Ep. 44 - Understanding Sin, Redemption, and the Gift of Grace

What if forgiveness isn't about forgetting or feeling good about the person who wronged you? Discover the transformative truth behind forgiveness and its profound impact on both our spiritual lives and interpersonal relationships. This episode takes a thoughtful look at common misconceptions within Christian circles and connects them to a theological understanding of why forgiveness is essential for a relationship with a morally perfect God. By examining the nature of human imperfection and sin, we highlight the necessity of seeking divine forgiveness to bridge the gap between humanity and the divine.

Join us as we navigate the complex balance between divine justice and mercy, exploring how God's wisdom unfolded a plan for fellowship with sinful humans through Jesus Christ. We unpack the Christian belief that Christ's sacrifice offers a path to restore our connection with God and emphasize the importance of acknowledging one's sin. Delving into the often-overlooked struggle of self-forgiveness, we challenge its biblical basis and explore its place in accepting God's all-encompassing grace. This conversation invites you to reflect on the deeper meanings of sin, redemption, and spiritual fellowship.

Finally, we explore the degrees of forgiveness expected within Christian circles and the power of God's forgiveness as a guide in our spiritual journey. By diving into scriptural stories like the directive to forgive "70 times seven" and the parable of the unforgiving servant, we illustrate that forgiveness is not about being a doormat or neglecting justice. Instead, it is about releasing the desire for retribution while also setting boundaries. Be inspired by the reminder of the gospel's power and God's promise to remember our sins no more, as we encourage you to embrace and share this powerful message of grace.

Chapters

• 0:02 Christian Views on Forgiveness in Theology
• 8:02 Understanding Forgiveness in Christian Theology
• 20:36 Degrees of Forgiveness in Christian Circles
• 30:25 The Power of God's Forgiveness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

All right, everyone, welcome to the second Theo podcast. Sam and Tim here and we have been doing somewhat of a series. I don't know if we'd call it a series, but we're doing anxiety, depression and forgiveness today, all tied to just kind of Christian circles and maybe some of the biggest struggles that Christians have within these circles. So anxiety being one of depression and just what does forgiveness actually look like. So we'll talk about that today, as always. Follow us on instagram. We've been enjoying doing videos for that, trying to put out some more in the coming weeks. But we're at psych underscore and underscore theo and if you want to email us any questions or you have some topic recommendations, you can email us at psychandtheo at gmailcom and also follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Speaker 1: 0:50

We have a new look. You know Tim has his blue lights in the background there. It looks great. I have some little highlights not looking as great, but we'll make it work at some point. But yeah, we're excited to talk about this topic because I think there's a lot of misunderstanding of what forgiveness can look like for the Christian. So you know how we do things. First we start with defining what this actually is what is forgiveness and then I'll get into some of the questions of what this looks like within a church context. So what is forgiveness, tim? So what is forgiveness?

Speaker 2: 1:24

Tim. Yeah, so a lot of people think forgiveness means that when someone does me wrong, I'm going to choose to forget it like forgive and forget. They conflate those two, or that it means like I suddenly will choose to feel good about the person again or feel good about the situation, or something like that. These are all things, what forgiveness is not Forgiveness. Obviously, in order for forgiveness to even come up as something that needs to be considered, there must be something that's been done wrong.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Like an offense has been made, a transgression of some sort, and the person that has been wronged must choose to offer forgiveness or not. And forgiveness means let's split those two words for and give so for, as in like for running, like to go before and then give, so I'm going to give something beforehand. If you think of it that way, forgiveness means that I'm going to, in advance, extend mercy to this person. Extend, or at least I'm going to forego, my right to hold something against someone. That's what forgiveness is. So if I forgive a debt, like if somebody owes me money, and I forgive that debt, it doesn't mean that I like that person. It doesn't mean that I think they're a great person or that I want to hang out with them. It means that I'm now choosing not to hold their debt against them anymore.

Speaker 2: 2:53

So, I'm forgiving the debt. If someone wrongs me, like, let's say, they lie about me and they slander me and they gossip about me and they break my trust in some way. It's a close friend. They've broken my trust on something that's really, really important to me. Well, forgiveness means not that I choose to trust them again, because trust is different than forgiveness. Trust is something that has to be earned, but forgiveness means I'm going to no longer hold that offense against them, like I'm not going to demand something from them for that offense. That's what forgiveness means. Let's put that in a theological context.

