Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
ἄφεσις/aphesis is the Greek word for “forgiveness”. The term is used 19 times in the New Testament. The word is defined as: a sending away, a letting go, a release, pardon, complete forgiveness, remission, or deliverance. “Forgiveness” is releasing someone from obligation or debt. This is a legal term.
“Forgiveness” is primarily used in relation to the debt of sin in the New Testament. The obligation of sin is death.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
The primary word in the Hebrew regarding “forgiveness” is salach. The word is used 47 times in the Old Testament. It means to forgive or pardon. Salach is the word used in relation to God’s forgiveness in the Hebrew texts. Definitions provided by Strong’s Concordance.
Despite what the critic may say, “forgiveness” is built into the Mosaic Law. God has always been forgiving. God extends “forgiveness” to the individual as well as the nation of Israel. Below are a couple of many examples.
God is not a male chauvinist pig. God stands up for women’s rights. He forgives women and girls even when opposed by men or fathers. In fact, this is the first time the word “forgiveness” or salach is used in the Bible. God’s first example of “forgiveness” is granted to a female in regards to an overbearing father.
Numbers 30:5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.
The high priest made a sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of the nation Israel for sin. As a thought, do we have a high priest who sacrificed Himself on behalf of His people?
Numbers 15:25 And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD for their mistake.
The new covenant in the forgiveness of sins is promised from the Old Testament prophet of Jeremiah. Jesus Himself confirmed this “new covenant” in the upper room with His disciples.
Luke 22:20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” -Jesus
The forgiveness of the “new covenant” is quoted completely in Hebrews 8:8-12.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
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In the Garden of Eden, Satan came in the form of a serpent and the result was sin entered the world.
Knowledge of the glory is the only way we can “rightly divide” and accurately handle His Word of truth. The devil is doing everything he can to make sure minds stay blinded to this knowledge of the glory
