I Believe in the Forgiveness of Sins
Forgiveness is the one cry of the converted soul. “Then began I,” says Bunyan, “with sad and careful heart, to consider the nature and largeness of my sin, and to search into the Word of God, if I could in any place espy a word of promise, by which I might take relief. Wherefore I began to consider that of Mark ui., ‘“‘ All manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto the sons of men,” which place, methought, at a blush, did contain a large and glorious promise for the pardon of high offences, but considering the place more fully, I thought it was rather to be understood, as relating more chiefly to those, who had, while in a natural state, committed such things as are there mentioned; but not to me, who had not only received light and mercy, but that had, both after, and also contrary to that, so slighted Christ as I had done. And now was I both a burden and a terror to myself; now was I weary of my life, and yet afraid to die. Oh! how gladly now would I have been any body but myself!
Anything but a man, and in any condition but 210 my own! for there was nothing that did pass more frequently over my mind, than that it was impossible for me to be forgiven my transgressions, and to be saved from wrath to come.”
“And as I was thus musing, and in my studies, that saying came in upon me, ‘If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? but there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared’ (Ps. cxxx. 3, 4). These were good words to me, especially the latter part thereof; to wit, that there is forgiveness with the Lord, that He might be loved, and had in reverence, for it was thus made out to me. * That the great God did set so high an esteem upon the love of His poor creatures, that rather than He would go without their love, He would pardon their transgressions.’”
“One day,” he continues, “as I was passing into the field, and that, too, with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, ‘ Thy Righteousness is in Heaven.’ And, methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there was my righteousness. It was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my Righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, ‘the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’”
“‘Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed; I was loosened from my afflictions and irons, my temptations also fled away, for by this Scripture (1 Cor. i. 30) I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as He is distinct from us, as touching His bodily presence, so He is our Righteousness and Sanctification before God. Here, therefore, I lived for some time very sweetly at peace with God through Christ. Oh! methought Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes, now I could look from myself to Him, and could reckon, that all those graces of God that were now green on me, were like those cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses when their gold is in their trunks at home. Oh! I saw my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ my Lord and Saviour. Now Christ was all; all my righteousness, all my sanctification, all my redemption.”
“At another time, yet suddenly there fell upon me a great cloud of darkness; I was so overrun in my soul with a senseless, heartless frame of spirit that I could not feel my soul to move or stir after grace and life by Christ; I was as if my loins were broken, or as if my hands and feet had been tied and bound with chains. After I had been in this condition some three or four days, as I was sitting by the fire, I suddenly felt this word to sound in my heart, ‘I must go to Jesus.’ At this my former darkness fled away, and the blessed things of heaven were set in my view. Then with joy I told my wife, ‘O now, I know, I know!’ But that night was a good night to me, I have had but few better. I longed for the company of some of God’s people, that I might have imparted unto them what God had showed me. Christ was a precious Christ to my soul that night; I could scarce lie in my bed for joy, and peace, and triumph, through Christ. Hebrew xii. 22 was a - blessed Scripture to me for many days together after this.
‘* The words are these, ‘ Ye are come to Mount Sion, to the city of the living God, and to God the Judge of all, and to Jesus the Medtator of the New Testament, and to the blood of sprinkling.’ Through this sentence the Lord led me over and over, first to this word, and then to that; and showed me the wonderful story in every one of them. Blessed be God for having mercy on me!”