# 2 Peter 1:9 & Hebrews 9:15



## InSlaveryToChrist (Jan 26, 2011)

*2 Peter 1*
5. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6. and to knowledge, selfcontrol; and to selfcontrol, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7. and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and *has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins*.

*Hebrews 9:15*
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance–now that *he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant*.

Although I do believe all our past, [present] and future sins are forgiven at the moment of our first practice of faith in Christ, is there any clear Biblical evidence for this view? I mean, it is a most obvious and logical conclusion from all the doctrines of grace that all our FUTURE sins are also forgiven, but what about the above verses which seem to promote the idea that only our PAST (includes present) sins are forgiven? Moreover, what do we do with the _daily_ prayers about God forgiving our sins as we forgive others'? Do they not imply that our future sins are yet not forgiven, since we cannot just acknowledge in gratitude that God has already forgiven them?

Please, understand that I'm simply willing to be Biblically minded.


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## rbcbob (Jan 26, 2011)

Matthew 1:21 21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for *He will save His people from their sins*."

Hebrews 10:11-14 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 *But this Man*, after He had offered *one sacrifice for sins forever*, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.


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## MarieP (Jan 26, 2011)

This is how Spurgeon explained it, in reference to the wedding garments of Matthew 22:11-14. It doesn't answer the question directly, but I found it helpful in thinking about the same question you asked.



> The wedding garment represents anything which is indispensable to a Christian, but which the unrenewed heart is not willing to accept, anything which the Lord ordains to be a necessary attendant of salvation, against which selfishness rebels. Hence it may be said to be Christ's righteousness imputed to us, for alas, many nominal Christians kick against the doctrine of justification by the righteousness of the Saviour and set up their own self-righteousness in opposition to it. To be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but having the righteousness which is of God by faith, is a very prominent badge of a real servant of God, and to refuse it is to manifest opposition to the glory of God, and to the name, person, and work of his exalted Son. But we might with equal truth say that the wedding dress is a holy character, the imparted righteousness which the Holy Spirit works in us, and which is equally necessary as a proof of grace. If you question such a statement, I would remind you of the dress which adorns the saints in heaven. What is said of it? "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Their robes therefore were such as once needed washing; and this could not be said in any sense of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ; that was always perfect and spotless. It is clear then that the figure is sometimes applied to saints in reference to their personal character. Holiness is always present in those who are loyal guests of the great King, for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Too many professors pacify themselves with the idea that they possess imputed righteousness, while they are indifferent to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They refuse to put on the garment of obedience, they reject the white linen which is the righteousness of saints. They thus reveal their self-will, their enmity to God, and their nonsubmission to his Son. Such men may talk what they will about justification by faith, and salvation by grace, but they are rebels at heart, they have not on the wedding dress any more than the self-righteous, whom they so eagerly condemn. The fact is, if we wish for the blessings of grace, we must in our hearts submit to the rules of grace without picking and choosing. It is idle to dispute whether the wedding garment is faith or love, as some have done, for all the graces of the Spirit and blessings of the covenant go together. No one ever had the imputed righteousness of Christ without receiving at the same time a measure of the righteousness wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Justification by faith is not contrary to the production of good works: God forbid. The faith by which we are justified is the faith which produces holiness, and no one is justified by faith which does not also sanctify him and deliver him from the love of sin. All the essentials of the Christian character may be understood as making up the great wedding garment. In one word, we put on Christ, and he is "made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."
> 
> The Wedding Garment


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## InSlaveryToChrist (Jan 26, 2011)

rbcbob said:


> Matthew 1:21 21 "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for *He will save His people from their sins*."
> 
> Hebrews 10:11-14 11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 *But this Man*, after He had offered *one sacrifice for sins forever*, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.


 
You're not seeing my point. Let me put it this way: It is BOTH true that all our past and future sins are forgiven at the time of our conversion (when we put our faith in Christ) AND that _only_ our _past_ sins are _actually_ forgiven (in the same sense as Christ's _actual_ atonement*). We can declare them both, since they are both taught in the Word of God, ALTHOUGH we don't understand how they both can be in harmony. The verses that you gave can still be understood to mean that the forgiveness of sins is a _guaranteed process_, just as is sanctification.

*Couldn't it be that just as we can say Christ was the perfect lamb slayed from eternity past, so we can say that all our future sins are forgiven from eternity past, but not _actually_ (that is, _in time_) forgiven?