Speaker 2: 3:34

So I think everyone at some point can understand basic forgiveness. You know and we all understand that, hey, we all need to be forgiven of some things. We all do wrong things to each other and we have wrong things done to us. In the theological context, we have a relationship not just with each other but with God. We are all trying to relate to God in some way, some of us more than others. Some of us maybe not at all. There's a small, maybe not at all, but in the Christian worldview, our ability to have a relationship with God is contingent upon us being forgiven of sin.

Speaker 2: 4:11

Someone might be wondering why do we need to be forgiven of sin? Okay, so God is a is a morally perfect being by definition. If we think about who God is, god is a morally perfect being. He's a creator of the world. He made everything. He doesn a morally perfect being. He's the creator of the world. He made everything. He doesn't commit evil himself.

Speaker 2: 4:28

He doesn't do wrong things to us, he doesn't sin against us. He's a morally perfect being, but he creates creatures in his image, like us, who have the free will to either do right or to do wrong, and we, as not perfect beings, ultimately inevitably do wrong. We ultimately sin, and, if you want to go deeper than that, we're born with a nature that has this proclivity to sin, and so, by the very fact that we are human beings, that we're less than God, we actually will do things that are wrong. We'll do things that are morally wrong to do, and then, when we do those things that are morally wrong, the Bible calls that sin. Sin meaning that we fall short of God's moral perfection, we fall short of the standard that God has to be in fellowship with him, and this is key to understanding, like even the Christian worldview, just like why would God set?

Speaker 2: 5:29

up this whole thing to begin with, if he knows we're going to sin. Well, in order to have fellowship with a morally perfect being, we ourselves must in some way be made morally righteous to have that kind of fellowship, if that morally perfect being isn't going to want to fellowship with beings who are sinful. And so we have to understand that he is perfect, he's God, we're not, and so there's this chasm of separation. We can't experience the full presence, the full fellowship with God as sinful human creatures. So something has to be done about that.

Speaker 2: 6:07

God himself must forgive these offenses, must forgive our moral imperfection, not just an imperfection, because that kind of puts it mildly, because it's not just like, well, I'm imperfect. The imperfect. Imperfection means that we do things that are selfish, we do things that are evil. We do things that are evil, we have evil intents in our hearts. These are things that corrupt us throughout our lives, our being in the state that we are. We are corrupted spiritual beings, but we all desire a union with God. This is something that's innate to human beings, because we're created in his image. So, whether we realize it or not, we do desire union with god. But that's impossible in our current state. So god himself must forgive these moral sins in order for that fellowship to be restored with him. The gospel and the christianity says that god himself is the one that takes that burden upon himself to restore that fellowship. You might be wondering why can't God just forgive sins? Why?

Speaker 1: 7:09

can't he just?

Speaker 2: 7:10

forgive them. Well, we can get into the whole gospel story, but essentially, where there is wrong that's been done, restitution must be made in some way. He's a merciful God, but he's also a just God. And think of it this way Like if I want forgiveness for the wrong things that I do, but I want God to punish someone for the wrong things that have been done to me by that person, god can't do both of those things at the same time without doing something else. Okay, he can't just forgive you and then judge the other person. He's morally perfect, so he has to be perfectly just in his judgments. So if you want him to judge the other person, well then he's going to judge you. This is why Jesus says in Matthew seven like with what standard you judge other people, that standard will be used to judge you. So yeah, we, we, we want God to be a perfect judge, but we don't want them to judge us.

Speaker 2: 8:02

God, in his wisdom, provides the answer to this question how does he judge? How does he a morally perfect judge who can judge all sin perfectly and yet be a righteous, merciful, gracious God, full of love that desires fellowship with even these sinful human creatures? And the answer to that is Jesus Christ. God himself takes on human form, the flesh that we also have, and dies in our place, like sin brings forth death. This is the christian worldview that sin brings forth death. We die in this sin. We can't have fellowship with god, and so we die in this sinful state. God takes on human form. He is perfectly obedient in his human form, but still dies a death on the cross, and thus pays that payment for sin that we accrued, and so he makes that payment Now. Now he is the one that, by faith, we accept his payment. So now he is the one who steps in our place. It takes the payment and, in reverse, we receive his righteousness to us.

Speaker 2: 9:07

So then we are brought back into fellowship with God. So the point of this is that forgiveness in a theological context can only make sense if you understand what Christian gospel is. God extends his forgiveness to all human beings. He makes it available to all human beings. Forgiveness to all human beings he makes it available to all human beings If they acknowledge their sin, if they acknowledge their inadequacy to pay for that sin, and they accept his payment for their sin.

