What God has said, in full, to those who confess.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

The plainest promise in the Bible about confession. Notice the two words: faithful and just. God does not forgive reluctantly, as a favour; he forgives because Christ has already paid, and it would be unjust to demand payment twice.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:12

East and west never meet. David chose a distance with no end to describe how far God puts a forgiven sin from the person who committed it.

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

Isaiah 1:18

Scarlet and crimson were fast dyes; they did not wash out. God chooses the stain that cannot be removed and promises to remove it.

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:18-19

Micah ends his book astonished. God does not merely file our sins away; he throws them where no one can retrieve them, and he does it because it delights him.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

Not less condemnation, not condemnation postponed. None. The verse rests on everything Paul has argued in the chapters before it, and it holds.

Of David. A Maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Psalm 32:1-2

Three words for wrongdoing and three words for what God does with it: forgiven, covered, not counted. David had learned this the hard way, and wrote it down so we would not have to.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

The one thing you can bring to God after you have failed him is the very thing he will not turn away.

I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

Isaiah 43:25

God gives his reason: for my own sake. Forgiveness is not something you earn by being sorry enough. It flows from who he is.

For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

Hebrews 8:12

Quoted from Jeremiah and applied to the new covenant in Jesus. This is the arrangement you are under if you belong to him.

So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

Luke 15:20

Jesus’ own picture of what happens when someone turns for home. The father does not wait for the speech. He runs.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

Ephesians 1:7

Forgiveness is measured against the riches of grace, not the size of the debt. Whatever you have done, the account is settled at the cross.

He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

Proverbs 28:13

Two verbs: confess and renounce. The promise is not for those who admit a sin while planning to keep it, but for those who let it go. Mercy waits on the other side.

When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses, having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!

Colossians 2:13-14

The record of debt was real, and it was against us. Paul says it was cancelled and nailed to the cross, where anyone can see it has been dealt with.