“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22).

Forgiveness of sin brings cleansing, a secure relationship with God, and makes possible a life of fruitful holiness. It also brings eternal life, which starts at salvation, and becomes fully realized when we pass into the life to come. The final verse of, “All My Sins Have Been Forgotten,” speaks of this ultimate victory, when “the accuser . . . is cast down” (Revelation 12:10).

Now my soul shall live forever; No more can the foe condemn;Nothing from God ’s love can sever, Peace and joy are found in HimThus I journey on to heaven, Cross death’s portals joyfully;All my sins have been forgiven, God is merciful to me.

Jesus said of those that follow Him, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28,29). We are kept by the hands of “Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).

Secure in Him, we can face death joyfully as citizens of heaven, for we are only “strangers and pilgrims on this earth” (Hebrews 11:13). As Paul said, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), for, “to be absent from the body (is) to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8). “Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54).

God is so merciful to us. Even though we were “dead in (our) sins . . . (yet) hath He quickened [i.e., made us alive] together with Him, having forgiven (us) all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). Thus, each of us can say, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever” (Psalm 23:6). JDM