It is a serious thing, and not to be regarded lightly. My first word, like John's, would be, "These things I write unto you that ye may not sin." But that is not the last word, thank God; for John goes on to say, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins . . . " (I John 2:1, 2).

      There is a difference in sins. The Bible speaks of great sins a man may commit, which implies that some other sins are of a minor character. But we are not always able to estimate the relative gravity of our offences. Some sins may seem small to us because they are common and habitual; in God's sight they are great. In any case the least sin is not small in God's sight; and if unforgiven would make salvation impossible. And there are great sins. "There is a sin unto death," John says. "All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not unto death" (I John 5:16, 17). Of this we shall have something to say further on.

      Say then, that you have sinned--perhaps a great sin: what now will you do? It is a critical time. You may take a wrong step and go down into indifference and fatal, final hardening. Or you may be forgiven and humbly rejoice in His mercy and His forgiving love. It depends on the attitude you take, and what you do about it. First of all the facts must be faced. Do not minimize your guilt. Do not put yourself off with excuses. When you deal with God you must [1] above all things be honest. You must come as you are, without pretense or any attempt at concealment. There is nothing hid from His sight, and "all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Now, "if we confess our sins," says John again, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Will you believe that? "I acknowledged my sin unto thee," said David, "and mine iniquity did I not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions unto Jehovah; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Ps. 32:5).

      "Is it enough," you may ask, "to confess my sin unto God?" Yes for forgiveness it is. For sin is always and primarily against God (Ps. 51:4). But if God's honor, or the demands of righteousness, calls for confession before men or to men, granting you are sincere in the matter, you will not fail to make things right in this regard. If your sin was a public one you must confess it publicly. If by your sin someone was injured and by your confession the wrong can be righted, you must confess it to the parties concerned. If it was between you and God alone, to Him alone you need confess--though even then it is good and helpful to confess to faithful brethren also (James 5:16).

      You may have noticed the recurrence of the word "righteous," in the passages above quoted. "He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins." And, "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." So David also: "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness" (where we might have expected the word "mercy"). Or, again, when pleading for forgiveness, "In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness" (Ps. 51:14; 143:1, 2). Now righteousness means justice; and is it justice we want? God forbid. Yet God is just and cannot be otherwise. Where then does His righteousness come in, in forgiving the sinner? John tells us: "We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins . . ." God gave His All, His Best, when He gave His Son to die for our sins. And He did it that He "might be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26). Now He can forgive righteously.

      "There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared," said the psalmist. The forgiveness of God fills with a holy fear. All through the Old Testament God inculcated the lesson that sin is a terrible thing, and that it calls for blood, and that only the death of the poor victim at the altar could avail to meet its guilt. But those Old Testament sacrifices did only foreshadow the real truth: "for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins." It required a truer sacrifice--the blood of One who was the dearest, the purest, the most precious and beloved, the Son of His love, and His awful death upon the cross, to lift that debt. "He is the propitiation for our sins." [2]

      Now come, my brother, and gladly receive that forgiveness which was there bought for thee--rejoice and be glad--but rejoice with trembling. It is free, no fee, to you--free yet not cheap. "There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared" (Ps. 130:4).

      But to go back to our first question--you have sinned. Now one great danger is that you may get discouraged and think there is no use of starting over. "No use" is the devil's word. When you hear that, or it is suggested to your mind he is behind it. God says there is use. "Cast not away therefore your boldness which hath great recompense of reward." Whatever may have happened--cast not away your boldness (Heb. 3:6, 14). We are not left without hope and without help. John says, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins."

      "Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace to help us in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16).

      It seems hard for us small-minded mortals to believe in the free, whole-hearted, disinterested love of God, and His full and free forgiveness. We feel there must be some sort of hitch in it--it can't be just so good and free as that. And often after we have penitently sought the Lord's forgiveness, we still carry the load of guilt around with us, and with a haunting fear. Perhaps we didn't fulfill all the "conditions?" Our repentance was not perfect? Or maybe we were not sincere enough? And so on. Often the preacher adds to these doubts and fears. Anxious to uphold the high standards, he represents salvation as if it were placed on top of a greased pole, and exhorts his hearers to climb for it. That makes unhappy Christian lives. Moreover it is impossible to live right with a bad unsatisfied conscience. The forgiveness of sins is the very foundation of the Christian life. We can have it by faith, and faith takes the Lord [3] at His word. "But I have sinned and asked for forgiveness so often I fear the Lord doesn't think I mean it," says one. A man once remarked that the passage that tells us to forgive seventy times seven, (Matt. 18:22) is the hardest in the Bible. "I think it is the sweetest in the Bible," another answered. "How can you say that?" replied the first man. "Well, do you think the Lord wants us to be better than He is? If He tells me to forgive seventy times seven, will not He do so, too? I can go to Him time and time again, and He will forgive me again." That is not the best way, but it is even so; and we sometimes need that encouragement. However He not only forgives, but is able also "to break the power of cancelled sin, and set the prisoner free." "Unto Him that loveth us and loosed us from our sins by his blood . . ." (Rev. 1:5).

      But there is the sin unto death, of which John speaks--how do I know that I may not have committed that? The passage is this:

      "If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death" (I John 5:16, 17).

      You will notice that John speaks about those who sin unto death, not to them. As for such they are not accessible to admonition. They are hardened, defiant, unapproachable. "It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." Their state is described in Heb. 6:4-8. They may end up in a paroxysm of bitter remorse like Judas, but until then they are utterly impervious to the appeal of God. What is that sin? It is the renunciation, in the face of all light and truth, of Jesus Christ, and the siding with His enemies, the sin of one who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace" (Heb. 10:29). Is that your case, my brother? The very fact that you fear and are concerned shows that it is not.

      To a convicted sinner his sin is mountain-high, inexcusable, unforgivable. For such is the word, "Come now and let us reason, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18). The blood of Christ is adequate even for this. David in his plea for mercy for his frightful transgression, says, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Might this be? Surely--for the Spirit of God did indite those words (II Sam. 23:2). And to all sinful souls the Lord says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, all thy transgressions . . . return unto me for I have redeemed thee" (Isa. 44:22). "Repent ye therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out"--utterly, entirely cancelled, as though they had never been. Then with love and joy start out to live for Him who did this for you. The fact that you do so is the proof that you have not committed "the sin unto death." [4]

[IYHS 1-4.]

      The electronic version of R. H. Boll's If You Have Sinned (Louisville, KY: Word and Work Publishers, [1951]) has been produced from a copy of the tract in the Alex V. Wilson Collection. Thanks to Mr. Wilson for supplying a loan-copy of the printed text. The essay was first published in as "Words in Season" in Word and Work 35 (July 1951): 157-160.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained; however, corrections have been offered for misspellings and other accidental corruptions. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
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 p. 3:      paroxism [ paroxysm
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 6 January 2001.
Updated 20 June 2003.