Speaker 2: 9:32

He pays that sin for them. He restores them to a right relationship with them and forgiveness is extended to them in their human state, and that's the core of the gospel. With that, then, when it comes to a Christian learning how to forgive other people, that's the core of the gospel. With that, then, when it comes to a Christian learning how to forgive other people, that's always in the backdrop of our lives.

Speaker 1: 9:53

No, that was amazing, man. I didn't think of that piece that you said about. Obviously we understand forgiveness because of what Christ did for us, but the aspect of God not being able to and correct me if I'm wrong with understanding this God not being able to relate to us in our unforgiven state. But it's only the reason why we have community with Him or are able to relate to Him through prayer or community, is only after we accept his forgiveness through Christ.

Speaker 2: 10:28

It's a fellowship. Fellowship is the word Okay, fellowship Okay.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:32

We can't have full fellowship with God in our unforgiven, sinful state. Okay, that makes more sense, okay, sin must be dealt with, and forgiveness must be extended and then given to the person.

Speaker 2: 10:45

And that happens through accepting what Christ did on the cross, accepting what God did for us, and then seeking God's forgiveness. Then payment is made, payment, the payment that Christ did on the cross that is extended and to our account, let's say and then our fellowship with God is now restored in a spiritual sense, and then we can now have that fellowship with God that he has desired with us all along. But knowing that God creates fallible human creatures with free will, he knows that they're going to sin. So this is why Paul says from the foundation of the earth, god has already had this plan in mind. The wisdom that he had in Christ, he already had that in mind from the foundation of the earth. He knew what was going to happen with human beings. He knew that they were going to sin. If God, being this perfectly loving being who desires fellowship and desires a family of creatures created in his image, he says, okay, if I create these creatures, just like the angels, the angels have free will and some of them fall. If I create these creatures, just like the angels, the angels have free will and some of them fall. If I create these creatures, they're going to fall too, because they're not me. So how? If you understand this, god understands this perfectly instantly.

Speaker 2: 11:56

But for us we have to kind of work through this as like little kids. How would you set up a system where you can have fellowship, forever, perfectly, in a family, with these creatures who you know are going to sin? Well, then you make the arrangements that payment will be made for them. That's the gospel, yeah, so God is not surprised by our sin. He knows that's going to happen and so he has already made the way for that sin, like the hubris, that we can actually pay for that sin, that we can actually pay for our own sin. God knows we can't do that. Like, how could you pay for?

Speaker 2: 12:31

all your sins, pay for all the ways that you've rebelled and disobeyed God, the father, and he knows that you, he knows that you can't.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:39

And he's waiting for us to realize that too. So we come to christ and we say I can't pay for these sins and I, I want to be with god, I want fellowship with god, I want a relationship with god. That's why, jesus, I am the way, the truth and the life. And no, no man could come to the father but by me. But he sends his son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world, through him, might be saved yeah, that's so great about it.

Speaker 1: 13:05

You know, as as you were sharing that I wonder if you see the the connection here with some people Christians who are struggling with accepting God's forgiveness. So there's this aspect in the research that talks about self-forgiveness, and self-forgiveness doesn't seem to be a concept that we find in scripture. And again, correct me if I'm wrong. But for people who are struggling with accepting God's forgiveness, oftentimes what you hear other people share is well, you need to forgive yourself right Before you accept God's forgiveness. Oftentimes what you hear other people share is well, you need to forgive yourself right Before you accept God's forgiveness. It seems like you're still holding on to this thing from your past. You got to forgive yourself first and I'm wondering if you could kind of delineate for us is there a difference between those two things? Like, is self-forgiveness something that we see in scripture or is that something that kind of demonstrate that we haven't accepted God's forgiveness and we're just holding on to shame? Like how would you differentiate between those two?

Speaker 2: 14:03

So I don't buy, I don't agree with someone who says you need to forgive yourself first before you come to God.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Is self-forgiveness a thing, though? Like can they forgive themselves? Is that something that you do? Well, I think.

Speaker 2: 14:15

I think that self-forgiveness I don't know.

