. Instead of teaching pardon, we're actually teaching probation. You know what the difference is, don't you? If you're on probation, you're still guilty, you're still under the law, you're still being monitored and evaluated, your freedom is conditional. If you mess up, punishment is enforced. However, if you've been pardoned, your offense is fully forgiven, your record is cleared, you're no longer held accountable for that crime, there's no ongoing evaluation, and there is no future punishment for that offense. Pardon says it's over, you're free, this will never be brought up again. Probation says you're forgiven for now, but don't mess up again. So maybe you've heard something like the following statements when it comes to forgiveness. Jesus forgave me, but now I need to stay forgiven. God cleared my past, but now he's watching me closely. I'm okay with God unless I mess up again. God is faithful and just to forgive me as long as I keep asking. That's not pardon, that's probation with a religious label. God is not your probation officer. He doesn't keep bringing up your past, he doesn't keep receipts, he doesn't wait for the perfect moment to remind you of that one thing you did five years ago. How do we know we are pardoned and not just on probation? Well, I mean, other than the word itself literally meaning that, let's just go ahead and take a look at what some other scripture has to say about it. So Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 8 both quote the Lord as saying, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no longer. In fact, he told us as would happen when the new covenant came. He prophesied both through Jeremiah and Isaiah that he would wipe out our sins and remember them no more. Now notice that he didn't say, I will try not to remember, or I will occasionally forget, or I'll forget them as long as you keep asking me to. No, he says, I will remember them no longer. In that Hebrews 10 passage, the very next verse says, Where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any offering for sin. Meaning, if forgiveness is complete, the payment is over. So the real question really becomes, do we actually believe that? Because pardon removes your record, probation monitors your behavior, and only one of those is the gospel. So which do we believe is true? In order for us to really determine if we believe this, it's time for us to ask another simple question. How many of our sins were forgiven? I know. We don't ever ask this question, really. I've met a lot of Christians, I talked to a lot of Christians, I know a lot of Christians, and every Christian I've ever met agrees that Jesus forgave our sins, right? That's like foundational to the Christian belief. Jesus forgives sins. Cool, awesome. We're unified in that. I love that. But how many sins he forgave? Well, that gets a little bit tricky when you drill down to it. Because the answer most people functionally believe is Jesus forgave my past sins, you know, the ones I did before I became a Christian. But now I have to keep asking for forgiveness moving forward. So what, he keeps no record of our sins until we sin? He remembers our sins no more unless, of course, we sin. His blood is enough for our forgiveness. Well, I mean, unless we need forgiving. And that's what I like to call the classic religious bait and switch. And it means that the gospel isn't actually good news for the Christian. It's actually better news for the non-Christian than it is for the Christian. And that's a problem because Scripture doesn't say some sins. In fact, here's what Scripture says: Colossians 2, he forgave all your sins. Hebrews 10, 10. It was once for all. Hebrews 10 and Romans 6, it lasts for all time. That word all sure seems to be important to God when He's talking about forgiveness. There are no partial half measures with God in forgiveness, even under the old covenant sacrifices. We talked about this some in our last episode. One sacrifice for all sins on the Day of Atonement. So if we believe that we have to keep asking for forgiveness or that it was only for our past sins before we became a Christian, what we're essentially believing and communicating is that the blood of Jesus is less effective than the blood of animals. That's what we're saying. Because the blood of animals was good enough for all sins for at least a year. For at least a full 365 days. The sins of animals, the sins, the blood of animals, was effective for covering our sins. So we're saying that the blood of Jesus isn't that effective, isn't as effective as the blood of animals. If we think that only our sins up until we become a Christian are covered, and we have to keep asking every day, Jesus' blood is less effective than the blood of animals. And I don't know about you, but that sure doesn't sound very honoring of Christ to me. And so personally, I can't prescribe to that particular version of doctrine. Let's just use some logic here. You can do that, you know. You don't have to like put your logical brain on a shelf when you become a Christian. Logic and faith can coexist. What do we know from scripture? Forgiveness is all or nothing. Parceling out of forgiveness is not a thing, both in the old covenant and the new covenant. We know that. Jesus died to pay the price for our sins. We see that all over scripture and multiple scriptures. Jesus' death happened in the past, 2,000 