In our study of Mark we are still in Mark 2:9; where Jesus forgave the paralytic's sins and the scribes questioned him in their thoughts and he answered their thought's by asking if it was easier to forgive sins or to heal.

We then took up a study of the doctrine of forgiveness where we saw that it was easier for Jesus to heal because only believers can have sins forgiven.

When we stopped last time we saw Joseph's example of forgiveness in his response to his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt Gen 50:17-21;

Joseph had no intention of ever seeking revenge. He was a mature believer who was functioning under grace and doctrinal orientation (faith) and had developed spiritual self esteem and a personal sense of destiny (hope). This enabled him to extend integrity love to his brothers. 1Cor 13:13;

The believer who has a personal sense of destiny never reacts in bitterness or vindictiveness; and he never seeks revenge. The believer with a personal sense of destiny lives their life unto the Lord. Phil 1:21; Psa 31:14-15; because they recognize that the Lord has their back Rom 8:28; Phil 4:6;

Joseph had forgiven his brothers long before the famine had forced them to go to Egypt. He had a personal sense of destiny and because of this he had forgiven as Christ forgave. Eph 4:32;

He had grace orientation that combined with the problem-solving device of sharing the happiness of God that provided maximum tranquility of soul, contentment and capacity for life no matter what his circumstances were.

Joseph did not feel threatened by his brothers or by the injustices of the past. He was not in any way handicapped because he had a "difficult childhood" or " a disastrous teenage experience" of being sold as a slave in his teen years.

His adversities had developed humility rather than arrogance and he was therefore forgiving rather than vindictive and implacable. Just the opposite of what we see being clearly demonstrated by the arrogant implacable people in the cities of the USA today.

Environment is not the issue; the issue was God's timing and Joseph had learned this through the adversities that he had endured. Under God's perfect timing God prepares us one step at a time and we eventually reach the point where He can promotes us because we have capacity for it. 1Pet 5:6; Joseph understood this.

Joseph had used the faith-rest drill. He did not have any desire to take vengeance upon his brothers. He deferred any punishment that might come to them to the wisdom of the sovereignty of God. Rom 12:19;

The pattern for such pardon and forgiveness is found in Isa 43:25. "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake (because of My honor and integrity). Furthermore, I will not remember your sins."

This pattern of forgiveness is applied to the believer as part of the royal family honor code. Col 3:13; "Bearing one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone else, just as the Lord forgave you, so also you should forgive others."

Eph 4:32; "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has also forgiven you." That mandate is for the believer who has attained spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, and spiritual maturity. This describes the winner. He is tenderhearted and forgives others on the basis of the fact that God has forgiven you.

The same principle applies with Rom 12:19; "Beloved, do not take your own revenge, but defer to the wrath of God. For it stands written (Deut 32:35), `Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.'"

We see from this that there are two occurrences of forgiveness. The first forgiveness is at salvation for eternal life. The second forgiveness is after salvation for the spiritual life. Both are possible because all sins were judged in Jesus' body on the Cross and that satisfied the righteousness of the Father so the justice of the Father is free to forgive.

If a person never believes in Christ his sins are not forgiven but, he is not judged for his sins at the Great White Throne judgment because His sins were already judged in Jesus body on the Cross.

The only sin that the unbeliever is judged is the one sin of not believing in Jesus Christ. Because of their unbelief their name was removed from the book of life at their physical death.

They are indicted on the basis of their good deeds, which do not add up to the perfect righteousness of God that the justice of God requires for eternal life.

For the believer all presalvation sins are blotted out at the moment of salvation and God never remembers them again. Isa 43:25, "I, even I, am He who blots out your sins for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins." Acknowledging known sins to God blots out postsalvation sins. 1 John 1:9.

The Greek word used for forgiveness of sins committed before faith in Christ is "charizomai" The Greek word used for forgiveness of sins committed after faith in Christ is "aphiemi".

The first forgiveness, salvation forgiveness, is for your eternal life, and is taught in Col 2:13-14; "And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven (charizomai) us all our transgressions,

v14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which were hostile to us; He has taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross."

The decrees against us are all of the sins which were ever committed in human history. God the Father imputed these sins to Christ on the Cross. The judgment of our sins in Jesus' body on the Cross is the basis for all forgiveness.

The second forgiveness, postsalvation forgiveness, is for your spiritual life. This is taught in 1 John 1:9; "If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to purify us from all wrongdoing."

Sin results in divine discipline from the supreme court of heaven. "Purifying us from all wrongdoing" is forgiveness for sins we committed in ignorance.

This is the experiential forgiveness related to postsalvation experience, where the spiritual life is delayed until the adjustment to the justice of God takes place. God has provided options to offset our every failure to operate in His plan for our life.


When we sin we fail to operate in his plan because we transfer control of our soul to the OSN thereby destroying our spiritual life and we are quenching and/or grieving the Spirit. The spiritual life is recovered when we acknowledge the sin or judge ourselves.

Postsalvation forgiveness cancels the repercussions of sin and restores the function of the spiritual life. This forgiveness qualifies us to continue our spiritual life of walking by means of the Spirit through the continuous recall of Bible Doctrine under the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit.

The first forgiveness qualifies you to live in the eternal state in a resurrection body. The second forgiveness qualifies you to continue your spiritual life in time.

The first forgiveness is related to eternity and eternal life and the second forgiveness is related to time and eternal rewards. The spiritual life is designed to make your eternal life in heaven the most significant factor in your life in time.

When we acknowledge any known sin we have forgiveness under the principle of "aphiemi" is the cancellation of discipline. Any suffering that is not removed is designed for blessing and spiritual growth as a momentum test.

The principle of the second forgiveness is also taught in 1Cor 11:30-31; "For this cause many are weak (warning discipline) and sickly (intensive discipline) and many sleep (the sin unto death).

v31 But if we would keep on judging ourselves thoroughly (imperfect tense of diakrino), we would not be judged."

In this passage we see that the supreme court of heaven has three categories of discipline that are applied to the sinning believer.

Judging ourselves is equivalent to naming or citing any known sin. Naming our sins to God is equivalent to self-judgment; both reference the divine judgment of our sins on the Cross.

The believer's postsalvation sins must be dealt with through a non-meritorious function of simply acknowledging them or judging yourself. Good decisions are always grace decisions.

The good decision is to change our thinking by judging ourselves or using the privacy of the priesthood for acknowledging, admitting, citing, naming our sins to God. There is no room for emotion or human works. No promise that we will do better, No crying or begging for forgiveness or penitence or public confession.

Just as nothing can be added to faith in Christ for salvation, nothing can be added to acknowledging or admitting our sins to God or judging ourselves for the recovery of our spiritual life with God.

Believing in Christ for salvation and naming our postsalvation sins for forgiveness are totally non-meritorious functions. They depend entirely and completely on what God has done for us.

What God has done is to impute every sin to Jesus Christ on the Cross and judge those sins. Legalism and religion always wants to try to help God by adding some form of human works that actually cancels out grace.

The moment we acknowledge our postsalvation sins to God we have forgiveness and restoration to fellowship with God; we have recovery of the mentorship function of the Holy Spirit. God forgives both the sins of cognizance and the sins of ignorance.

No category of postsalvation sinning, no matter how heinous, implies lost of eternal salvation. No sin, no denial, no renunciation or category of degeneracy can cancel what God did for every believer at the moment of salvation. Rom 11:29;