Join Bob George as he dives into theological discussions that touch the core of Christian faith. In this episode, Bob addresses a commonly debated issue: the necessity of asking for forgiveness after one has been saved. Drawing from the New Testament and addressing questions from listeners, Bob offers a perspective on reconciliation with God and what forgiveness truly entails for believers. This episode is a thoughtful exploration of the nature of forgiveness, tackling both doctrinal and practical aspects.
00:00:01 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Today we are pleased to present a special radio show featuring call-in listeners from Bob’s original people-to-people daily radio program that was on the air for over 30 years, offering real answers for real-life problems as he addresses common questions as well as the tough issues of today, directing callers to the centrality of Christ in you, your only hope of glory. We want to remind our listeners that Bob George Ministries needs your financial support to continue to have Classic Christianity Radio on the air. Please visit BobGeorge.net to find out how you can help support us financially. Let’s now join Bob as he presents practical biblical insights as he helps people experience a life of faith, hope, and love in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re going to go to Long Beach, California, listening on KBRIGHT. Thomas, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, thank you. I’ve been listening to you for the last few months here and since I relocated to Long Beach. And your teaching is very edifying, I find, but you have a point of conflict with a couple other radio talk shows that I listen to on whether or not you need to ask for forgiveness every time you sin or or that uh you know you you say once you’re forgiven you don’t need to keep asking for forgiveness and i’m kind of confused because uh seems like leading pastors and teachers have different opinions i don’t know which way to go on that one well thomas i think you have to go with the uh with the scripture and uh i always feel that’s a the best place to start and uh
SPEAKER 02 :
When you look at the totality of the new covenant that we stand in today, and you look at the writings of the Apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, either he was missing something, or maybe he just didn’t understand. Maybe he wasn’t quite as smart as some of these other guys on radio. But for some reason, he just didn’t have anything in there about asking God to forgive him. Now, either he was an idiot or he knew something that evidently we in modern-day Christianity don’t know, and that is that it’s finished. It’s a done deal. And in Colossians 1, 19 through 22, it says, “…God was pleased to have all of his fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things.” whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free of accusation.” And in 2 Corinthians 5, 18 and 19, it says, Now, anyone who is in the ministry should realize that we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. And now he explains what that ministry of reconciliation is. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. Now what is interesting on this, Thomas, is here is the Holy Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul. telling us that we have been reconciled to God, and I’ve given you this ministry to pass on to the world, that God was reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them. He then goes down in chapter 5, going down about 10 more verses, and says this, We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us, We implore you, we beg you now, on Christ’s behalf, because of Christ, be reconciled to God, because God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. In Romans 5, 11, not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received, past tense, reconciliation. So you see, Thomas, God was in Christ reconciling us unto himself, not counting our sins against them. Reconciliation is kind of like an accounting term. As an example, you as a bookkeeper, let’s say you were a bookkeeper, and your firm had sold me a million dollars worth of merchandise, and I went bankrupt and was unable to pay it. What you would do is to write that off of your accounts receivable. you, in essence, would be paying a debt that you did not owe for me who owed a debt that I couldn’t pay, and you would have taken it off. Now, because you want to have a relationship with this person that just ripped you off, didn’t deserve that relationship, you would say to me, Bob, take it off your accounts payable, because if you don’t take it off your accounts payable, even though I’ve taken it off my accounts receivable, You’re never going to want to be around me. And every time you look at me, you’re going to be saying, I know what you’re thinking. I know what you’re thinking. I know what you’re thinking. And I know what you’re thinking. And there’d be no way that you would ever want to be in a relationship with me. And so he says, take it off. Well, what’s the problem with people who are critical of this? They’ve never been reconciled to God. That doesn’t mean they’re not saved. But they’ve never been reconciled. They’ve just never come to a point in their lives of saying, I am a reconciled person to God. And because they’re not reconciled, while they still will grab at anything to hang on to any little technique that might come down the pike, that will enable them to keep themselves keeping on getting forgiveness instead of being reconciled to God. Now, unfortunately for them, in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, there’s only one verse of Scripture that they could ever hang on to. And that’s 1 John 1, 9, tucked way back in the back of the Bible, written in about 70 A.D., some 60 years after the death of Christ. I don’t know how these poor things ever stayed in fellowship for 60 years because there’s nothing like it in the entirety of the writings of the New Testament. Nothing like it. And besides that, it is taken out of context and it is poorly misinterpreted because that is not a passage to believers. It’s a passage to unbelievers.
SPEAKER 05 :
I’m driving down the road now and I can’t look at that scripture. Could you tell me what that says?