years ago. Unless you're a time-traveling alien in a blue police box, which you know is always a possibility, every single one of your sins were future sins when Jesus died. Just camp there for a minute. Okay, Jesus died 2,000 years ago. Every sin you'll ever commit was in the future at that time. So just using logic. If forgiveness is all or nothing, and all your sins were in the future. In order to forgive all of your future sins, that means even your next future sin. Did you catch that? All your sins. God is big on that all, remember? All your sins means even your next one. Even the one you haven't done yet. Yep, even that one. It's forgotten, it's paid for. I know some of you just got really nervous. So hold on a minute before you go grabbing your pitchforks and torches and calling me a heretic. Okay, I can hear it. But Jess, you're minimizing sin. You're giving people permission to sin. That's dangerous, grace. Okay, fine. Okay, fine. Let's talk about sin then. What's the cost of sin? For those of you who listened to our last episode about covenants, you might remember us touching on this. Romans says that the wages of sin is death. Death. That's the price. That's the payoff, that's the cost. Not guilt, not distance, not God being disappointed. Not even damaged fellowship. Death. And if death is the cost, then the only acceptable payment is blood. Scripture says this. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Hebrews chapter 9. So let me say this as clearly as I can. You cannot pay for your sin with your words. Not with apologies, not with promises, not with better behavior or repeated confession. That's not the currency. Here's the thing. I'm actually not making light of sin when I say your future sins are forgiven. I'm not. I'm not making light. I'm not saying go out, do whatever you want. I'm saying that the cost of sin is death. People who say that you can confess your sins to earn forgiveness, that you can come to God and beg for forgiveness, that every single sin you do should come to him and beg. They're actually making light of sin because they're saying that the payment for sin is actually just words. And I'm saying the payment for sin was Jesus. I'm saying it took the sacrifice of a God who did nothing wrong to pay for my sin. I'm saying my sin's so big and so bad and so gross and so dangerous that it cost Jesus his life. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying sin is a big deal. And the currency for the payment of that was Jesus' blood. That is covenant currency. Covenant currency is blood. Here's the illustration that I use in my book, Uncommon Gospel. Imagine you go to the grocery store, you load up with all your favorite snacks, you get to the checkout line, the cashier smiles at you, gives you your total, you reach into your wallet and you pull out Monopoly money. Bright yellow, big 100 printed on it. You give her a couple and you say, keep the change. Now, are you gonna get out of there without getting in trouble? Are there gonna be, you know, red and blue flashing lights coming after you? Yeah. Why? Because that's not acceptable currency in the economy of Walmart. In the same way, you cannot pay a blood debt with your word currency. That is not acceptable currency in the economy of the covenant. Confession is not payment. The currency required is blood. Jesus already paid. How effective was that payment, do you think? How effective was Christ's payment for your sins? Because that's really what it comes down to. How effective do you think Jesus' blood was? Should he do more? Is there more for him to do? Or was the payment enough? Part of the difficulty for us when we're trying to understand this comes from this pretty common idea and teaching that our sins are just simply covered by Jesus' blood. We sing songs about this, covered by the blood, you know, under the blood, whatever. And this is how it worked in the Old Covenant. Under the Old Covenant, sins were covered. Once a year, the high priest would offer a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, and this sacrifice didn't remove sin, it covered it temporarily. Think of it kind of like putting a big old red blanket over a mess. Like I said, this was on the Day of Atonement. You can read about it in Leviticus 16. This word atonement, it means to cover or to appease in the Hebrew. It means to cover or to appease. And this is how the blood of animals worked. It covered our sin, covered the sin of Israel, appeased God. But what about Jesus, right? Like, how is Jesus different? Well, Hebrews 9.26 says that Jesus appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages, meaning the perfect time, to put away sin by his sacrifice. Put away sin by his sacrifice. John the Baptist says something kind of similar of Jesus. He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Not covers, not atones, takes away. And that phrase, put away or take away, is important because it's a different phrase than atone. The big fancy church word for it is propitiation. Five dollar church word there. We like to use big words to talk about simple concepts, right? The Greek word is different than that old Hebrew atoning. It means something different. It means cancellation, annulment, or abolition. Cancelled, abolished, removed completely. That's what Jesus' blood did to our sin. Better than animal blood. So listen really closely when I