Andrew Farley's Relaxing With God: Analysis

Must one ask for forgiveness to receive this freely given gift from God? This seems to be a question that, at first hearing, rubs most people I have asked the wrong way. It seems to be the common theme of every altar call, “Come down to the altar, get on your face before God, and ask him to forgive your sins.” Are we expected to ask God to forgive our sins as if there is a chance he will not? I do not believe so, but I believe this is the burden that many people carry in their heart when approaching the feet of Jesus. This question first began to challenge me as I was reading a book called Relaxing With God during the summer of 2016. In this book, the author, Andrew Farley, believes that most modern day Christians have missed the spiritual
It is used multiple ways in scripture from the “sending away” or “leaving” to “Forgiveness”. This diversity of usage has actually expanded my understanding of how our sins have been forgiven and have allowed us to focus on God’s glory, rather than soak in our own sin. Again, Aphiemi is understood as the remission of sin, but is also described as being “let go” or “sent away”. Because our sins have been paid for and sent away in Jesus, we can now let go of the shame our sins have caused us and instead live in the reality of the glory of God. Without an understanding of aphiemi there is no way to understand true forgiveness. Paresis assures us that God passes over our sin and we do not have to suffer the punishment of them. However, aphiemi is releases us completely from our sin because God has taken our sins away for all
I have been very impacted by this practice and deeply respect many traditions like the Anglican and Catholic churches. These traditions heavily emphasize asking God for forgiveness through a plethora of prayers and liturgical practices in each church meeting. I was having a conversation about forgiveness with a friend who is a part of the Anglican tradition and he gave me a very good understanding of why it is important to ask for forgiveness. He mentioned that our humility before God is paramount to our understanding of our forgiveness. We will not understand the extreme debt payed for our sins if we simply accept the gift like a thoughtful, but nonessential birthday present. It is so much more that. It is the humbling of ourselves and a recognizing the truth that we are not worthy of our forgiveness. Thus, asking God for forgiveness is simply a way of deeply humbling ourselves before the Lord. Originally, I would have responded by saying we are capable of doing the same thing in repentance, but then he brought up The Lord’s Prayer. It is clear that Jesus tells us to ask God for forgiveness when we pray, “Forgive us this day our tresspasses”. Because of this clear command from Jesus, studying The Lord’s Prayer for a theology of forgiveness seems like a clear and important place to understand the true purpose of forgiveness. I will paraphrase Pastor Nijay Gupta, as he believes