If there’s one thing above all else that we want to be sure of in this Christian walk of life, it’s assurance of pardon. Assurance of pardon refers to our belief that God forgives us, that we trust in Him for that forgiveness, and that He will heal all.
Assurance of pardon is a regular part of Christian worship service in many churches and it should become a part of our daily lives. In everything we do, we need to ask Christ for forgiveness for our sins and our mistakes. We walk through life carrying the burden of many wrongdoings and there is but one person who can take care of them. That person is Christ.
In this article, we’ll discuss many of the scripture verses that outline God’s love for us, His forgiveness, compassion, goodness, and grace. By the end of this article, you should understand assurance of pardon and how it’s an important part of the Christian life.
No worship service is complete without it and it’s something we should seek out purposely at least once a week to ensure our sins are washed away.
Let’s dive into the scripture.
Isaiah 53:1-5
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
This set of verses refers to the pain and suffering Jesus has to go through in exchange for our innocence. In order for us to experience assurance of pardon, Jesus had to die upon the cross so we could be healed. It’s so important that we always remember that Jesus’ death was the initial assurance of pardon.
As followers of Christ, all we need to do is ask the Lord for forgiveness.
It is through baptism that we are cleansed of our original sin and it is through the death of Jesus Christ that we are saved.
Psalm 103:8-12
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
These powerful verses really speak of God’s compassion and love for us. It says that God does not expect anything from us, He does not hold our sins against us, and He has a great love for everyone who acknowledges His presence.
When we relate this to assurance of pardon, it’s stating that we can have confidence in our faith and ability to reach the ultimate life in Heaven with Jesus Christ. We can do this because we have a compassionate and forgiving God.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We are all probably familiar with this verse. We can have faith in our assurance of pardon because God has made a sacrifice once and he’ll do it again. Because of what Jesus did for us, we receive the blessing of everlasting life.
Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
These verses instruct us to do something. They tell us to go seek the Lord while we can still find Him, seek Him while we still have a chance. There will come a day when the Lord’s presence is no more and it will be too late for those who didn’t seek Him while He was here.
But most importantly, the scripture says that the Lord will have mercy on anyone who seeks Him. He will pardon and forgive them.
Joel 2:12-13
“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
We all face stages in life where we start to fall out of faith. For whatever reason, we lose touch with our faith, stop going to church, and stop involving ourselves in the Christian community. It happens to the best of us, but that doesn’t stop God from loving us. He says, you can come back at any time and I will be here to welcome you back with grace and compassion.
Titus 3:4-7
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
It’s so crucial that we always keep in mind that it’s not so much about being a good Christian as it is about God’s mercy. It’s through His mercy that we are saved and nothing else. We could walk through this life being the greatest person we could be and that wouldn’t matter if it wasn’t for God’s mercy.
Hebrews 2:14-15, 17
Since the children have flesh and blood, he [Jesus] too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
I love nothing more than knowing that I am saved upon death. It’s a comforting and reassuring feeling and it’s one that you can only achieve through faith. Without faith, what is death?
Everyone has their own idea of what death is but without faith, it’s a negative, horrible, and scary thing.
For those with faith, death is simply another part of life. It’s the beginning of our eternal walk with Jesus Christ, and frankly, with faith we have nothing to fear. We don’t have to fear because of God’s grace. Through his son Jesus Christ, He banished the fear of death.
1 Peter 1:3-4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.
I love these two verses! Through faith in Christ, we are born into an inheritance. We’re so focused on worldly things like money, how much we might get if someone in our family dies, and what we might inherit one day. But, we’re forgetting that we have the ultimate inheritance waiting for us in the kingdom of heaven.
Romans 8:35, 37-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
These powerful verses state that nothing can separate us from Jesus Christ so long as we love Him and develop a relationship with Him. All things are conquered because of our faith in Christ which means no matter what we experience in this world, whether it be hardships, persecution, poverty, or any other kind of struggle, Christ will always be with us.
Assurance of Pardon Prayers
In addition to seeing and reading instances of assurance of pardon in the Bible, we should also pray directly to the Lord and ask for forgiveness for our wrongs.
Obviously, based on your denomination, the method you use to do this might differ. Even if you follow a set of rules, there’s never a wrong time to reach out to God and ask Him for forgiveness for your sins.
Here are some great ways to do this:
From The Book of Common Prayer:
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has no pleasure in the death of sinners,
but would rather they should turn from their wickedness and live.
He has given authority to his ministers to declare to his people when they repent
the forgiveness of their sins.
God pardons and absolves all who truly repent and believe his holy gospel.