Speaker 2: 14:17

I've personally I've always struggled with the term self-forgiveness because I think it's shame. I think it's something, something that you are beating yourself up and we're holding things against ourselves. What I think ultimately it is is someone who struggles to receive the grace of God in their life, Like we can come and we can ask forgiveness and God forgives us of our sins and he restores us to right fellowship, but we ourselves still have shame and regret and we want to punish ourselves. We want to do things to feel like we've made up for our mistakes. We want to do things to feel like we've made up for our mistakes and, yeah, like there is a point where something can become self-hatred and I think that's rooted in a form of spiritual pride, because it takes humility to accept God's forgiveness. Yeah, but yeah, I don't know. You know I have struggled with this concept of self-forgiveness, like forgiving myself or something. I'm not saying it's not true, I'm just saying that I don't know. I think it's a simpler way to put it. I think it's just like shame and regret.

Speaker 1: 15:24

It's kind of with the shame, rather than you're actually forgiving yourself.

Speaker 2: 15:28

Yeah, you know, I think our narcissistic generation might focus on that, be like I'm going to forgive myself of this, forgive myself of that. I think there is a place for self-compassion, for having compassion for oneself and compassion. You know Christ, several places in the gospel Jesus looks upon. It describes him looking upon people with compassion. Compassion is you're looking at someone, you're seeing them and what they're struggling with, you're empathizing with them and all the while, extending grace and forgiveness to them and offering them a way out.

Speaker 2: 16:03

And I think, maybe, if you think about that from a self-reflection standpoint, having compassion on yourself, looking at your past, looking at yourself from the past, and having compassion on yourself, I understand the mistakes that I made. I know why I made them. I did some good things, some bad things from my past. You know, and I'm just kind of trying to figure it out yeah, life, yeah. So having that kind of compassion toward yourself, the kind of compassion that you would have toward a friend who is struggling with regret in their own life, you can extend that same kind of compassion to yourself. That that, I think, is, I think, easier to understand rather than oh, forgive yourself of this, I don't know, that's, that's me. I'm speaking personally now.

Speaker 1: 16:45

No, no that's good, that's good. You know, I brought up a key concept the idea of self-compassion. There's this really good psychologist, his name is Dr Gabriel Mate, and he talks about that aspect and he talks about five different levels of compassion and but he he references the Latin word of compassion, which means compassion, but he breaks it down is to suffer with. So when you're talking about the idea of self compassion, it is looking back at that person, the old you, I guess, that was making or made mistakes and experienced suffering and all that. And it's the present day. You kind of suffering along with that younger version of you.

Speaker 1: 17:26

And it's this idea of you're not judging the person to your point, you're not shaming the person for the mistakes or choices that they made, but rather you're allowing yourself to just kind of sit there in the suffering along with them, which gives you a sense of empathy and care for the present day of a person who's presenting but yeah, I think that does play a lot into the shame piece was a really great point that I think Christians do struggle with. You know, another thing that comes up when we talk about forgiveness a great description and demonstration of what the gospel looks like, of why we understand forgiveness the way that we do, but oftentimes Christians may see forgiveness a necessary piece from that is reconciliation, and I wonder if you kind of elaborate on that, like does forgiveness mean reconciliation? Are they two separate terms, and is reconciliation necessary to be a, to actually forgive someone?

Speaker 2: 18:21

well, there are two separate things. Forgiveness only requires one person it requires you.

Speaker 2: 18:27

You can choose to forgive someone, even if that person isn't repentant, never will will be repentant maybe or maybe they're dead and they're passed on and there's no possibility of them being repentant for the thing they did to you. You can still choose to forgive that person. Reconciliation requires at least two people because it requires you to reconcile something that was broken or separated. So reconciliation is a bringing together of two or more things back together. So you know, in the gospel, Paul says this in Romans, chapter 5, when we come to Christ and we are saved or justified by Christ, our sins are forgiven. So we receive that With that, we receive that with that we receive reconciliation with god. So in the process of salvation it's instantaneous we are forgiven, we receive god's righteousness and we are immediately reconciled back to god, because god has always been there waiting to be reconciled with us. It's us who have to come back to him.

Speaker 2: 19:33

But with two people it might be that you are extending your, you're ready and you're willing, you want to extend forgiveness to the person and you want to be reconciled, but they don't want to be reconciled. You can still choose to forgive and that means choosing not to hold that thing against the person, but that doesn't mean you've reconciled with them because, again and that means choosing not to hold that thing against the person but that doesn't mean you've reconciled with them Because, again, just this trust is a separate concept. Trust must be earned and restored. So two reconciliation requires that person to admit that they are wrong and come back and work things out with you.