say this, because it's important. You, the child of God, you are not a sinner hiding behind Jesus. You are not cowering under his covering from the Lord. You are a new creation, fully united with him. You are a new creation in Christ. Your sin has been dealt with, taken away, nailed to the cross. It says in Colossians chapter 2, he has destroyed what was against us by nailing it to the cross and settled our debt. You are in Christ. Scripture says you were crucified with Christ and that you were resurrected new with Christ. All of you, all of him, no hiding, no cowering in fear, no worry that he can't be close until you confess enough. You can confidently approach the throne of grace. That's what Hebrews said. Hebrews 4. Confidently approach the throne of grace and find help. No cowering, no worry about closeness. You don't have to get it right before you come come, quote unquote, come close. You're as close as you can ever get. He's in you. You're united with him. There is no covering. There is taking away abolition of your sin. But Jess, I still behave sinfully. Yeah, man. Welcome to being human. Let me be clear. Sin is real, sin is destructive. Sin matters. It's dangerous and deadly. But here's the truth. Since punishment has already been executed. Christ died. Christ died horrifically. Read, read the account of Jesus' death in Scripture. I mean, he he was horrifically murdered for our sin. So what are we doing trying to repunish what's already been punished? Should Jesus be crucified again and again every time we mess up? Because that's what it would take. If if sin payment is progressive, if forgiveness is progressive, it would take Jesus' crucifixion to be progressive. It would take him being crucified over and over and over again every time you mess up. And in fact, Hebrews says the opposite, the exact opposite. It teaches that unlike the priest of the old covenant, he doesn't have to keep coming again and again year after year. His sacrifice was once forever, after which he sat down because the work was completed. In other words, he's not up there in heaven dying over and over again progressively. And so we're not down here on earth having our sins forgiven over and over again progressively. Once was enough. Once was enough for God. So then what? If we're already forgiven, what do we do when we mess up? That's a great question. Here's the answer. We repent. Wait, but Jess, didn't you just say we don't need to ask for forgiveness? Right, yeah. Because unlike what religion has made the common teaching to be, repentance doesn't actually mean begging for forgiveness or continual confession. I know that's what you've heard it mean, that's what you people teach it means. It's not. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. I can actually say that one. Have practice with that one. Metanoia literally means a change of mind. Change your mind. That's it. That's all repentance is. Changing your mind. In other words, renew your mind to believe the truth. Change your mind and believe that sin is of no benefit to you. Change your mind and believe that you're not a slave to sin. Change your mind and believe that goodness is actually at the core of who you are and you don't actually want to sin. It will make you miserable. It will make you sick. You're allergic to it. Change your mind from the old ways of thinking that don't align with truth. Repentance for the believer, okay? For the believer, repentance is simply about adjusting your belief system, not about begging for forgiveness. You're gonna make mistakes. You are going to forget who you are and act like something you're not. When that happens, and it will, when that happens, instead of saying, God, please forgive me. What if instead you said thank you that you already did? Thank you, God, that you've already forgiven me. Teach me how to live out my goodness. Then you could ask from help from a place of fullness and not lack. Gratitude and not anxiety. Doesn't that sound more like heaven? Doesn't that sound more like heaven? If the source is gratitude and not anxiety, if it comes from a place of thankfulness and not fear, doesn't that sound more like heaven? Doesn't anxiety and fear and trembling and guilt sound more like hell than heaven? And yet Satan has pitched it like it's something God needs. You're guilty, be afraid, come with fear and trembling. He says that's what God is, but doesn't that sound more like heaven than hell? Logically. Like, doesn't it make more sense that that's a voice of hell and not heaven? How can we believe that the heart of the Lord is Is anxiety and not gratitude. What if the forgiveness is finished and you can come from a place of gratitude and say, Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that I'm already forgiven. Teach me to live out goodness. Train me, Titus II, train me, Grace, in godliness. Let Grace train you in godliness and not guilt. Grace is the trainer for godliness, not guilt. Hopefully you can see that I take sin seriously, and I believe that it's dangerous and deadly, and it makes a believer sick because we're not designed for sin. There's lots of reasons why sin should be avoided and resisted. You should run from sin. You should avoid sin. Lots of reasons to do that. Forgiveness is just not one of those. Forgiveness is going to be there, it's finished, it's final, it's done. Jesus sat down. Forgiveness is