Free at last, my sins are forgiven! Thank God, I’m free at last … but what does this MEAN?
Forgiveness of sin means I am okay: okay with God, okay with others, and okay with myself.
It means I am not bound to fail, nor am I expected to always succeed. Rather, I live in the blesséd middle ground of everyday life where mistakes are normal, grace flows freely, and the only expectation is to keep getting back up and pressing forward to greater things.
Forgiveness of sin means my inner self—the “real me” inside—is not stained or bad or wrong anymore, but fundamentally clean because of Jesus’ work on my behalf.
It means who I AM is defined far less by what I do than by what JESUS has done for me. At the same time it also means I have the privilege and responsibility to pursue a pattern of outer behavior that matches the inner life given by Jesus.
Living in the knowledge of forgiveness of sin means becoming more of who I am in Christ and less of who my culture and past have conditioned me to be.
THAT is why I can say “free at last, free at last, thank God I’m free at last.”
“[God] has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.” –Colossians 1:13-14