Speaker 2: 20:10

So you can still extend forgiveness to them. But that doesn't mean you have to let them back into your life. You might. It's still fine to wait until that person comes to themselves, their senses, and says you know what I was wrong. Then reconciliation can happen. But, forgiveness is in us, to forgive our brothers and sisters, or always be willing and ready to extend that forgiveness to them.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Yeah, no, that's good. I'll close with this last question. You know, we often hear what we see it in scripture, where it talks about how often should we forgive, and the recommendation is what? 70 times seven, right? Obviously, the implication there is that we are always called to forgive, but there's some people that I think I've seen in Christian circles that don't think that forgiveness is always necessary, that sometimes justice needs to be served, and sometimes that could be the lack of not receiving forgiveness from the person that we've offended or have hurt. So, yeah, so is forgiveness a Christian duty. Is that something that does need to happen? Maybe not reconciliation, so you differentiate between those two but is forgiveness something that is that Christians need to do?

Speaker 2: 21:21

Well, there could be varying degrees of forgiveness. Okay, so let's say that somebody makes a huge mistake and maybe they damage your property, maybe it's you can think of all kinds of things that you know they do something that costs you financially. Okay, they offend you and it costs you financially in some way. And then they come around seeking your forgiveness and say I'm so sorry, yada yada. There can be a degree of forgiveness where you're like okay, yeah, I'm going to forgive this person, it's okay, I'll let you back in fellowship with me. Maybe it's like let's just take a scenario here you have a restaurant, okay, and a person comes in and they cause a big scene. They break some things, whatever, they get drunk or something and you got to call the police and they get taken away, blah, blah, blah. Well, they come back later and they say I'm really sorry for what I did. I lost control, yada, yada.

Speaker 2: 22:17

One aspect of forgiveness is okay, yeah, I forgive you. You're a human being just like me. You made a mistake, I understand, I recognize that and I want to let you come back to my restaurant. So you're letting them back into fellowship with you. However, you're going to need to pay for the things that you broke, so restitution needs to be made, and that you need to pay for the things that you broke. You got to replace the cups and the glasses and the table and whatever else you broke. That's a fair kind of restitution that can be expected of the person. Now you, you could extend a level of forgiveness for it. You know what, I'll take care of it, I'll pay for it. But I don't think that is a duty, so much as forgiving the person, extending fellowship back to them, but you can also expect them to pay for the things that they broke without holding a grudge against them. So that's just. That's like an example of where there's degrees of forgiveness.

Speaker 2: 23:13

You mentioned the passage of 70 times seven. That passage, I was going to say. You know, one of the scripture verses that is, I think, the most challenging and powerful for forgiveness is Matthew 18. And this is where Jesus mentions. Peter asks how many times should we forgive our brother? 70 times, seven, times seven. He's like no, 70 times seven.

Speaker 2: 23:38

Right before that, jesus tells this parable of a servant who is unforgiving. It's called the unforgiving servant, and this servant has a massive debt with his master and he knows that if his master comes to collect. He's going to be thrown in prison and his family is going to be ruined. His life is going to be over. It's going to be awful. So he goes to his master and he just begs forgiveness, and the master actually forgives him of his debts and says okay, I will forgive you of your debts.

Speaker 2: 24:11

Then that servant turns around and goes to people who owe him really small debts and he starts demanding that they repay their debts to him and he starts threatening to throw them in prison and to abuse them. Well, word gets back to the master that this servant has done this, and so he gets called back to the master and the master's like I, basically I extended forgiveness to you, and yet you're doing this now. You're a wicked servant. And so then he throws him into debtor's prison at that point. And so g and so jesus. That then says that basically, you need like, if you withhold forgiveness from people in this life, it's going to be withheld from you yeah and so then peter's like well, how many times should we forgive someone right?

Speaker 2: 24:58

and jesus is like 70 times 7 means it's a full and complete forgiveness. It doesn't mean that you're a punching bag or a doormat in life. You can have boundaries again. Trust is different than forgiveness. Reconciliation is different than forgiveness. Forgiveness means that I'm not going to hold it to the person's account in my life. I'm not going to sit to demand that God judged them for what the wrong they did to me. Like, in fact, I may. I may even pray and say Lord, I forgive that person. Like help me, help me to let this go, I want to forgive this person, help me to let it go. Or or verbally saying in your mind I forgive this person for what they did to me. Even if you know that reconciliation is impossible, you can still forgive the person. That's what Christians are called to do, because we ourselves have been forgiven of our sins and in order to apply that fully in this life, we must continue to extend forgiveness to people.

