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You may think God hasn’t forgiven you for that sin. But you’d be wrong. Here’s why…

By Jeremy Myers
32 Comments

You may think God hasn’t forgiven you for that sin. But you’d be wrong. Here’s why…

Forgiven and forgivenessLots of people have some some of secret sin in their past (or in their present life) which they think is so bad, God could never forgive them.

Well, they’re wrong.

If you think you have committed a sin which God cannot forgive, let me tell you….ย God has already forgiven you for this sin.

And yet He still wants you to confess and repent of this sin. Why? So He can forgive you.

Confused yet? That’s because there are lots of confusing statements in the Bible about forgiveness.

On the one hand, forgiveness seems unconditional and free (Col 2:13).

However, there are other verses which seem to say that we will not be forgiven unless we confess or repent of our sins (1 John 1:9).

A few passages indicate that we can lose forgiveness simply by not showing forgiveness to others (Matt 6:15). So does this mean that even if you confess our sin, we may not be forgiven of it if we fail to forgive others?

Then, there is apparently a sin which will never be forgiven, no matter what (Matt 12:31-32).

And of course, there are the confusing verses which seem to indicate that certain human beings have a special power or ability to forgive others (cf. John 20:23).

Finally, there is the issue of what forgiveness actually accomplishes. Many believe that in order to go to heaven, we must be forgiven of all our sins. Therefor, if any of our sins remain unforgiven due to one of the conditions of forgiveness listed above, does this mean we end up in hell?

I cannot begin to address all these texts in this post, and even if I did, there would be dozens of other similar passages which would demand explanation as well.

So instead of trying to explain every verse about forgiveness, let me try to briefly summarize what the Bible says about forgiveness and why there is so much confusion surrounding this concept in the church today.

What the Bible Says about Forgiveness

One of the biggest reasons there is so much confusion about forgiveness is that there are three Greek words used in the New Testament for forgiveness, but they often (though not consistently) get translated as “forgiveness” into English. For my own study of Scripture, it often helps to know what kind of forgiveness is in view.

Charizomai Forgiveness

The first kind of forgiveness is charizomai. It is what I think of as “God’s unconditional forgiveness.” This makes sense, because it is based on the word charis, which means “grace.”

Charizomai refers to the removal of guilt, but not necessarily the removal of consequences.ย Charizomai is God’s free pardon (cf. 2 Cor 2:7, 10; Col 2:13). As such, charizomai is offered freely, to all, with absolutely no conditions.

we are forgiven all our sins

This kind of forgiveness is a free gift of God to every single person on earth, emanating purely from God’s love and grace. In this way,ย you have been forgiven of every sin, no matter what.

Aphesis Forgiveness

The second kind of forgiveness is aphesis. It is best to think of aphesis as release. It often is used to refer to the release of a financial debt or burden, but is often used in the sense of gaining liberty or freedom.

Aphesis, however, is usually not without condition, so in this way, it is different from the unconditional charizomai forgiveness.ย Aphesisย is usually connected with repentance, meaning that aphesis does not come unless there is repentance.

This makes sense when we understand that sin enslaves us and puts us in bondage. If we do not repent of our sin, that is, if we do not turn away from it and turn back toward God, how can we gain freedom, liberty, or release from it? We cannot.

But note that even if we do not gain aphesis, we still have charizomai from God. He freely forgives us out of His grace, and calls us to repent so that we might also gain aphesis. If we do not, He still loves as forgives us (charizomai), but we will continue to experience bondage and enslavement to sin.

Apoluo Forgiveness

Then finally, there is the third kind of forgiveness, which comes from the Greek word apoluo. Apoluo is based on the Greek word luo, which means “I loose.” So apoluo is to be loosed, or set free. This word is nearly indistinguishable from aphesis, and may be nearly synonymous. There may be some small shades of differences, but nothing worth noting in this post.

So How Does This Help Christians Learn to Forgive?

you are forgivenFirst of all, we need to understand that we are forgiven, freely, by God’s grace, of all our sins, no matter what. You have the charizomai of God whether you confess your sins or not. You have charizomai for your sins whether you are Christian or not.

As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God. I have written about this previously, and so will say nothing more here.

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. How can we fix this problem? This is where most of the teaching in the Bible about forgiveness comes in.

Aphesisย forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphesis forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness are about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now. They are about whether or not we destroy our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything in our life.

God does not want us to live our lives surrounded by destruction, addiction, and enslavement, and so He encourages us to confess our sins, repent of our sins, purify our lives and in so doing, gain release, freedom, and liberty from sin and the damaging consequences of sin.

