It’s astounding how many Mormons claim to be Christians but deny Christ’s word and his power. Case in point? What Mormonism believes about the extent to which Jesus forgives sins.
In August 2009, after presenting a paper titled “Your Bosom Shall Burn Within You: An Evangelical Christian Examination of the LDS Testimony” at the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City, a man from the audience approached me.
“Do you believe Jesus can forgive all your sins?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “All of them. The Bible says so.”
“But Matthew 12:31 and 32 say the sin against the Holy Ghost won’t be forgiven in this world or the next,” the man added. “Hebrews 6:4–6 suggests the same thing.”
“Those verses refer to people present when Christ preached and performed his miracles, who had a sure knowledge of his divinity and put him to an open shame,” I explained. “The verses don’t refer to people of our day.”
When Mormons and other religious legalists claim Jesus can’t forgive all our sins, it denies God’s consummate mercy and power. “I do know there are sins committed of such a nature,” Brigham Young claimed, “that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. And furthermore, I know that there are transgressors, who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood” (Journal of Discourses 4:53, italics added). What a grand denial of Christ’s atonement.
I recently corresponded with an ex-Mormon who doesn’t believe in the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith. “What about a child molester or mass murderer?” he queried. “I can’t buy that he can be forgiven simply by believing in Jesus Christ as his Savior.”
However, this position limits the power of God and contradicts his word. I don’t profess that insincere confession of sin and superficial belief in Christ cleanse one from spiritual soot. But scripture testifies that when we truly confess our sins and wholeheartedly come to Christ, all our sins will be wiped away.
“ . . . If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light,” John affirmed, “we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:7–10, italics added).
Similarly, Paul maintained, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, [Christ] made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” (Colossians 2:13). And after David committed adultery with beautiful Bathsheba and had her husband, Uriah, murdered, he asked God for complete forgiveness. “Hide Your face from my sins,” he prayed, “and blot out all my iniquities” (Psalm 51:9, italics added).
How naive to think that what we could do supersedes Christ’s eternal sacrifice on the cross. How misleading to call yourself a Christian while denying the godly power exercised at Calvary.
Scripture avows that the work of Jesus Christ, not our own efforts, lifts man from his fallen and sinful mortal state to the joy, peace and righteousness of everlasting life. For example, Paul said the Savior abolished the need for commandments and ordinances. “For [Jesus] is our peace, who . . . broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Ephesians 2:14, 15).
Consequently, peace with God, including forgiveness of all our sins, results from faith in Christ, not from our attempted obedience to laws and ordinances (Romans 5:1). Jesus eliminates all sin in believers’ lives. We can’t obey and earn the righteousness that results from faith (Romans 3:21, 22). “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Paul wrote (Romans 8:1). And the author of Hebrews confirmed that Jesus “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26).
So does Christ forgive all our sins when we receive him? That’s the Golden Question. And for Christians, the answer is yes. If you don’t think so, you’re not a Christian.
Comments or questions? Write loren@gco4lds.org.
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