A discussion of this topic is probably needed in order to fully confirm the issues explained above. The forgiveness of our sins by God is included in the New Covenant (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 10:17), and it is only natural for one to wonder how forgiveness by God fits into the picture of temporal penalties.

Usually, two Greek verbs are used in the New Testament for both God’s forgiveness of man and man’s forgiveness of man. The two words are aphiemi (Strong’s # 863) and charizomai (Strong’s #5483). Aphiemi, following its root words, carries a basic meaning of "to send away." Charizomai is defined by Strong’s as "to grant as a favor", and is translated as forgiveness in some cases.

Many teachers like to use the idea of "release" as an equivalent. It is clear that we have eternal forgiveness in Christ’s redemption: "in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1:7 ASV) This eternal forgiveness through redemption releases us from the penalty of eternal death, as already discussed. In time, however, the Bible reveals some other aspects to the matter of forgiveness, which will be discussed below.

Concerning God’s forgiveness of our sins, Scripture shows that there is initial forgiveness and there is also repetitive (or continuing) forgiveness. The risen Christ commissioned His disciples to preach the gospel, declaring that "and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Lk. 24:47 ASV).

When a person accepts this good news, then he receives the forgiveness of sins he committed (as an unbeliever) up to that point in time. This view is confirmed by Peter’s assessment of a typical believer who is not maturing, where Peter states that part of the believer’s problem is that he has "forgotten the cleansing from his old [former] sins." (2 Pet. 1:9 ASV) Following this initial forgiveness at the moment of regeneration, the Bible clearly reveals that there is further, or repetitive, forgiveness that can be experienced by the believer after regeneration. Note just the following examples:

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matt. 6:12 ASV, part of the "Lord’s prayer" taught to the disciples).

"And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." (Mk. 11:25 ASV)

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 Jn. 1:9 ASV)

The verses above also demonstrate that there is a type of post-regenerational forgiveness that is conditional (if the believer confesses, or if the believer forgives those who offend him, then forgiveness is granted to him by God).

Does this mean that if the believer does not fulfill these conditions he then stands, once again, unforgiven and under God’s eternal condemnation? No, because to accept this view would violate God’s principle of eternal salvation by grace, not works. To understand this conditional forgiveness, we must see that there is more complexity to the matter of forgiveness than just initial forgiveness and repetitive forgiveness.

One helpful explanation is offered by Wendell E. Miller in his book entitled, Forgiveness: The Power and the Puzzles. In this book, Miller categorizes man’s forgiveness by God into four kinds:

Admittedly, Scripture does not describe forgiveness with labels such as "judicial" and "fellowship". Yet, the conclusion of many Bible students is that there seems to be one aspect (or category) of forgiveness that deals with the believer’s eternal and positional standing before God and another aspect that seems related to our experience of temporal fellowship with Him.

Wendell Miller sees God’s "judicial forgiveness" of sins as a release from the penalty of sin. I agree with this idea, but would further state that it is a release from the penalty for our sins (eternal separation from God), but not a release from temporal, lesser penalties which God may call for upon His disobedient children in His righteous governance. This judicial forgiveness is initially granted to the unsaved sinner at the moment of belief.

Judicial forgiveness is thereafter kept vitally effective for us on a repetitive basis by Jesus Christ as our Advocate and High Priest. Christ is seen as our Advocate (parakletos, Greek) in First John 2:1: "My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Miller points out that the only condition here for Christ’s work of advocacy is our sin.

As our Advocate, Christ is our legal representative presenting our case before the Father. Whenever we sin, He obtains continuing judicial forgiveness for us based upon His work on the cross. His function of advocacy for forgiveness in First John is essentially the same as His priestly work in Hebrews where He is the mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6), which guarantees God’s forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 8:12). In Romans, Christ is also portrayed as the One who maintains our eternal, positional justification by His action of intercession at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:33-34).

It is important that we understand what is accomplished through confession and what is not. First John 1:9 says that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Firstly, due to our confession God can release us from the alienation that our sin causes in our fellowship with a holy God. Confession restores the fellowship.

Secondly, He cleanses away the stain caused by the defilement of our sin. Although we may subjectively feel the "stain" of our unrighteous actions, it is God’s view of this stain upon the "garment" (Jude 1:23; Rev. 3:4) of our conduct that is the real concern here. The stain of sin upon us is seen by a holy God and hinders our fellowship with Him. Our action of repentance and confession is our part of the cleansing process, and, once cleansed by God, we can again have true fellowship with Him (2 Cor. 6:16-7:1; Heb. 9:22; 10:22; Jas. 4:8).

There is another benefit of this cleansing, however, that appears to point to Christ’s evaluation of us at His Judgment Seat. When speaking of the coming day of the Lord, Peter admonished the recipients of his letter: "Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, . . . Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, give diligence that ye may be found in peace, without spot, and blameless in his sight." (2 Pet. 3:11, 14 ASV)

The Greek word here for without spot is aspilos [Strong’s #784], which is used figuratively in these verses for moral conduct. When Christ returns and we are summoned to His Bema, how can we be found spotless by Him? Surely, throughout our earthly experience as a believer we have many times had our "garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 1:23, ASV), when we yielded to the lusts of our flesh. Also, there have been times when we loved the world and indulged ourselves in its pleasures, rather than obeying God’s command "to keep oneself unspotted from the world." (Jas. 1:27 ASV)

How can these spots be washed away? The way to be found spotless by Christ at His coming is to confess our sins now. If we confess our sins, agreeing with God’s condemnation of them, then He will "cleanse us from all unrighteousness."(1 Jn. 1:9) Later in his first epistle, the apostle John specifically urges us to be cleansed in preparation for the Lord’s appearing: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him just as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth [cleanses] himself, even as he is pure."(1 Jn. 3:2,3 KJV)

We believe, therefore, that sins which are repented of and confessed now will not be judged with a specific negative judgment at Christ’s Judgment Seat. Conversely, if we do not confess our sins now, these sins will be manifested at the Bema and recompensed (1 Tim. 5:24; 2 Cor. 5:10).