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## rbcbob (Jan 26, 2011)

InSlaveryToChrist said:


> I do believe all our past, [present] and future sins are forgiven at the moment of our first practice of faith in Christ,



To be more precise, our sins (including next weeks sins) are atoned for in Christs death on the Cross. Our forgiveness for next week's sins is predicated upon our confession of those sins.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


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## InSlaveryToChrist (Jan 26, 2011)

By the way, can we say that we are under the first covenant (CoW), unless we believe in Christ, which is evidence that we are _then_ "under grace," that is, under the second covenant (CoG)? If yes, then that would explain the language of Hebrews 9:15.


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## Peairtach (Jan 26, 2011)

If our future sins aren't dealt with as well as our past and present sins, the moment we exercise saving faith, then we are going to Hell, because we will never be free of the presence of sin in this life and at the moment of death we will not have opportunity to seek forgiveness and cleansing for the sins of that moment or for the sin that still resides within.

We could never be sure of Heaven, but we could be sure of Hell. Apart from anything else we are not promised time to confess, receive cleansing, and repent of our "current sins". Many Christians have died suddenly in various stages of sanctification and/or backsliding. 

No Christian - even the most sanctified and godly - who dies is totally free of sin when he/she dies.

The reason that people that have been justified before God for all their sins past, present and future, through the punishment of Christ *for all their sins* - we have saving faith in a Christ Who has died for *all* our sins, don't we, not a Christ Who has just died for the sins before our conversion - and the imputing to them of Christ's perfect righteousness, is because *God is still displeased, as a Father, with the sins of His justified children,* and because the work of sanctification is progressive in them, and they need renewed faith, repentance, forgiveness, cleansing and new obedience *not to progress in justification* but in sanctification.

E.g.


> And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. (II Samuel 11:27,KJV)


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## CharlieJ (Jan 26, 2011)

Samuel, yes, I think you are correct. Jesus' blood is the one-time basis for the Spirit's continual cleansing of our sins.


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## InSlaveryToChrist (Jan 26, 2011)

Richard Tallach said:


> If our future sins aren't dealt with as well as our past and present sins, the moment we exercise saving faith, then we are going to Hell, because we will never be free of the presence of sin in this life and at the moment of death we will not have opportunity to seek forgiveness and cleansing for the sins of that moment or for the sin that still resides within.


 
Are you saying that it is no good if God only forgives our sinful _acts_, but that He must also forgive our sinful _heart_, in which all our [future] sins reside? This actually makes a lot of sense! To be honest, I've never thought of this before! I've always thought that our sinful ACTS are forgiven, not our sinful BEING. But when you think about it, if _the source_ of our sin is not dealt with, by both justification and sanctification, we have no hope of salvation! Is this not right?

---------- Post added at 06:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:02 PM ----------

Nevertheless, I would like to hear some sort of explanation for both 2 Peter 1:9 and Hebrews 9:15. Please.


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## Marrow Man (Jan 26, 2011)

2 Peter 1:9 reads (in the NASB) -- "For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins." "Blind" can refer to "closing one's eyes." The phrase for "short-sighted" means something like "near-sighted," in the sense that he can only see what is immediately in front of him. He is living in the moment or the present. He does not see the future (i.e., the future judgment which Peter will later talk about) nor the past (the atoning work of Christ, spoken of at the end of this verse). "Having forgotten" has a more deliberate nature to it that merely forgetting; "he has put it out of his mind" might be a better translation. In other words, the sacrifice of our Lord is unimportant to him, neglected by him, and this is why he is not bearing fruit in Christ as spoken of in vv. 5-7 of the passage.

Thus this verse might actually make more sense in light of a different passage from Hebrews -- Hebrews 6:4-6 -- "For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. "

Those who do not live in the way Peter lists are giving evidence they do not know the Lord who "has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness."

Calvin writes on the verse (2 Peter 1:9) -- "He now expresses more clearly that they who profess a naked faith are wholly without any true knowledge. He then says that they go astray like the blind in darkness, because they do not see the right way which is shewn to us by the light of the gospel. This he also confirms by adding this reason, because such have forgotten that through the benefit of Christ they had been cleansed from sin, and yet this is the beginning of our Christianity. It then follows, that those who do not strive for a pure and holy life, do not understand even the first rudiments of faith. But Peter takes this for granted, that they who were still rolling in the filth of the flesh had forgotten their own purgation. For the blood of Christ has not become a washing bath to us, that it may be fouled by our filth. He, therefore, calls them old sins, by which he means, that our life ought to be otherwise formed, because we have been cleansed from our sins; not that any one can be pure from every sin while he lives in this world, or that the cleansing we obtain through Christ consists of pardon only, but that we ought to differ from the unbelieving, as God has separated us for himself. Though, then, we daily sin, and God daily forgives us, and the blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins, yet sin ought not to rule in us, but the sanctification of the Spirit ought to prevail in us; for so Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you; but ye are washed,” etc.


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