The importance of forgiveness

But all sins are against God, all sins separate us from him, and all sins injure our own souls.  That is why it is so necessary that we should have our sins forgiven and taken away.  You can see how important this is by the fact that Jesus, in giving us the Lord’s Prayer, has told us every time we say it to pray for forgiveness: “Forgive us our trespasses”.  And that is what we shall be thinking about next time.

SUMMARY

1. Trespasses means sins, that is, all wrong thoughts, words or acts, including not doing what we ought to do.  Sins separate us from God and injure and endanger our souls.

2. Some sins are ‘venial’ or small sins; others are ‘mortal’ or big and deliberate sins which cut us off from God altogether.

3. All sins are against God, but some are also against other people or oneself.