God encourages us to forgive others, because often, that is the only way we can gain release to the bitterness and resentment we hold in our hearts toward them. Until we forgive others we cannot gain the release of forgiveness for ourselves.

You are already Forgiven, so Forgive to be Forgiven

That subtitle sounds like gibberish, right? But from a biblical perspective it is true. You already have the free charizomai forgiveness of God, completely free of charge. So in light of this free gift of forgiveness, it would be wise to giveย aphesis and apoluoย forgiveness to others so that you can experience the release of aphesis and apoluo forgiveness in your own life.

Study Forgiveness on Your Own

I encourage you to embark on a study of forgiveness of your own. Find some sort of Greek-English parallel Bible, and whenever you see the words “forgive,” “forgiven,” or “forgiveness” in Scripture, take a few minutes to look it up and find out which kind of forgiveness is in view.

By doing so, you will be encouraged. God is not dangling your sin over your head as a way of threatening you with eternal punishment in hell.ย No, He has already forgiven you of all your sins, past, present, and future.

However, God wants more for you than to just have your guilt removed from you; He does not want sin to reign in your body; He does not want sin to rule over you, to destroy you, to ruin your life, your health, your finances, and all your relationships. He wants you to experience freedom and liberty. But for these, there are conditions and steps that must be met…

I encourage you to develop in your thinking about forgiveness. There are different kinds of forgiveness, with different conditions to receive the various kinds, and different consequences and results from each. Learn to distinguish which forgiveness is which, and your Bible will make a whole lot more sense.

God is Redeeming Books, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, forgiveness, grace, sin, Theology of Salvation, Theology of Sin, Unforgivable Sin, unpardonable sin

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Bible and Theology Questions 1

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

Bible and Theology Questions 1

I get a lot of Bible and theology questions sent in to me from the “Ask a Bible and Theology Question” section in the sidebar. Though I am not always able to respond by email to all that I get, I do try to respond to most.

I decided that as part of my response to these Bible and Theology questions, I would post my answers on this blog. I will probably do this once a week or so, and put some (but not all) of the answers I provided so that you can weigh in on them as well.

Bible and Theology questions


Question: If all life – human, animal, plant, angel – is in Christ, why didn’t all life come to an end when Christ died on the cross?

First, I am not sure it is correct to say that everything was in Christ. Being “in” Christ is a special New Testament concept for people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life. It refers to being spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

I do think that Jesus died, buried, and rose again to redeem all things, but that is slightly different than being “in” Christ.

Furthermore, even for those of us who were “in” Christ, it is a spiritual identification, so that when He died, was buried, and rose again, we also died, were buried, and rose again with Him — spiritually.ย Romans 6 talks some about this.

It’s kind of like being “in” a country as a citizen. If we are citizens of that country, we are identified with it. But if that country ceases to exist, we continue to live, but our identity changes. Did you ever see the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks? His county disbanded, but he continued to live.

That’s a really bad analogy, but it helps get at the point. Also, I am not trying to say that Jesus ceased to exist when He died…

My answer is getting off track pretty quick…

The bottom line is this: Being “in”Christ is a special theological concept in the New Testament which takes some study to comprehend. It means that we are identified with Christ in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, and as such, receive certain spiritual blessings and benefits as a result.

Oh, and one more thing. You asked why all life didn’t come to an end when Jesus died. Interestingly,ย it could be argued that it was through the death of Jesus that all life truly began.


Question: I turned my back on God and fear I cannot be fully-restored. How can I find out if it is possible or not? I was a Spirit filled born-again believer and I turned my back on God and entered into some very terrible sins. I keep living this lifestyle and fear my salvation is at risk. Even though I read scriptures on confessing, etc.. I do not feel any better.

Please help me.

There is a lot about your situation I do not know, but let me try to answer what I can from the little you have told me.

First, if you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are already fully restored. As a child in God’s family, you are loved, forgiven, accepted, and reconciled to God. You have been regenerated, indwelled, baptized, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

However, your sins may have caused some broken fellowship between you and God. Think of your relationship with God like any other human relationship. If you are born into a family, you are a child of your parents and brother to your siblings no matter what. These bonds cannot be erased or undone. However, even though you are part of the family, you may not have contact with your parents or with your siblings for years on end. This means that you are out of fellowship with them. You are still in the family, but fellowship is broken. To restore that fellowship, you would have to maybe confess some sin to them, humble yourself and return to them, or simply get on the phone and call them up.