over with. Forgiveness is not the reason for you to avoid sin. The reason for you to avoid sin is because you're righteous. The reason for you to avoid sin is because you have a heart that's obedient. That's what Romans 6.17 says. We have become obedient from the heart. The reason for you to avoid sin is because Christ lives in you and it's incompatible with your new nature. You know that first Peter No, not First Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1 says that we've become partakers of the divine nature. Partakers. Greek for partakers is like equal partners in. The divine nature. You have the divine nature in you. Sin is not compatible with that. It will cause you problems. It will make you feel sick because it's not compatible with who you are in Christ. That's a good reason. That's a good reason to avoid sin. Getting more forgiven is not one of the reasons. Plain and simple. Forgiveness is finished. All right. We've covered a lot so far, but we do have a few scriptures that we need to address before we wrap the episode up. I like to call these the but whatabouts. And these are the scriptures that I usually hear people kind of struggle through when I'm teaching about forgiveness, forget finish forgiveness. Because if you don't look at them through the lens of the gospel, they can seem contradictory. Something that's really important to remember, especially when we're studying, is that not everything's about you. And I think I talked about this in the last episode when I was talking about when our new covenant starts. Not every single thing in scripture is about you or directed to you. It's not all about you, okay? I know, rude, right? But I mean, just think about it, okay? Just think about it from a today perspective. If you're sitting in church on Sunday and your pastor's preaching a message, some of what he says is for you and some isn't. He may be teaching to believers about their identity in Christ. And then he could say something like, and if you don't have a relationship with Christ, here's how to do that. Is that directed at you, a believer, this invitation to accept Christ? No, of course not. He's being evangelistic to any in the service who might not have accepted Christ yet. Is he teaching primarily to believers? Yes, he is. He's teaching primarily to believers. And also, there's non-believers in there. So he's also teaching to non-believers. It's a mixed group. The early church leaders experienced the same exact thing, okay? It's nothing new. They experience the same thing. They were teaching both evangelistically and to believers in how to live out their faith. And we see them do this throughout scripture as they write their letters to the churches. Similarly, Jesus has multiple different audiences when he's teaching. Not everything is about you as a post-Cross Christian who has the Holy Spirit living in you. We talked about this. We're different than those of the old. We have the Spirit in us. Even the disciples before Pentecost didn't have the Spirit in them. They walked with Jesus, but they didn't have Jesus in them. So we have a different reality. I've been thinking about this actually a lot lately. We're really a new species of human. We're like a one-of-a-kind species of human because we are one with Christ. Our spirits are one with Christ. That's the first time ever in human history that that's happened. The spirit would come and rest on people, the spirit would empower people, but we have the spirit intertwined with us. We are one with the spirit, one with Christ. So we're a different species of human, and how we experience God is different because of that. Okay, Doki. So let's just jump into it. Our first, but what about? But what about the cutoff branches? Does that mean that I can be cut off if I sin too much? All right, so there are two passages that talk about branches being cut off, but really the main one is Jesus' words from John 15. He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they're burned. Very dramatic. Okay, so let's ask some questions here. Which branches are getting cut off and burnt? Which branches? Well, it's the ones who don't abide or live in Christ. That word abide means live. Do believers live in Christ? I would say duh. Of course we do. But don't take my word for it, okay? How about some scripture? Galatians 2.20. Probably heard me quote this a million times already, and we're only on episode three. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

unknown 28:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So do we live in Christ? Well, Paul would say yes. But don't want Paul? Okay, fine. Well, let's go to John, you know, the same apostle who recorded the words of Jesus. What does he have to say about who the people are who abide in God? We're going to go over to 1 John chapter 4, starting in verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us. Okay, so here's the test. By this we know. Because he has given us his spirit. So, do you have God's spirit? Child of God? Does his spirit reside in you? If so, you abide in him and he and you. He keeps going. A couple verses later, he tells us more about who abides in God. