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Revelation 12:7–12
“I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God’ ” (v. 10).
We sinners have incurred an infinite debt before our holy Creator, and our only hope is for Him to show grace and mercy to us and forgive us freely. Thankfully, God has promised to pardon all who trust in Christ, as texts such as 1 John 1:8–9 tell us. We might overlook, however, how that same passage tells us that God, in a sense, puts His own faithfulness and righteousness on the line when it comes to forgiveness. His forgiveness is as much a consequence of His justice as it is of His mercy. Remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully and completely satisfied our Creator’s wrath against His sinful people (Rom. 3:21–26). For God not to forgive us when Jesus has already borne the full penalty of our wickedness would be to force us to suffer in hell for a debt that has already been satisfied. It would be the unjust imposition of a double penalty for the same crime, to condemn us twice for the same transgressions. That would be a manifest violation of justice, especially since God has promised that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus by faith (Rom. 8:1). Ultimately, God did not have to send Jesus, but once He did He bound Himself as a matter of justice to forgive everyone who trusts in Christ.
Consequently, if we trust in Jesus, we have been truly and objectively forgiven, and God is so just that He will not refuse to pardon those who trust in Christ. Yet because guilt and guilt feelings do not always line up completely, it is possible for us to be in an objective state of forgiveness and not feel forgiven. The only way forward in such instances is to keep returning to the Word of God and what it says about God’s promise to forgive, asking Him to strengthen our belief that He always pardons those who turn to our Creator in faith. The better we know the Bible, the more we will be able to see the truth and work to bring our feelings in line with objective reality.
Sometimes pressing forward so that we feel the forgiveness that we know that we possess objectively is a struggle, but it is a fight that we must engage in. The battle can be difficult because Satan and his demons love to draw our eyes away from Christ and to make us doubt His promises. Satan is, as we see in today’s passage, the “accuser of our brothers” who will try to get us to doubt God’s graciousness. Thus, we must remember that he has been cast down and has no authority to accuse us of sin (Rev. 12:7–12). In Christ we have been forgiven.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God is gracious and merciful, and when we confess our sins to Him, He forgives us for the sake of Christ. If we start to think things such as “God could never forgive me for that,” then we are hearing the voice of the enemy. Let us pay no heed to that voice but believe God’s promise that He forgives even the worst of our sins when we trust in Jesus alone.
for further study
- Exodus 23:14–17
- Numbers 9:13
- Matthew 9:9–13
- Luke 18:9–14
the bible in a year
- 1 Samuel 24–26
- Luke 16:14–31