From the comments above, we can realize that there is much benefit for us in the confession of our sins. Yet, we must understand that such confession does not resolve all the problems that our sins create for us. Confession does not necessarily remove from us the natural consequences of our sins. For example, if a Christian commits a crime he may be imprisoned. God is not obligated to miraculously release such a believer from prison just because he confesses his sin.

Also, even though we confess a sin we still may receive some temporal discipline from our heavenly Father while here on earth. Consider David’s sin with Bathsheeba. When Nathan the prophet confronted David regarding his sins in this matter (2 Sam. 12:1-13), David was truly repentant and his confession recorded in Psalm 51 is one of the great Bible passages on confession and repentance. Yet, even after David’s confession the Lord spoke through Nathan of a negative penalty that God had determined appropriate for that situation: "And David said unto Nathan, ‘I have sinned against Jehovah.’ And Nathan said unto David, ‘Jehovah also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die’" (2 Sam. 12:13-14 ASV).

Notice that Nathan assured David that there was forgiveness from God, and, hence, David would not die. Finally, it should be noted that although no specific negative judgment should befall us at Christ’s Judgment Seat for confessed sins, we could still experience a loss of positive rewards that potentially could have been gained if we had proven faithful.

Aside from the need of confession in order to receive forgiveness, it is very interesting that God has another requirement in order for us to receive His forgiveness. We must forgive others before God can forgive us. Note the following Scriptures:

"Forgive and ye will be forgiven." (Lk. 6:37, KJV)

"And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors." (Matt. 6:12 ASV)

"And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if you have aught against any one; that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespassses." (Mk. 11:25,26 ASV)

In his book, Forgiveness: The Power and the Puzzles, Wendell Miller describes two types of forgiveness that relate to the believer’s forgiveness of others. Here are his summary comments:

Vertical forgiveness is seen in Mark 11:25 and horizontal forgiveness is seen in Luke 17:3. Our concern here, however, is not the study of these two types of forgiveness, but rather how God’s forgiveness is predicated upon our willingness to forgive others.

It is apparent from the Scriptures that God’s temporal forgiveness of believers is dependent upon their willingness to forgive others. Such a matter does have an effect upon the believer’s prospect at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and I believe this is illustrated by the following parable in Matthew:

Here Jesus was plainly teaching Peter that forgiven sinners should forgive their offending brothers. In verses 32 and 33, the lord (Christ) of the servant (the believer) called the servant to account as respects his unforgiveness. This is a picture of Christ calling us to account at the Bema. Since the servant had no mercy on the fellow servant, "his lord was wroth, and delievered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due" (v. 34).

The unforgiving servant had already been released from his debt (v. 27), yet now the lord handed him over to the tormentors until repayment was made. This is a perfect illustration of the truth concerning forgiveness of the believer. On the one hand, our judicial forgiveness has been accomplished for us eternally by Christ’s redemption (Matt. 18:27; Eph. 1:7), and it is kept effective by Christ’s advocacy. On the other hand, our fellowship with God is disrupted by sin (the sin of unforgiveness of others in the parable, verse 30), and we can experience temporal penalties as a consequence (verse 34).

Notice that the judgment of the tormentors is implied as being temporary ("till he should pay", v. 34). The temporal penalty here is graphically portrayed as torment. Although this is a parable and the term "tormentor" ["torturer" in some versions] is not strictly literal, this picture was chosen by the Lord to convey a grave reality. This parable should make us very sober and concerned about the matter of forgiving others. We are warned that this consequence may befall us (verse 35). Therefore, we should have mercy towards others (v. 33) since an action of mercy now will affect Christ’s judgment upon us at His Judgment Seat. "For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy; mercy glorieth against ["triumphs over", NASB] judgment" (Jas. 2:13 ASV).

I hope the discussion above shows how forgiveness of a believer’s sins fits into the matter of temporal, governmental judgment by God, particularly as respects the coming Judgment Seat. Finally, please note that none of the severe judgments we have discussed here should be confused with the erroneous Roman Catholic doctrine of "Purgatory."

The reward passages clearly teach that the believer’s bad works can be subject to recompense by the righteous Judge. However, through confession to God, the disciple can be cleansed by Jesus’ blood and any specific negative recompense avoided. The Catholic doctrine severely perverts this truth by claiming that the Christian himself must "atone" for his sins in order to effect his cleansing. Further, the doctrine of Purgatory claims that good deeds can be done, or money given, to the Roman Catholic church by the still living "faithful" in order to lessen the intensity or duration of punishment upon souls suffering in Purgatory. This proposition is patently unscriptural.

For further commentary on this matter, you may consult the "Note on Purgatory" in D. M. Panton’s book, The Judgment Seat of Christ, beginning on page 67. I can give you a copy of this book if you would like to have one.

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