Speaker 1: 26:09

Yeah, no, that's great there and I assume that gives us a better understanding always of the gospel right Kind of what Jesus did for us on the cross in extending that forgiveness it almost makes it sweeter to understand. Okay, when we practice this it's a, it's a reminder of kind of what Christ did for us. So I really appreciate you, I appreciate you sharing that.

Speaker 2: 26:30

Just one more thing with prevention justice. There there are situations where somebody commits a heinous crime it could be murder, sexual assault, abuse, armed robbery, some something that really does harm people in very significant ways. You can, as a Christian sometimes this could happen to you it's possible to forgive that person and yet still allow for the legal, natural consequences to follow from that. So the state, the government, still has the responsibility to punish that kind of evil, and that is that can still be allowed to carry forward while you still extend forgiveness to the person themselves.

Speaker 1: 27:16

Yeah, but in interpersonal relationships. Yeah, sometimes people take the approach of I need to kind of establish justice here where they may cut off, and maybe that that that kind of plays back to the aspect of setting boundaries. But I think sometimes do people take on an established justice by punishing this person, either by spreading rumors about them or by cutting off complete contact.

Speaker 2: 27:43

Either by spreading rumors about them or by cutting off complete contact. I would say that's not justice, that's revenge. So that comes from an attitude of vindictiveness, where I'm going to take matters into my own hands and I am going to now rectify the situation by getting back at the person. That's very different than allowing God to mete out the justice that that he's going to meet out. You can still. You can still desire that god judges the situation. In fact, that's a good thing to do. Like god, you're the perfect judge, you judge the situation.

Speaker 2: 28:19

The for christian forgiveness means I go to the perfect judge and I say you know what, lord, I forgive this person. I'm not going to hold what they did to me. I'm not going to hold it against them. You see everything perfectly. Please, you deal with this. And I'm asking for you to deal with this in the way that you see fit. That's a that's a good way to deal with something like that. Now again, like if somebody really does you wrong, it doesn't mean that you can't bring it up. You know, matthew 18 also is the passage that talks about confronting your brother who does wrong to you. There's a method of confrontation and rectification of these things. That process is a process whereby we get reconciled.

Speaker 2: 29:04

So forgiveness doesn't mean like, well, clyde punched me in the face today again, I guess I'll just let it go. It's like no, like Clyde needs to answer for that, so it'll clay. I asked Clyde Clyde, why'd you punch me in the face? And Clyde's like because I don't like you. So I'm like well, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to Sam. I'm like Sam. Clyde punched me in the face. And Clyde's like, because I don't like you. So I'm like well, I'm going to go to Sam. I'm like Sam, clyde punched me in the face and I've already talked to him about it. And you're like okay, we're going to go talk to him together.

Speaker 2: 29:30

Clyde is still obstinate. Okay, we're going to take a few more and go talk to him. We're going Tim in the face every day until I see him. He's so obstinate. And it gets to the point where church discipline becomes the matter of the day and that means that ultimately, the person, the church collectively, hands justice over to God and says okay, this person is unrepentant in their sin. They don't want reconciliation, they don't want to be forgiven. Ultimately, they don't think they need forgiveness. Okay, god, you deal with it.

Speaker 1: 30:05

Wow, wow, man. Well, I think we covered everything regarding forgiveness. I think that was great, man, really clear, good, gospel-centered episode. I love it. Yeah, any final thoughts, man?

Speaker 2: 30:21

Before we head out, anything I missed or anything you want to add. No, I mean. Well, just to encourage christians I was thinking about this today that the bible describes when we are forgiven. He says he takes our sins and he he there, he puts them as far as the east is, from the west, from him, and he remembers them no more. So that that is the power of God's forgiveness in Christ and that forgiveness extends not just to our past sins but to our future sins as well. God's not surprised by our sins. We may be surprised and disappointed when we think, like man, I'm growing so spiritually and then next week we find ourselves in the depths of sin. We think like we might get so frustrated by that and think, well, this, just like god just might maybe so frustrated and hate me and not like me. And we need to remember god sees all of this like christ's forgiveness extends to all of our sins and we just need to to confess our sins and keep coming to him and confessing our sins.

Speaker 1: 31:26

Amen, brother, amen. Well, I love it. Hopefully, guys, this was a helpful episode regarding the very important topic of forgiveness, which is a crucial piece of our faith and our walk with Christ. So, yeah, share this episode. Thank you for tuning in and we will see you next time.