Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Did God Forgive Me If I Don’t Feel Forgiven?

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Did God Forgive Me If I Don’t Feel Forgiven? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: The unpardonable sin? Is there a sin? A sin so
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  Speaker 1: heinous that to do it is to have violated God
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  Speaker 1: so seriously that you can no longer be saved when
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  Speaker 1: you boil down and try to summarize the whole history
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  Speaker 1: of this podcast, which I was dumb enough to try
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  Speaker 1: and to do, this is likely the most commonly asked
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  Speaker 1: about question of all the questions that have ever come
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  Speaker 1: to us. I'd say it is the existential dread that
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  Speaker 1: tops every other dread. Have I committed the unpardonable sin
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  Speaker 1: because of something I said or something I did in
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  Speaker 1: my past that was so heinous and so wicked and
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  Speaker 1: so premeditated that surely there is no longer any hope
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  Speaker 1: of forgiveness for me. A lot of ground has already
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  Speaker 1: been covered here from so many different angles, so much
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  Speaker 1: I had to make two different sections in the EPGA
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  Speaker 1: book to cover it, pages three twenty three I read
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  Speaker 1: to three twenty six and three thirty seven to three
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine as the way you'll find summaries. We returned
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  Speaker 1: to the theme in this email from an anonymous woman.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, I have carried the weight and guilt of
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  Speaker 1: a past sin for many years feeling like I am
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  Speaker 1: unforgivable no matter how much I beg for forgiveness or repent.
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  Speaker 1: I feel as though I can't be saved because of
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  Speaker 1: what I did. Reading about Paul being called the world's
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  Speaker 1: worst sinner has encouraged me, but the feeling of being
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  Speaker 1: unaccepted and facing inevitable judgment still lingers. To give some context,
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  Speaker 1: I once believed in God but experienced doubts during a
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  Speaker 1: college biology class, which led me to intentionally turn away
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  Speaker 1: from him. I essentially told Jesus to leave me so
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  Speaker 1: that could engage in sinful activities without feeling guilty, and
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  Speaker 1: I truly felt like he left me to my sin
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  Speaker 1: as I requested. Now, I deeply regret that decision and
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  Speaker 1: along for a close relationship with Jesus again. And my
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  Speaker 1: question is can I still be forgiven, especially after deliberately
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  Speaker 1: rejecting him? Does He see my heart now and offer
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  Speaker 1: salvation to someone who once chose to turn their back
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  Speaker 1: on him? I know I would never have acted so
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  Speaker 1: recklessly if I knew then what I know now, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm desperate for assurance that his forgiveness is still available
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  Speaker 1: to me.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Lord, make these few thoughts a means to the
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  Speaker 2: miracle of assurance and pray in a true sight.
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  Speaker 1: True daughter.
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  Speaker 2: There are two very large issues in this question. One
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  Speaker 2: is the issue of whether someone who turns away from
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  Speaker 2: Christ can find their way back to repentance and forgiveness.
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  Speaker 2: That's one issue, and the other issue is whether it
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  Speaker 2: is possible that someone does indeed find his way back,
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  Speaker 2: receives forgiveness, and yet still struggles with feeling forgiven. Those
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  Speaker 2: are the two issues that are raised in that question,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm much more concerned about the first, even though
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  Speaker 2: she is wrestling on surface with the second. I'm much
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  Speaker 2: more concerned about the first than I am about the second,
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  Speaker 2: because the person who is truly forgiven and yet doesn't
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  Speaker 2: always feel forgiven is in an infinitely better position than
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  Speaker 2: the person who is not forgiven. There is a huge
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  Speaker 2: difference between the battle to be forgiven and the battle
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  Speaker 2: to feel forgiven. So let me say a word about
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  Speaker 2: both issues, because they both really do matter. God wants
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  Speaker 2: his children to feel forgiven, to be forgiven, and to
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  Speaker 2: feel forgiven. He wants that that's his work. He does
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  Speaker 2: both of those. So first, some thoughts about the possibility
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  Speaker 2: of repenting and being forgiven If one professes faith and
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  Speaker 2: then turns away. Now this is this is tough, because
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  Speaker 2: I'm aware of passages like one John five point sixteen
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  Speaker 2: that there is a kind of sinning which puts one
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  Speaker 2: beyond repentance and salvation. And John says, I do not
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  Speaker 2: say that you should pray for that one to be forgiven.
