How can I be forgiven? How can there be total forgiveness? Surely for God to be just he must punish sin? Surely if God is light, he cannot tolerate any darkness in his presence? What about the times we’ve lost our tempers, been unloving, unkind, impure, lied, thought only about our own interests?
In this wonderful letter of 1 John, the apostle writes to reassure troubled Christians that they really are Christians. Towards the end of the letter he tells them he has written so that “you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
But what about our sin? Doesn’t that stop us from having eternal life? Look at the wonderful comfort in 2:1 “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
We have an advocate, a defence lawyer, someone who speaks in our defence! Imagine a courtroom. And you’re in the dock, and you know you are guilty. The accuser has all the evidence against you, there’s no way out. It’s a bit like that in the Bible, Satan is described as the great accuser. And he’s got all the evidence against you. He stands before God with all the times that you have broken God’s commands. You feel there is no escape, you are guilty. You have sinned and you know it, but then one stands in our defence! Jesus Christ the righteous!
To your surprise, He doesn’t deny that you are guilty, He knows the whole truth, He speaks only truth. He says you are guilty, BUT, he has paid the price. And there in the courtroom, he holds out his hands and shows the scars. Imagine Him saying to the court “I’ve paid for all [your name] sin. They can go free!”
How can this be? The next verse tells us that Jesus is the propitiation (some translations say atoning sacrifice). Propitiation means a sacrifice that turns away God’s holy anger at our sin. It’s why Jesus cried out on the cross “my God why have you forsaken me”, it’s why it went dark while He hung on the cross, He was punished in your place. Look who this is available for, the whole world—not that all sins are automatically pardoned but that a universal pardon is offered for the sins of the whole world and is enjoyed by those who embrace it. For those who take off the mask and stop pretending, for those who don’t deny their sin but confess it, there is total forgiveness available.
Have you come to Jesus? How can you resist the one who did this for you? How can you question His love? Our Psalm for today tells us “though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly” (138:6), how wonderful that when we admit to Jesus we are sinners, it doesn’t repel Him, but He delights to apply the fruit of His sacrifice to us.
Light and Momentary Troubles 
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