Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7099 The question of why Jesus died rather than God simply issuing a pardon is one of the most honest questions anyone can ask, and it is usually asked with real feeling. If God is almighty and loving, why the blood? Why not one merciful word from the throne and the whole matter closed?…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7088. Ongoing forgiveness and the forgiveness received at conversion are related but not identical, and failing to distinguish them causes two opposite problems. Some Christians live in fear that unconfessed sin has undone their salvation. Others conclude that since everything was forgiven at the cross, confession is unnecessary. Both have collapsed a distinction Scripture…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7084. Whether the worst sinners imaginable could be forgiven is a question people ask in two very different tones of voice, and the tone matters. Some ask it as a challenge, expecting Christianity to flinch. Others ask it because of somebody in their own family, and they need to know whether there is a…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 07006. Few passages have caused more private agony than the one about the unforgivable sin, and I have lost count of the number of believers who have come to me convinced that they have committed it. They are almost always the last people on earth who could have done so, and I want to…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 6073. Unintentional sin is a genuine biblical category, and the answer to whether we are responsible for it is yes, with a very large mercy attached. Scripture is clear that ignorance does not simply cancel guilt. It is equally clear that God made specific provision for the person who sinned without realising it, and…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 6008. Confession of sin is one of those practices every Christian knows they should maintain and many quietly find confusing. What exactly are we doing when we confess? Is it grovelling? A ritual formula? Informing God of things He somehow missed? And if the cross has already dealt with my sin, why confess at…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 3036. The blood of Jesus is one of the most repeated themes in the New Testament, and yet I find that many Christians are hazy about what it actually means. We sing about it, we hear it invoked in prayer, and some traditions treat it almost as a magic formula. But when Peter writes…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2009. Several passages promise that God forgets our sins, and I find that people respond to this in two opposite ways. Some find it the most comforting language in the whole Bible. Others find it puzzling: if God knows everything, how can He forget anything at all? Getting this right matters, because misunderstanding it…