SPEAKER 02 :
I sure can. I not only can tell you what that says, I can tell you how it proves the point as to who it was written to by going over to 2 John. I’m going to go to 2 John first, Thomas. Okay. In 2 John, it says to the chosen lady. Now, let me just stop here a minute. In the first place, you shouldn’t even have to go to these verses. The mere fact that it’s never mentioned any place else in the New Testament ought to be a red flag to somebody. And they ought to have sense enough to realize that if it isn’t mentioned, it must not be real important. but because we still do not believe that. We still want to grab a hold again, and I want to be a piece of this action. We do not want to be reconciled to God. We want to keep it going. Why? We need to go through this gymnastics. To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, Because of the truth which lives in us and will be with us forever. So how long is the truth going to be in us and with us if it’s ever been in us? It’s going to be with us forever, isn’t it? Yep. Now, 1 John 1, 8 says that we claim to be without sin. We deceive ourselves and the truth’s not in us. Now, if the truth is not in us, it’s because it’s never been in us. Because if it was in us, it would never, ever leave us nor forsake us. It will be with us forever.
SPEAKER 05 :
How do you know if when you were born again, you had a, you know, hopefully a genuine experience that it was for real? Because a lot of these pastors will say, well…
SPEAKER 02 :
he’s a backslider he must have never been born again oh well he’s got this habitual sin in his life he must not yeah well that’s a pastor it’s got habitual sin in his own life it doesn’t know what he’s talking about because all of us have sin in our lives you ask that pastor if he is still worrying if he still has a critical spirit and the answer to that is yes that’s pretty persistent sinning to me You see, Thomas, what you’re dealing with is people who are really anxious to grab a hold of you and absolutely forget about themselves. I don’t worry about you. I’ve got enough to worry about with myself. But let me get back to that verse of Scripture. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth’s not in us. Who was claiming to be without sin? Well, the Gnostics. What else were the Gnostics claiming? That Jesus did not come in the flesh. They’re called Antichrist. A little tough to call somebody a Christian Antichrist, but I guess that’s what some of these brilliant people are doing. Now it says we deceive ourselves and the truth’s not in us. Now let’s go to verse 9. And here’s how verse 9 is to be interpreted. And this doesn’t come from me. I’m not a Greek scholar. I just went to Greek scholars to get it interpreted. Not only here, but in Greece. So they didn’t have to go to cemetery to learn it. They had it right out of the chute. If I don’t know, there’s a question to this deal. I don’t know if you guys are ever going to agree with God concerning your sins. I have no idea. As a matter of fact, the implication is, I don’t think so. But in the event that you should ever come to your senses and agree with God concerning your sins, that’s evident that you do have a sin nature. He is faithful and just to have forgiven your sins and to have purified you from all unrighteousness. If we claim we’ve not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and the truth has no place in our lives. Now, in contrast to teaching to correct the Gnostic heresy, he goes down into chapter 2 that’s now talking to his little children, and in verse 12 he says, I write this to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of your name. He didn’t say on account of your confession. He said on account of the name of Jesus Christ. So, Thomas, the issue is that that’s the only verse of Scripture that that anybody can come up with, with the idea that we are to ask God to do what he’s already done. And I’ve talked to people about this, and I’ve asked them the question, do you believe that without faith it’s impossible to please God? Well, of course, they can’t deny that. It says it. Well, then, would it be faith to ask God, as a born-again believer, would you be exercising faith to ask God to give you eternal life? Well, you wouldn’t be exercising faith, would you? He’s already told you if you’re in Christ, you have eternal life, wouldn’t he?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I would be doubting.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’d be doubting. Would it be faith to say, oh, Lord, please redeem me? No, you’re already redeemed, aren’t you?
SPEAKER 05 :
So you’re saying just rather than immediate reaction when you stumble to ask for forgiveness… I should thank him for the forgiveness that I have.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely, Thomas. You see, that has to be revealed by the Spirit, because what you just said, I didn’t tell you. That is something that you just knew, that if it’s already happened, all you can do in response is say, thank you. Now, people will come along and say, well, you’re just going to teach people to go on sinning. Well, I ask the question, what is the difference between between the fact that you know that you are a forgiven person because that is true according the word of god that’s what truth is you’re not a person who gets forgiveness you are a forgiven person but now let’s take now on the other side that coin where you don’t know that so you just think you’re a person that can get forgiveness and so you go sin but you’re very diligent and you ask god to forgive you now what’s the end result in both cases why you’re forgiven So why would you say that one will cause you to go out and sin and the other won’t? Why would you say that going out and sinning but asking God to forgive you will have any bearing on keeping you from going and doing it again? You see, it’s ridiculous what this theology is doing to people. And it’s ridiculous what people get on the radio and act like they’re authorities on something where someplace down the line they have not examined the totality of the Scriptures. And there are people who say they have.
