But, there's two types of forgiveness. One is judicial forgiveness, which only occurs at salvation. The other is relational forgiveness. Judicial forgiveness and relational forgiveness. Now, what in the world is judicial forgiveness? Because we have two judgements here. One, the judge walks up before the people are arraigned and says, "You are guilty. And this is the punishment you deserve. This is the prison, because you've sinned, because you're not perfect, you deserve to be in condemnation from God."
But God, the Father, as he looks at our lives as a judge, changes here because His son, Jesus, paid the bill on the cross for our sins and because Christ has covered our sins, the Father passes over the sins and He says, "Wait a minute. That term has already been
served. It's already been paid. You are not guilty." You see, when Christ died on the cross for our sins, He died for sins past, present, and future. The total package. So, we're judicially forgiven one time. We cannot be judicially forgiven over and over and over again because Jesus said and He proved, "My sacrifice was once and for all.
Turn to the book of Colossians, if you would. Colossians, chapter 2, verse 13. Colossians 2, verse 13 and following says this. This is Paul writing. Colossians 2:13. "And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him." You see, folks, a person does not know Jesus Christ, they are dead. They're breathing, they're taking up space, they're spending money. They're going to this place and that place, but they're really dead. They're a living corpse. But if we know Jesus, we're alive. He said, "He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all"~all" of our transgressions.
Fellowship Church Ed Young states about Verse 14. "Having cancelled out the certificate of death"~now put that term in your frontal lobe, there"having cancelled out the certificate of your death, consisting of decrees against us and which was Gospel to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." You know what Paul is doing here? Paul is giving a picture of crucifixion. Because criminals are crucified, you know, back in Biblical times. Now, if you were crucified as a criminal, they would place over your head all the things that you've done wrong-your crime. And what does the word say? It says this: "Having cancelled out the certificate of death."
