How can sins be forgiven?
God sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins around 2,000 years ago. Nailed to a cross, Jesus Christ bore our selfishness, unbelief, greed, dishonesty and every single one of our sins. The forgiveness of our sins was sealed when God brought His Son back from the dead.
When we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and so redeemed us, our sins are forgiven. It is a gift given to us for free. We can come as we are – as sinners falling short of God’s standard. It is not about what we do; we can simply receive God’s grace that He readily gives. God knew there was nothing we could do to ‘earn’ our salvation and redemption; that is why He redeemed us.
Because of Jesus, you can also believe that all your sins are forgiven. It doesn’t matter what you are like or what you have done, you can trust that your sins are forgiven through Jesus. Our good deeds or accomplishments mean nothing before God – it is only through Jesus we are saved.
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation...For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:19,21 ESV)