SPEAKER 05 :
This just popped into my mind, so I hope you don’t have it in your pocket.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’ve got a bad cell, brother. I’m missing your question. Try it again.
SPEAKER 05 :
Me now?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, try it again.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay, when Jesus taught us how we should pray… Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Forgive us our debt.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, let me stop you because I already know the verse.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Now, what happens is we put a period where it doesn’t belong because that goes ahead to say, for if you do not forgive your brother here on earth that you can see, your Father in heaven will not forgive you. Could that be true after the cross where all of your sins were placed behind the back of God and never to see him again? It’d be contradictory. And that’s exactly what it is. You see, when you don’t understand the difference between the old covenant and the new, those kind of verses will bury you. But when you understand the new covenant, and that’s all in Hebrews 9, went into effect on the day that Jesus died, a will does not go into effect until the one who made it dies. And so on the day that Jesus died, the new covenant went into effect. So he taught under the old. He proclaimed the new, but he taught under the old. It wasn’t he didn’t like it. It wasn’t here yet because the price hadn’t been paid. So under the old covenant, forgiveness was conditional. If you don’t forgive your brother here on earth that you can see, your father in heaven will not forgive you. After the cross, it’s forgive one another as Christ Jesus forgave you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Okay, well, just to make sure I have it totally clear here, In the first chapter of Romans where it says, you know, no liar, sexually immoral, you know, all the different people that will not and have no inheritance in the kingdom of God, they’re only talking about people who haven’t been saved yet.
SPEAKER 02 :
That’s exactly right, and that’s why their behavior was consistent with the fact that they hadn’t been saved yet.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thomas, does this help, brother? It’s such an important issue, such an important issue.
SPEAKER 05 :
It does help. I’ve heard it come up a number of times since I’ve been listening to your show, and I’m glad I got to talk to you about it. And I’m going to rest a little easier now, I think. So praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, if the people that are disagreeing would have the courtesy to talk to me, we’d probably get rid of the disagreement.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think I’ll write a letter encouraging that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Okay, brother.
SPEAKER 05 :
There might be some other confused ones like me out there. I hope they were listening today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks, Thomas, and I hope that helps, brother.
SPEAKER 05 :
It does. Thank you.
SPEAKER 02 :
God bless you, pal. You too. Bye-bye.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Sterling Heights, Michigan, listening on WRDT. Darrell, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, good afternoon, Bob. How are you, sir?
SPEAKER 02 :
Doing fine. Thank you, Darrell.
SPEAKER 04 :
Great. It’s a pleasure to talk to you and an honor. I just could use a little help understanding the verses where in Matthew, I think it’s 5, 17 through 20, where Jesus is talking about not come to change the law to some degree in Matthew. not one jot or one jittle. I’m just wondering, I’m having a hard time understanding the context of that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you left out the reason. He said, I didn’t come to abolish the law or the prophets. I haven’t come to abolish them but to fulfill them. And Christ was the fulfillment of all of the law and the prophets. He already fulfilled them. So he didn’t come to do away with them. He came to fulfill them. And in fulfilling them, he was able then to assure in a covenant of grace, and it says now that we’re in Christ, we are no longer under the law. And so why aren’t we under the law? The law has been fulfilled and therefore done away with to the believer. The law is still in effect, Darrell, for a lost person. Lost people are still under the law of sin and death. When we’re born again, we’re freed from the law of sin and death, aren’t we? Remember where it says there’s no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus because the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. Which means before I came to Christ, I’m under the law of sin and death. But when I come to Christ, I’ve been freed from that law by the law of life. So to the lost person, they are still under the law and the consequence of the law, which is death.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I see. Okay. I appreciate your help on that. That helps me a lot. And I was also wondering if I could get some information after we get off the air, somebody in the Michigan area, because I’m looking for a church or somebody to learn more with, to get some help from and some better understanding. And to be honest with you, there’s so many different denominations and religions over the years that it seems like everybody that you listen to always has a comment about somebody else. But at any rate, I could use some help. And I heard a caller yesterday from Michigan. You said you had some people here.
