Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, vol. 5

June 15, 1890

“Real Forgiveness” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 5, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Old Testament is full of promises of forgiveness. When one of the people sinned, he was to make the proper sin-offering, and the promise was, “and it shall be forgiven him.” Leviticus 4:26. So the prophet Isaiah said: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6, 7. BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.1

Some have thought that pardon before the death of Christ was not real but only typical, though what sort of a thing a “typical pardon” might be, they have not told us. But the pardon which David received was so real as to cause him to exclaim: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.” Psalm 32:1, 2. The forgiveness which David received was such as took away the sin so that the Lord did not any longer account him guilty. If that was not actual forgiveness, we should like to have someone tell us what more than that actual forgiveness could do for a man. BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.2

This blessedness was Abraham’s when his faith was counted for righteousness. Abraham was the father of the faithful, for he “against hope believed in hope.” He had faith in Christ, who, it had been promised, would be descended from him, when he had no child, and when it was utterly impossible, humanly speaking, that he should ever have one. He is called the father of the faithful, because he exercised stronger faith than any other man who ever lived. But faith nowadays always brings the fullness of pardon, and Abraham’s greater faith must have brought the same thing to him. And so it did, as the Scriptures plainly declare. BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.3

Abel likewise, by his sacrifice of faith, obtained witness that he was righteous. Hebrews 11:4. But if he was righteous, he had been cleansed from sin, for no man can be righteous before his sins are forgiven. Of Enoch we read that he walked with God. That is the same as saying that he was at peace with God; for two cannot walk together except they are agreed. But peace comes only after the faith which brings pardon. Enoch could not have walked with God, if his sins had been upon him; but if his sins were not actually forgiven, then they were actually upon him. Forgiveness must precede a righteous life; therefore to say that there was no actual forgiveness before Christ came, is the same as saying that there were no men who were actually righteous before the resurrection of Christ, but that all were hypocrites. Thus the theory of typical or pretended pardon dishonors both God and men. BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.4

There is, however, a real difficulty in the minds of some who have no notion of denying God’s word, which declares that from the earliest ages men were actually forgiven, and were actually righteous. That difficulty is this: All the blessings that come to men, come by virtue of what is called the “second covenant,” of which Christ is mediator; but that covenant was not ratified until the death of Christ, and Paul says: “For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” Hebrews 9:17. Then how was it possible for men before the days of Christ to receive the blessing of forgiveness, which is promised only in the second covenant? BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.5

A verse in the fourth of Romans will serve to answer this. The apostle, after telling how Abraham received the righteousness of faith, says that he believed God, “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” Verse 17. God can make a thing that is not just as real as though it actually existed. How is that? The answer is in Hebrews 6:13-18: “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.6

The promise which God made to Abraham was confirmed in Christ. His faith was counted for righteousness, by virtue of the Seed which was to come. And although God cannot lie, he confirmed his immutable promise by an oath, and so made it doubly unchangeable. So although all pardon is granted solely by virtue of the blood of Christ, after Christ had been promised it was the same as though he had actually been slain. So sure is the promise of God, that Christ is called “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;” for the promise that was made to Abraham was nothing more than the promise made to Adam. BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.7

There is but one plan of salvation. “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever,” is the center of that plan, and the grace of God through him has been equally abundant in all ages since sin entered into the world. “For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” BEST June 15, 1890, page 186.8