The biggest problem for human beings is sin.  Jesus said that no communication with God can avoid us facing up to our sin, and in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus said that we can and must ask the Father to forgive us.  The Bible uses a variety of descriptive words to identify different features of the sinful heart and sinful behaviour.  Firstly, sin is a wrong direction: missing the mark of perfection, or trespassing into areas God has forbidden.  Secondly, sin is deviating from the truth by bending, distorting or twisting it by what we think, say or do.  Thirdly, sin is rebellion against God and the breaking of any right relationship.  Fourthly, sin is the corruption of our hearts: evilness, perversity or wickedness.  Fifthly, sin is offensive to God and other people, stumbling or tripping up as we walk through life.  Sixthly, it is straying from what God has instructed, whether we do so knowingly, negligently or ignorantly.

Sin is rooted into our nature; it corrupts our hearts, distorts our decisions and defaces the image of God in us.  Our greatest need is to be freed from the weight and burden of sin so that we can worship and serve the God of glory.  However, we cannot do it ourselves because the debt of sin can only be discharged by the person we have offended - God Himself (Psalm 51:1-14).

But the wonder of the gospel is that God is willing to forgive all those who confess their sin and ask Him to make them clean (Hebrews 10:22).  Jesus, who told the disciples to ask for forgiveness, knew that His own death would be the substitute sacrifice for every sinner; and so all those who come to Him in repentance and faith can be certain of being forgiven (see www.crosscheck.org.uk to know more).  God's Word assures us that penitents can be certain of His cleansing, and so to ask for forgiveness is an expression of faith - that God will keep His Word.  Of course. those who know the immensity of God's forgiveness should also forgive those who offend them: that is a witness to our faith that if God does not hold anything against us, we should not hold grudges against others (Matthew 6:14-15).

Forgiveness is the point at which grace, mercy and faith meet with the cross of Jesus.  To receive forgiveness, we must be willing to confess the sin, which led Him to die for us, and believe that His sacrifice is fully about to atone for our sin. It is an act of honest confession to admit our wrong to God, and an act of faith to believe that His sacrifice propitiates His anger against us and enables us to be reconciled to Him.  It is also an act of faith, as well as witness, to forgive others. Such major choices surely need the work of the Holy Spirit to give us the conviction that they are necessary and the assurance that the Lord's purposes will be worked out through them.  So today is a good day to confess our sins and ask to be made clean, because 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."