It is the same with God. If you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are in the family. Nothing can break that bond. However, sin can break fellowship with God and with other believers. This is why confession and repentance are important.

forgiveness of GodSo some of the issues you are facing may simply be some misunderstanding about the nature of your relationship with God. Once you understand that He loves and forgives you completely, and that you are in His family forever, this liberates you to love Him in return and not be worried about sin making God angry at you (He was never angry at you in the first place).

Remember that when Jesus died for your sins, all of them were future to Him, and He died anyway. Not one of your sins surprised Him or made Him wish He had not died for you. He loves you infinitely, forgives you completely, and wants to be restored into fellowship with you.

As for not feeling better, this is one of the negative consequences of sin. Sin does not take us out of God’s grace or forgiveness, but it does damage us emotionally, psychologically, physically, mentally, and even spiritually. But you will not be able to break the habit of sin on your own. You need to first realize how much God loves you–even in the midst of your sin.ย Until you understand the love of God, no victory over sin and temptation will be possible.

So focus on God’s infinite love for you. Over time, you will begin to see that sin no longer has the temptation that it once did.

I have written about some of this in my book, Why You Have Not Committed the Unforgivable Sin. Feel free to get it from Amazon.com.


Question: When the so-called Reformation happened all it did was reform the same old religion and not the church. There is no such thing as popes, priests, and pastors. If you think about it they’re all the same thing.

I agree with you. The Reformation did little to change much about the “Christian religion.” I think it did help to remove some of the abuses of religion, but it introduced a whole host of others.

I am glad, however, that Martin Luther helped remind the church that eternal life is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Anyway, regarding pastors and priests, I have written several posts on the topic of pastors, and will be putting out a book about this in the next year or two… To get it for free, make sure you have subscribed to the email newsletter.

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Bible and Theology Questions, forgiveness, grace, in Christ, pastors, Q&A, reformation

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Are you an Author? Get Published This Year!

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

Are you an Author? Get Published This Year!

I have published nine books and have contributed to several others. My most recent book, however, is written to help YOU get published. 

I have learned quite a bit over the years about the process of publishing my own books, and very early on, I created a little guide to help me remember the steps to preparing my manuscript, editing it for publication, and submitting it to the various websites on which I sell my books. This little guide has helped me get published. 

As of last July, that little publishing guide of mine was 8 pages long. 

But it was cryptic, messy, disorganized, and not very clear. 

So last August, I decided to rearrange the guide to make it more useful. As I began to do this, I thought, “You know what? I bet author new and aspiring authors would like to have some of this information. As long as I am organizing it for myself, I might as well do a little bit of extra work and make a little book out of it. Why shouldn’t I help other authors get published?”

Five months later I sent a 184-page book to the printers.

Yes, my little 8-page guide turned into 184 pages of detailed instructions, screen shots, publishing tips, and suggestions for helping you get published, get your book into print, and ultimately, get it into people’s hands.

Get Published with Book Publishing Instructions

And guess what?

Though this book is already available on Amazon (Go ahead on over there to get a sneak peak inside the book)….I will soon be sending out a FREE PDF copy via email… but ONLY to those who have subscribed to my email newsletter!

So do me one of two favors:

1. If you haven’t subscribed and want to get published:

If you have not yet subscribed to my email newsletter and want to get published in 2014, then…. subscribe already! Here’s the form:

And just for subscribing, you will immediately get a free copy of Skeleton Church, one of my most popular eBooks! 

2. If you have already subscribed and appreciate my free eBooks:

If you have already subscribed and appreciate getting my free eBooks, please invite others on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to subscribe by using the sharing buttons below. This is especially true if you know anyone who wants to get published. Thanks!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: author, book publishing instructions, Books by Jeremy Myers, free ebooks, publishing, writing

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4000 Books 2014

By Jeremy Myers
61 Comments

4000 Books 2014

I once heard that an active reader only reads 2000 books in their lifetime. I found that depressing at the time, since I already owned at least 2000 books. If the statistic was correct, that meant that I would never be able to read all the books I already owned…. let alone the books I might obtain in the future. 

start reading books youngA few years ago I decided to sit down and figure out if it was true. It turns out that 2000 books was probably a bit of an overestimate…. especially considering the fact that most people probably don’t read more than a dozen books a year or so (the median is 8, the average is 17). If you read 17 books per year from age 20 to age 80, you will read just over 1000 books. 