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. Okay. Have you believed and accepted Christ? Yes? Okay, then you abide in him. Period. There's no in and out. It's do you accept Christ and his spirit live in you? Great. You abide in him and he abides in you. Period. You are his child, and no one can snatch you from his hand. Jesus says that later in John. You used to abide in Adam. That was your home. Your home was in Adam. Now you abide in Christ. Christ is your home now. The end. No take backs. God doesn't break his promises. I don't understand this, okay? I I really don't understand people who believe that you can lose your salvation because that would require God to break his promise. Jesus said, No one can snatch them from my hand. In fact, he says, no one can snatch them from my hand, and then he goes on to say, My father who's stronger than me, no one can snatch them from his hand. So, like, literally you're in this God Jesus hand sandwich over here. Why do we think we can then be snatched? Or we can like jump out, I guess? I don't know. Like, what's the deal with that? Because if we believe that we can lose this, that salvation is somehow dependent upon our sin. We think God breaks his promises. And he's demonstrated so many times that he doesn't do that. He doesn't break promises. So back to our passage. What branches are getting cut off? Those that aren't part of the vine. No, not people who behave badly, people who reject Christ. No, not children of God who haven't confessed enough. Enemies of God who refuse to receive his grace and salvation. This is about believers and unbelievers. Believers abide in Christ. Period. Are you a believer? You abide. That's it. Unbelievers do not. It's not in and out. It's not sometimes I'm abiding and sometimes I'm not. No, you abide. You're in Christ. The other similar passage is Romans 11, which similarly is about believers and unbelievers. Specifically in that case, it's about Gentiles who've received Christ through faith being grafted in, whereas any Jews who rejected Christ are cut off. In other words, the only way to life is through faith in Christ, not through your heritage. But what about number two? But what about when Jesus says, Depart from me, I never knew you? This is Matthew chapter seven. Jesus says the following Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name or cast out demons in your name and do many powerful deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers. I think the NASV says something like, You practisers of lawlessness. Very dramatic. Have you noticed that just is a little dramatic? He's a little bit of a drama king. Okay, so notice what he says here. Does he say, I knew you, but then you walked away? No. Does he say, I knew you a little bit, but we weren't very close? No. Does he say I knew you, but then I forgot about you? No. He says, I never knew you. So ask this question. Are believers known by God? First Corinthians eight says that all those who love God are known by him. You could connect that to Ephesians 6, which says that of believers that we have an undying love for God. But more clearly, Galatians 4 says, as believers, that we have become known by God. So, are believers known by God? Yes. The ones being cast out are those who are not known by God. So are believers the ones being cast out? No. Those cast out are not believers who fell out of fellowship, did something wrong, maybe got mad. In fact, somewhat kind of ironically, considering how this verse is often taught, those being cast out are not those who are trusting in God. In fact, those being cast out are those who are trying to get in by way of their spiritual resume, self-effort, and good behavior. And I know that we can kind of maybe get focused in on this whole first sentence here that says, Only those, only the one who does the will of my father in heaven will enter the kingdom. Okay, so that's that first part there. And I think we get a little scared. It's like, okay, well, what do we have to do? He says to do the will of the Father, what's the will of the Father? We've got to figure out the will of the Father, and we've got to be doing that will, and uh Okay, chill. It's okay. Take a breath. Jesus tells us what the will of the Father is in John chapter 6. He says the will of the Father, the work of the Father, is that you believe in the one whom he sent. That's the work. You got one work to do. Believe in the one whom he sent. So, how do you do the will of the Father? How do you become known by God? Believe in Christ. Have you, Christian, child of God, believed in Christ? Great. You're known by Him. You're in no danger of being thrown out. You're in no danger of Him saying He didn't know you. He knows you. He knows you intimately. He's in you. It's not about spiritual behavior, self-effort, good works, doing the right things, avoiding the wrong things. Like this verse actually shows that. It's not about those things. It's blood, not good effort. That's the only currency. You're safe, you're secure, you're held, you're in no danger of being tossed out. Okay, that brings us to our final, but what about the big boy? But what about 1 John 1.9? Everyone's favorite confession verse. Okay, so for this one, I think it's really important we look at the verse in full context rather than just, you know, pulling that one verse out on its own. It's really important to do. I tell a story in my book about me as a kid taking something out of context. Story my mom loves to tell about me taking a verse out of context, trying to weaponize it, got me into trouble. I learned not to take things out of context. So you should go read that story. