Article January 2, 2017 Issue

The forgiveness that makes new

Lois Degler

We’ve all made mistakes—sometimes small ones, sometimes big ones. Facing them often leads to guilt and self-condemnation, and most of us yearn to move beyond the mistakes and find the forgiveness that allows us to go forward fresh and new.

Is it possible? There’s biblical assurance that it is. The Bible reveals God as a forgiving God: “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee” (Psalms 86:5).

The third tenet of Christian Science brings out an important point about God’s forgiveness of sin: “We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497).

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