So we ask him to grant us true repentance and his Holy Spirit,
that what we do now may please him
and that the rest of our life may be pure and holy,
so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From An Australian Prayer Book (modified:)
God pardons those who humbly repent and truly believe the gospel.
Since Jesus died for us, we have peace with God,
to whom be praise and honour for ever. Amen.
From An Australian Prayer Book:
Almighty God our heavenly father,
who of his great mercy has promised forgiveness of sins
to all who with hearty repentance and true faith turn to him:
have mercy on you; pardon and deliver you from all your sins;
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness;
and keep you in eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From An Australian Prayer Book:
Almighty God,
who has promised forgiveness of sins to all who turn to him in faith:
pardon you and set you free from all your sins,
strengthen you to do his will,
and keep you in eternal life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Cf. Exodus 34:6-7; Romans 8:1
God is slow to anger and full of compassion.
He forgives all who humbly repent and trust in his Son as Saviour and Lord.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
From Sunday Services:
Our God fulfills his promises and is true to his word.
We have confessed our sins.
God has forgiven us,
because Christ died for us. Amen.
Cf. Titus 2:13-14; 2 Cor. 9:15
Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for us
to redeem us from all wickedness
and to purify for himself are people that are his very own,
eager to do what is good.
Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! Amen.
From Common Worship:
May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins,
and restore us in his image,
to the praise and glory of his name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From Common Worship:
May the Father forgive us by the death of his Son
and strengthen us to live in the power of the Spirit all our days. Amen.
From An Australian Prayer Book:
Merciful Lord,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Confession of Sin
Once you’ve acknowledged God’s presence in your life, it’s time to officially confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. This is an important part of the Christian walk because we are not perfect. There is only one perfect being and that is God the Father. It’s vital that we realize this.
We will misstep, we will falter, and we will do wrong. For those wrongdoings, we’re blessed to have a forgiving God who will pardon us if we ask Him. There are many ways of doing this but here are some ideas.
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O Holy One, we call to you and name you as eternal, ever-present, and boundless in love. Yet there are times, O God, when we fail to recognize you in the dailiness of our lives.
Sometimes shame clenches tightly around our hearts, and we hide our true feelings.
Sometimes fear makes us small, and we miss the chance to speak from our strength.
Sometimes doubt invades our hopefulness, and we degrade our own wisdom.
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From The Book of Common Worship, 1946:
Holy God, in the daily round from sunrise to sunset, remind us again of your holy presence hovering near us and in us. Free us from shame and self-doubt. Help us to see you in the moment-by-moment possibilities to live honestly, to act courageously, and to speak from our wisdom.
Almighty God, who does freely pardon all who repent and turn to Him, now fulfill in every contrite heart the promise of redeeming grace; forgiving all our sins, and cleansing us from an evil conscience; through the perfect sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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From the PCUSA Book of Common Worship
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993; p. 88
Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo. Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.
Set us free from a past that we cannot change; open to us a future in which we can be changed; and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness and image, through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.
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Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent, for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.
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By Calvin, taken from Prayers of the Reformers compiled by Clyde Manschreck
Almighty God, since thou delayst with so much forbearance the punishments which we have deserved and daily draw on ourselves, grant that we may not indulge ourselves but carefully consider how often and in how many different ways we have provoked thy wrath against us.
May we learn humbly to present ourselves to thee for pardon, and with true repentance implore thy mercy. With all our heart we desire to submit ourselves to thee, whether thou chastise us, or according to thine infinite goodness, forgivest us.
Let our condition be ever blessed, not by flattering ourselves in our apathy, but by finding thee to be our kind and bountiful Father, reconciled to us in thine only-begotten Son. Amen.
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Book of Common Worship,
Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993
Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son.
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Paul E. Engle,
Baker’s Worship Handbook,
Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998
Almighty Father; we enter your presence confessing the things we try to conceal from you and the things we try to conceal from others. We confess the heartbreak, worry, and sorrow we have caused, that make it difficult for others to forgive us, the times we have made it easy for others to do wrong, the harm we have done that makes it hard for us to forgive ourselves. Lord have mercy and forgive us through Christ. Amen.
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Dear Heavenly Father, we lower our heads before you and we confess that we have too often forgotten that we are yours. Sometimes we carry on our lives as if there was no God and we fall short of being a credible witness to You.
For these things we ask your forgiveness and we also ask for your strength. Give us clear minds and open hearts so we may be a witness of You in our world. Remind us to be who You would have us to be regardless of what we are doing or who we are with. Hold us to You and build our relationship with You and with those You have given us on earth.
