“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 26:18)

There is a historical point in our earthly lives at which the forgiveness of Christ was granted—even though He was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) and in the eternal sense we were “predestined” to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29).

Christ has subdued, cleansed, and forgotten our sins. Our human minds will never comprehend what it cost the triune Godhead to “subdue our iniquities” and metaphorically throw our sins “into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). How is it possible for an omniscient God to blot out and forget our sins? Yet the Scriptures clearly tell us that He does so (Isaiah 43:25; 44:22; Acts 3:19). God’s forgiveness is an eternal act of forgetfulness as well as judicial payment and propitiation.

Christ has replaced our sins with His holiness. Of course this must be! A holy God cannot fellowship with an unholy being. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We must be “made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21) so that He “might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Christ has given us victory over sin. Since all of the above (and more) is true and active in the life of every believer, there should be an obvious exhilaration that enables us to confidently stand against whatever “fiery darts” the Enemy throws at us. “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” we are clearly told in Romans 6:14. Since the “offense” of sin was dealt with on the cross, we should “reign in life” by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

Do you rejoice in your forgiveness and therefore reign over sin in your life? God has made this possible. HMM III