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  Speaker 2: I'm aware of the warnings and he Brews six and
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  Speaker 2: he Brews ten that there is a kind of apostasy
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  Speaker 2: that tramples the son of God and profanes the blood
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  Speaker 2: and outrages the spirit such that a person cannot be
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  Speaker 2: restored again to repentance. And I'm aware of Jesus warning
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  Speaker 2: about the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the spirit, for example
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  Speaker 2: in Mark III. And I'm equally aware toe tappingly happy,
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  Speaker 2: aware of the amazing promises of mercy for those who
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  Speaker 2: are still able by grace to repent. Here's Jeremiah. This
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  Speaker 2: is this, this is Jeremiah three six. The Lord said
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  Speaker 2: to me, in the days of King Josiah, have you
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  Speaker 2: seen what she did meaning Israel, that faithless one Israel.
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  Speaker 2: How she went up on every high hill, under every
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  Speaker 2: green tree, and there play the whore go and proclaim
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  Speaker 2: these words. This is verse twelve. Go and proclaim these
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  Speaker 2: words towards the north, and say the north, that's where
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  Speaker 2: Israel is. Return. Return, oh faithless Israel, declares the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: I will not look on you in anger, for I
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  Speaker 2: am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever.
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  Speaker 2: Only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against me, the
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  Speaker 2: Lord your God. Verse fourteen, Return, oh, faithless children, declares
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. I am your master. Return, oh faithless sons.
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  Speaker 2: I will heal your faithlessness. That's hopeful. And here's Romans ten.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone who believes in the Lord will not be put
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  Speaker 2: to shame, for there is no distinction between June and Greek.
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  Speaker 2: For the same Lord as Lord of all, bestowing his
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  Speaker 2: riches on all who call upon him. Let me say
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  Speaker 2: that again, he bestows his riches on all who call
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  Speaker 2: on him. For everyone who calls on the name of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord will be saved. Everyone. Or here's Paul's explanation
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  Speaker 2: for why God saved him after letting him become a
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  Speaker 2: Christian hater and a Christian killer. The saying is trustworthy
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  Speaker 2: and deserving a full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into
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  Speaker 2: the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
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  Speaker 2: But I received mercy for this reason. This is what
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  Speaker 2: she said. Gives her encouragement sometimes indeed it should that
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  Speaker 2: in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his
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  Speaker 2: perfect patience as an example to those who were to
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  Speaker 2: believe in him for eternal life. That's simply stunning. God
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  Speaker 2: had planned for Paul, he says in Glatians One, while
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  Speaker 2: he was still in his mother's womb, to become an apostle,
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  Speaker 2: a Christian apostle, only after he had become the worst
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  Speaker 2: of Christian killing sinners. He didn't have to do it,
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  Speaker 2: though he did it. Why The text is clear, so
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  Speaker 2: that people who feel they have and send themselves out
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  Speaker 2: of the possibility of salvation would take heart. That's why
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  Speaker 2: he did it, and that's amazing. Or consider Luke eighteen
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  Speaker 2: and the rich young ruler. Jesus said it's easier for
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  Speaker 2: a camel to go through the eye of a needle
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  Speaker 2: than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 2: And those who heard it said, well, then who can
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  Speaker 2: be saved? And Jesus did not say, oh, you're right,
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  Speaker 2: I overstated it. He said, what is impossible with man,
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  Speaker 2: name me, being saved is possible with God, which means
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  Speaker 2: God can, if he please, overcome that man's love for
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  Speaker 2: money or an unbeliever's love for anything. I think we
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  Speaker 2: are supposed to hear that and be amazed that the
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  Speaker 2: people we think are simply too far gone to be
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  Speaker 2: saved are indeed too far are gone humanly speaking, and
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  Speaker 2: they are absolutely not too far gone for God, because
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  Speaker 2: God does what is impossible for men. I think the
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  Speaker 2: bottom line in the teachings of Jesus, First John, Hebrews,
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  Speaker 2: and Paul is that there does come a point where
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  Speaker 2: God gives a person up and hands them over to
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  Speaker 2: their own rebellion. Romans one, twenty four, twenty six, twenty
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  Speaker 2: eight says that so that they're not able to repent
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  Speaker 2: and be forgiven. But what that means is if a
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  Speaker 2: person will repent from the heart and believe in the
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  Speaker 2: mercy of God in the death of Jesus, they will
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  Speaker 2: be forgiven. They will be saved. In other words, we