I read a lot, but wanted to make sure that I read more than 1000 books in my lifetime. I think I can read about 4000 books. The problem is that there are so many really good books out there! So I decided to start keeping track of how many books I have read. And I am doing it on this blog. 

4000 Books

Here are the posts from previous years, and the lists of books I have read, with the total count so far: 

  • Birth-2009 Estimate:  1500 (doesn’t count children’s books)
  • 4000 Books 2010:  45
  • 4000 Books 2011:  69
  • 4000 Books 2012: 52
  • 4000 Books 2013: 57
  • 4000 Books 2014: ?? See Comments Below
  • Total so Far:   1723

I don’t count the books I write in that list, which really should count for about 10 books each (I wrote 3 in 2013), since not only did I read the book while writing it, but I also read it and re-read it in the process of typesetting, editing, and proofreading the book…. 

It’s a little crass, but did you ever see that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine hears a rumor that the birth control sponges are going to be discontinued, and so she buys every one she can find in the entire city? Then, to conserve her sponges, she has to decide if each boyfriend is “spongeworthy” or not?

bookshelfYeah, it is strange, but that is how I have come to view books. Though there are millions of books available to read, I can only read 4000, so I have started to try to decide if each book is “readworthy” … that is, does it deserve a spot on my list of 4000 books I will read in my lifetime? 

How I Choose Books to Read

Anyway, here is a bit more about how I choose which books to read:

  1. Will it challenge my thinking?
  2. Does it look like it says something new, or present a traditional truth in an insightful way?
  3. Is it written by someone who is credible? 
  4. Will it help me in one of my own writing projects?
  5. Will it help answer a biblical or theological question I am struggling with?
  6. Is it enjoyable to read? (Sometimes, you have to just read books for the fun of it.)

I Do Accept Review Books, but…

I do accept review books, but I am doing this less and less. I probably received and read about ten books in 2013 that I read and reviewed on this blog and on Amazon.com. A few years ago when I first started this list, I was happy to receive any free book that any author wanted to send me to review on this blog. I read dozens. But it got to be that these were the only books I was reading…

So this past year, I was much more selective in which books I accepted for review. I turned down a lot of offers. I feel bad about that, but it is what I have to do to read the books I really want to read.

Of course, I often accept review books from people who read my blog, because if you take the time to read my stuff, I definitely want to take the time to read yours. So if you have a book you want me to read and review on this blog, contact me through the About Page.

Books I “Must Read” in 2014

Here are some of the books that are “Next Up” in my Reading Queue: 

  • Paul and the Faithfulness of God by NT Wright (2 vols…. though these 2 volumes should count as 10 books…. they are over 2200 pages combined)
  • Freedom, Suffering & Love by Elphinstone (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Raising Hell by Ferwerda  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Razing Hell by Baker  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Understanding the Book of Job by Tompkins  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Unholy Allegiances by deSilva  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Reading Revelation Responsibly  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • Time and History by Rissi  (for my When God Pled Guilty book)
  • The Game of Thrones Series (5 volumes… I know, I know, complete depravity…)
  • How to Fail at Almost Everything… by Scott Adams (simply because I love Dilbert)
  • C.S. Lewis: A Life – McGrath (I don’t have this book yet, but soon…)

My Favorite Books of All Time

Oh, and are you curious what books I have read that I highly recommend for others to read? I made a list of them at this page: Books Every Christian Should Read. 

How about you? How do you decide which books to read, and which books are on your “Must Read NOW” stack for this coming year?

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: best books, books, Books I'm Reading, Christian books

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3 Angelic Voices for Christmas

By Jeremy Myers
6 Comments

3 Angelic Voices for Christmas

Merry ChristmasI hope you are having a great Christmas.

Here are some Christmas Carols sung by my three daughters as a Christmas present for my wife, Wendy. My daughter, Taylor, played the piano and sang (she’s only been playing for about three months), while my other two daughters, Selah and Kahlea, sang.

http://www.tillhecomes.org/MP3_Sermons/Misc/Angelic-Voices-Christmas-2013.mp3

I am taking the rest of the year off from blogging so I can spend more time with my family.

When I come back, it will be with a flurry of activity…. I’ve got a lot planned for the first 10 days of 2014…

  1. A list of the Top 100 Christian Blogs
  2. The release of my newest book… (Have you signed up for the newsletter so you get the eBook for free?)
  3. The Official Launch of my Publishing Company
  4. An update on how I’m doing at reading 4000 books
  5. My publishing goals for 2014, and some of the free eBooks I plan to distribute

And so much more! See you in 2014!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Christmas, Christmas carols

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