Imperfect people desperately need God’s perfect forgiveness.
The gospel is God’s message of forgiveness. Since our need of his forgiveness is great—indeed it is unlimited and occurs daily—let’s explore its characteristics. God is perfect (Matthew 5:48), so he forgives perfectly.
Here are 14 characteristics of his perfect forgiveness.
Perfect Forgiveness
1. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives you willingly, gladly, wholeheartedly, freely, rather than being pushed into it.
Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
2. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives every single sin, including your worst sin.
Psalm 103:2–3 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity.”
Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
3. Perfect forgiveness means God never again holds your sin against you, but rather, forgets it.
King David wrote: “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1–2 NIV)
Hebrews 8:12 says, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
4. Perfect forgiveness means God does not punish you for sin.
Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
God does not punish a follower of Jesus as a legal consequence of breaking his laws. The punishment fell on Jesus at the Cross.
Nevertheless, when a child of God sins, the Lord may in fatherly love discipline them for their ultimate good (Hebrews 12:5–11). He allows them to reap the natural consequences of the seeds they sow (Galatians 6:7–8). And sinful actions reduce a Christian’s rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12–15). These actions, too, are marks of perfection.
5. Perfect forgiveness means God has full, unqualified favor toward you.
In Jesus’ Parable of the Prodigal Son, “The son said to his father, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:21–24)
6. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives your most serious sins as completely as the least serious.
The apostle Paul wrote: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:15–16, NIV)
7. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives justly.
He forgives because of the atonement he makes available through the substitutionary death of Jesus. He does not forgive anyone and everyone. He does not clear the guilty, that is, those who have not repentantly received the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. He satisfies and upholds perfect justice.
Acts 2:38 says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Exodus 34:6–7 says, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”
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8. Perfect forgiveness means God removes all your moral guilt.
God, the Lawgiver and Final Judge, justifies you. When he looks at the Law and looks at you, he regards you as utterly blameless because of Jesus.
Colossians 1:22 says, “He has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”
Romans 3:23–26 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
9. Perfect forgiveness means God removes all your shame.
First Peter 2:6 says, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
10. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives in a way that discourages repetition of the offense.
When we sin, he does not say, “No problem.” Rather, he says, “That is a problem, but I will forgive you completely because of Jesus, and I will cleanse you of wrong living.” He fixes us, making us a new person who desires to be godly.
Romans 8:1–2 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Psalm 130:4 says, “With you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”
11. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives in a way that requires sincere confession and repentance.
First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
12. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives many varieties of sin.
God describes himself as “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34:7) The NIV translates this phrase as “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” The idea conveyed by piling up these three words is that God forgives all varieties of sin, including
(a) Inadvertent, unintentional, thoughtless, careless sins.
(b) Willful, eyes-wide-open sins. (However, see Hebrews 10:26–31 about a type of deliberate, habitual, unrepentant sinning by hypocritical “Christians” that will not be forgiven.)
(c) Sins of weakness, capitulating to evil desires and passions that feel irresistible.
(d) Sins of omission, failing to do what we should have done.
(e) Sins of commission, doing what is forbidden.
(f) Sins of ignorance, which we do not know we have committed, which are innumerable.
All are forgiven if a believer in Jesus sincerely confesses and repents.
13. Perfect forgiveness means God forgives in a way that vindicates his holiness and his name.
To forgive your sins he does not compromise his holiness or character one iota. On the contrary, he forgives in a way that magnifies his holiness.
That is the message you should see in the Cross of Jesus. It was horrific because forgiveness cost you nothing, but cost God much. At the Cross, God upheld his holiness.
Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”
14. Perfect forgiveness comes only by a perfect savior.
Your forgiveness is perfect because it was obtained by God himself, not by an imperfect man. God perfectly redeemed sinful humanity through the atoning death of Jesus on the Cross.
The blood of animals under the Old Testament only brought forgiveness because it was a proxy for the blood of Jesus.
The Old Covenant required that the sacrificial animals be perfect, with no blemishes or faults. This symbolically revealed the need for a perfect Savior, who in the fullness of time turned out to be God’s own perfect, divine Son.
Lev 22:19–20 says, “If [the sacrifice] is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you.”
1 Peter 1:19 says we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (NIV)
Our way and God’s way
Our way: On the human level, fallen people hold grudges or forgive reluctantly. Many sinners assume God will never forgive them.
God’s way: The Lord forgives sinners completely, willingly, perfectly because—and only because—of what Jesus accomplished by suffering and dying on the Cross.
Life principle: God would rather forgive you than judge you. When he forgives, he perfectly forgives.