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  Speaker 2: don't know what that point is where God gives give
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  Speaker 2: up a person. What we do know is that if
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  Speaker 2: they can still humbly repent and believe that dreadful point
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  Speaker 2: has not been reached. So Hebrews twelve seventeen says, you
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  Speaker 2: know that when Esau desired to inherit the blessing, he
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  Speaker 2: was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though
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  Speaker 2: he sought it. He sought the repentance with tears. God
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  Speaker 2: had given him up, meaning if he had repented, he
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  Speaker 2: would have been accepted, and so everybody else. So that's
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  Speaker 2: my understanding of the first issue. God decides who is
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  Speaker 2: able to repent and be forgiven. We don't. Our position
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  Speaker 2: is to hope and love and pray for the miracle
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  Speaker 2: of repentance, because all things are possible with God. Now
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  Speaker 2: concerning this second issue, namely the battle to feel forgiven
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  Speaker 2: by God, my main response is to rehearse all the
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  Speaker 2: hope filled texts that I just read. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: the answer to the first issue is my main answer
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  Speaker 2: to the second issue, which is why I spent all
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  Speaker 2: my time on the first issue. Dear friend, rehearse the
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  Speaker 2: mercies of God over and over. Never take your eyes
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  Speaker 2: off of Christ crucified, because Romans five eight tells us
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  Speaker 2: that's where God spoke most loudly about his love. God
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  Speaker 2: shows his love for us in that while we were
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  Speaker 2: yet sinners. Christ died for us. That's where he puts
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  Speaker 2: it on display. And so don't take your eyes off
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  Speaker 2: the love of God in Christ crucified. I know that
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  Speaker 2: there are people who, for spiritual reasons like being under
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  Speaker 2: attack or personality reasons, find it extremely difficult to feel
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  Speaker 2: the sweetness and restfulness of being accepted and forgiven by God.
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  Speaker 2: There's so many personality factors and family factors that go
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  Speaker 2: into that. It is always possible, I mean, we have
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  Speaker 2: all felt this. It is always possible for them or
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  Speaker 2: even us, to bring another argument for why the mercy
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  Speaker 2: of God does not apply to me. You can give
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  Speaker 2: this person ten good biblical reasons and five good experiential
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  Speaker 2: reasons from their own life why they should think of
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  Speaker 2: themselves as a true, forgiven love child of God, and
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  Speaker 2: they are able to say yes. But there's always a yes.
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  Speaker 2: But always you can never get to a point where
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  Speaker 2: you can't think of a new reason why you shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: be a child of God. There's no end to them.
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  Speaker 2: So the bottom line on this issue is that after
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  Speaker 2: all the arguments are done, assurance is a gift. It's
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  Speaker 2: a gift. How many people have I prayed with after
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  Speaker 2: services at the front of the sanctuary, wrestling with assurance.
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  Speaker 2: Week after week they come forward, and in the end
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  Speaker 2: we settle here. The Spirit himself bears witness with our
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  Speaker 2: spirit that we are the children of God Romans eight sixteen. So,
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  Speaker 2: dear friend, keep looking steadfastly at the mercies of God,
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  Speaker 2: in his promises and in the Blood of Christ, and
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  Speaker 2: pray for the gift of assurance. I'm praying that for you. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you bestor John for that word and for this hope.
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  Speaker 1: I have a lot of memories of you praying over
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  Speaker 1: people after Saturday night service. That was the service that
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  Speaker 1: we went to at Bethlehem. And this pastoral application of
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  Speaker 1: Romans eight sixteen reminds me of Apja one thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: an early episode, and what you said there on Psalm
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  Speaker 1: one thirty verse three, Pastor gentle, when you said this
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  Speaker 1: good night. How many times have I knelt down put
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  Speaker 1: my arm on somebody who has just been broken for
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  Speaker 1: some sin that they have committed, and I've been able
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  Speaker 1: to just pray, Lord, if you would mark iniquities. Who
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  Speaker 1: could stand? What a text, what a testimony fresh on
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  Speaker 1: my mind just hearing how you apply God to work pastorally, well,
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  Speaker 1: if you want more on the unpardonable sin, see they
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  Speaker 1: asked pastures on book both of those sections, pages three
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  Speaker 1: twenty three to three twenty six and three thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: to three thirty nine. And speaking of sins destroying power,
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  Speaker 1: can a couple sin their marriage away? We'll be back
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  Speaker 1: looking at hard marriages next time on Tony Ranky. See
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  Speaker 1: you on Monday,