About a million years ago (in exaggerated time), C.I. Scofield wrote that the Bible concept of forgiveness was that "the sinner was separated from his sin."
I was reminded of how that actually works today when I was reading Matthew in Greek (yes, I still do that), and I came to the passage that says that Jesus entered Peter's house (Matthew 8), and Peter's mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever...
14 And when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying [down], and sick with a fever.
15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she got up, and ministered to them.
That little expression, "The fever left her," uses very similar words as Jesus' words to the paralytic in Mark 2:5: "Son, your sins have been forgiven you..."
The Greek word is "aphiemi," and the essence of its meaning is to "send away, or leave." This is a concept that sometimes is completely forgotten when we think of God forgiving us. It doesn't just mean, "God grudgingly lets us out of punishment, but He never forgets what we did," it means,
"God sends our evil deeds to another place, and disconnects us from them." They are no longer ours. They have left us, just as the fever left Peter's mother-in-law.
The price for this marvellous gift?
Believe. Believe in Jesus Christ and His Father. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Forgiven" means YOUR sins are past history, disconnected from you.