SPEAKER 02 :
Are you close to Detroit, Darrell? Yeah. Okay, yeah, we do. Well, one of our board members is there in Detroit and holds Bible studies, and they’re really great studies. So I’ll put you on hold in a minute and let you get in touch with him because you’ll thoroughly enjoy the time together there. Well, I appreciate it. I would also recommend that you get a hold of our booklet called A Spiritual Journey to Discover the Grace of God, It’s got all the passages that we use in our seminars. There’s no commentary at all. It’s just Bible passages. And what it enables you to do, as an example, if you have a question on law and grace, you go to that seminar on law and grace. It gives you every passage that we use that is dealing with the fact that we’re no longer under the law. I don’t set aside the grace of God. If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. all of the thing what the law can’t do. And it just really explains just through the Scripture that we have been freed from the law so that we can walk in the newness of life in the grace of God. So that’s with deity of Christ. All the major subjects are foundational subjects. This little book to me is absolutely invaluable. I quite frankly think that every Christian on the face of the earth ought to have one of these in their hands and use it. But I would definitely get a hold of that if I were you.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I definitely will, and I appreciate it. I’ve been listening to you about three months, and at first I have to say that I was looking like the RCA dog at the radio at first. But I have to tell you, I’ve listened to you talk to a lot of people in – tell you what i mean you sound like a very sweet and loving man and uh a lot of times i know a lot of people are messed up in their minds and are confused of what to believe and uh i mean i rely and pray every time i read the bible for for god to get the scales off my eyes and give me understanding and um it’s uh it’s a wonderful thing he’s opened them up uh quite a bit, but still there’s so much to learn and understand, and I don’t think we’ll understand it all until we’re in his presence. But God bless you, and thank you, and I’ll hold for that information. I really appreciate it.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re sure welcome, Darrell, and thanks so much for the call. If we can be of any help, don’t ever hesitate to call us, okay? Thank you, sir. All right, now you hang on. All right. Well, let’s go to Metairie, Louisiana, listening on WLNO. Daniel, you are on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thank you. Yeah, I had a quick question. You could give me your take on it. What do you interpret the word repentance as?
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s a total change of mind, Daniel, and it’s used in regard to salvation. I think that, to me, I laughingly say that it’s kind of like your breakfast in the morning of bacon and eggs. The chicken makes a contribution to it. The pig, total commitment. And that’s what repentance is. It’s not a it isn’t sitting in to make a contribution to something. It’s a total change of mind and heart. You don’t come into this world as a believer. No baby comes out of his mom’s womb saying praise Jesus. You have to change your mind and you can learn about Jesus as I did for 36 years and never be born again, never repent again. of my unbelief or that either bears itself out with a rebellion or indifference. Mine was more indifference. But when that time came in my life where I recognized the fact that I needed someone other than myself, that there was something wrong with me, and when I understood that there was someone out there that wanted to come and to take residence in my life and to make me into the kind of person he wanted me to be, and his name was Jesus, I wanted Jesus. And that was repentance. That was changing my mind toward my own self-sufficiency, toward Christ’s sufficiency, getting me off of the throne of my life and putting Jesus on that throne. That’s what repentance is all about. And basically, it’s not I used to smoke and now I don’t because you could start again. Anything that you think you’ve repented of, you could start again. Except that one. That’s a total change of heart that cannot be gone back on. And if you do go back, it’s a sign you never were there. And that’s why the scripture says it went out from among us, because they never were a part of us. You can give lip service, but to have a total change of heart, that is irreversible. And that’s why when you do that, you have what is called eternal life.
SPEAKER 03 :
So repentance would be more of an action.
SPEAKER 02 :
repentance is a change of heart it is a total change of heart you you hear the truth faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god you hear truth from the word of god as to what jesus came to do and you say i believe that and i’m going to put my faith in it and that’s what repentance is repentance isn’t said but repentance is a byproduct of putting your faith where it belongs You’re not saved by repentance. You’re saved by putting your faith in Jesus, and that is repentance because you’re not born with that faith.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. What I mean when I say an action is, for instance, you were saying it’s a change of mind, a change of heart, and you commit not to go back to those ways.
SPEAKER 02 :
No. If you committed, that doesn’t mean a flip to God. Your commitments don’t mean anything. It’s no commitment. It’s surrender. It’s when you come to the point of saying, Lord, I can’t. I am not what you want me to be. And Jesus is standing there at the door of my heart knocking and saying, if you open the door, I’ll come in to you. And I want him to come in and take over control of my life. I’m not committing to anything. I’m surrendering. I’m not committing anything.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. So when we say I can’t and I’m surrendering my life to you, uh, In essence, we’re repenting because we’re acknowledging the fact that we were born into sin.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely, Daniel, and we’re acknowledging the fact that we weren’t functioning with that belief system. For 36 years of my life, I wasn’t a believer in Christ. I believed in Christ Jesus as who he was. I believed he was raised from the dead. I didn’t know he was God, but I thought he was the Son of God. But it didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t anything to me. He had no bearing on my life at all. And when I had to come to realize, hold on a minute, he did that for me. He died for me. He took away my sins. He was raised so that I could have spiritual life. And I said, well, brother, if that’s the case, I need spiritual life. And I changed my mind. That’s called repentance. Okay, brother.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Well, I appreciate your time.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re sure welcome, Daniel.
SPEAKER 01 :
Appreciate your call, pal. I hope that helps. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another, and praise the Lord. Amen.