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start in verse 7. I'm gonna go to verse 10. So I'm gonna be reading 1 John 1, 7 through 10. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we don't bear the guilt of sin, we're deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Okay, so just take a minute and think about that. Who is someone who hasn't admitted their sin and been cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Would you say that person's a Christian? No. Can't be a Christian, because we all know the one and only requirement for salvation is admitting you're a sinner and accepting Christ's sacrifice on your behalf. Okay, so who is it then? Well, John must be talking about unbelievers who reject Christ's sacrifice and their need for it. And that would make 1 John 1 9 make sense, right? As John's solution to the unbelievers' problem. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Now, people will get upset about this, and they'll be like, Well, this is not written to unbelievers. Is the letter written to believers? It's written to a church, okay. Yeah, right. You're right. It's written to a church. But remember what I said earlier about your pastor preaching to multiple audiences. So, like, imagine John behind his pulpit. Okay, imagine that first John 1 is a sermon instead of a letter. And he's behind the pulpit. He's preaching to his congregation. And he says, This is what salvation looks like. And if we don't have it, hey, all we have to do is ask and it's ours. Can you picture Pastor John doing that? Have you heard your pastor do something like that? He's teaching to Christians and then he's also teaching to non-Christians. Same thing. Same thing happens. Like we see that in other letters too. Paul does it too. Peter does it. He teaches both. He teaches both types of people. Even the verse itself actually testifies to this. Okay? Because it says he's faithful to cleanse us of how much unrighteousness. Some? The ones we've collected so far, the past ones. No, this is all. All unrighteousness. So if this verse is true, that means there's no more unrighteousness for us to confess because he's cleansed us of all of it. Either John's lying and he only cleanses us of some unrighteousness. Or this verse is about salvation. And he's cleansing us of all of it. All means all. Even in Greek, all means all. First John 1 9 is not for you, child of God. Instead, you have first you have Colossians 1. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is not a payment plan like spiritual layaway or something. I'll keep making small confession payments until I'm good again. No, forgiveness doesn't work like that. Forgiveness was purchased in full. Scripture says, You were not redeemed with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus. That means it's not earned, it's not maintained, it's not reissued, it is finished. Let me leave you with this. All means all. Jesus sat down because forgiveness is finished. You're pardoned, but not on probation. I encourage you this week when you mess up, but and you will. You will. When you mess up, instead of spiraling, instead of begging, instead of promising to do better, just pause and say, Thank you, God, that I'm already forgiven. Thank you, God, that I'm already forgiven. Just try it. Just try it. And see how it might change the way that you walk through the world. See how it might change the way you believe God relates to you. See how it changes the way that you think about yourself. See how it changes the way that you actually extend forgiveness to other people. Because at the end of the day, when you know fully that you're forgiven, you are much better at forgiving people around you. What you receive from God is how you are empowered to live with other people. Alrighty, friends, that does it for this episode. I really hope that you're encouraged by this extravagant, excessive, unconditional nature of God's forgiveness for you. I really do. I hope it gives you a breath of relief to know that God's forgiveness is finished. On our next episode of Relearn the Gospel, we're going to talk about new life and new nature. This is kind of, you know, forgiveness is really only part of the salvation story and the benefits of our salvation. It continues with God's excessiveness in new life and new nature. So we're going to talk about that next time. If you want to keep up with me in between episodes, check out my website. Lots of cool stuff there, renegadegrace.com. I have some teaching resources there. If you want to like lead a Bible study, there's some teaching resources on parables and the book of Galatians. There's also discussion questions on my book if you want to do my book as a book study. So yeah, all that's free on my website. You can go check that out. You can email me Jess at RenegadeGreece.com or follow me on Instagram at RenegadePastor. Link in the show notes if you're interested in my books. Also a list of the verses that were referenced during the teaching today. And I also included some listener reflection questions this time. So if you want to discuss this with a group of friends or just, you know, continue on reflecting on it personally, you got those questions there. Okay, that's all I got. So thanks for listening to Renegade Grace. Remember, Grace did the work. You get to live from it. Okay, love you. Bye.