God of forgiveness

As I was hearing the easter gospel being preached at my church, some of the text stood out to me, and I really just wanted to share some of my thoughts.

 You see one of the last things Jesus did on the cross was forgive. After people had beat him, spat at him, whipped him and nailed through his hands and feet, but he still was not being angry, but in fact he saved a man. A man that was a criminal and had sinned. But Jesus did not even hesitate forgiving this criminal and taking him to paradise. 

Luke 23 : One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: "Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!"

 ^40-41But the other one made him shut up: "Have you no fear of God? You're getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this."

 ⁴²Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom."

 ⁴³He said, "Don't worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise."  (the Message)

What an act of forgiveness! Jesus was in pain and had just been betrayed by these humans. But he knew he was going to die for these humans sins. For the beginning of his life till the very end Jesus never stopped forgiving. So why shouldn't God forgive you your sins? The bible even says Jesus is the exact representation of God's being. 

Hebrews 1,3 : This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God's nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words! (The message)

So please just know that if God can even forgive the worst criminal he sure can forgive you too! Forgiveness is what easter is all about. Jesus lived a perfect life without ever sinning and then later was punished for all our sins (sin means the bad stuff we do btw) by being tortured and killed. God gave his only son, Jesus, so that we could be forgiven. Jesus has taken our punishment, so now we can be forgiven. So just pray for forgiveness and just know that God will forgive you. No sin is too big, it has all been dealt with on the cross. THANK YOU LORD! 

Colossians 2,12-15 says: ¹² For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

 ¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. ¹⁴ He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ In this way, he disarmed^[d] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

I really like The Message translation of this, so if you found the verse above a bit heavy, this explains it, this is from verse 13 and onwards: When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

YOU ARE PRECIOUS (AND FORGIVEN)

xoxox