In the previous article, we examined forgiveness — what it means that God has removed the guilt of sin, cancelled the certificate of debt, and declared the believing sinner pardoned. We looked at three words — nasa, salach, and aphiemi — each revealing a different dimension of what God does when He forgives.
Now we need to go one layer deeper — to a word that is closely related to forgiveness but carries a specific, additional weight that is critically important for understanding the full scope of what Christ accomplished.
That word is remission.
Most Bible-reading Christians have encountered the word — in Matthew 26:28, in Acts 2:38, in Hebrews 9:22 — but relatively few have stopped to examine exactly what it means and how it differs from forgiveness. And the difference, when you see it clearly, is one of the most liberating distinctions in all of Christian doctrine.
The Word Itself — Three Languages, One Staggering Truth
The English word remission comes from the Latin remissio — from re- (back, away) and mittere (to send). Remission means to send back, to send away, to dispatch something so that it is no longer present where it was.
The Greek word behind it is aphesis — from apo (away from) and hiemi (to send). The same root as the verb aphiemi we examined in the previous article, but here used as a noun: the state of having been sent away, the condition of release, the fact of discharge.
But to feel the full weight of what remission means in the New Testament, you need to contrast it with the Hebrew word it replaces — the word at the heart of the Old Testament atonement system: kaphar.
Kaphar means to cover. To overlay. To place something over the top of something else so that it is hidden from view.
Aphesis means to send away. To remove entirely. To release so that it is gone.
These two words are not synonyms — they describe two categorically different transactions. Under the old system, sin was covered — placed out of God’s sight by the blood of animals, temporarily, until the next year’s atonement was required. Under the new system, sin is sent away — removed from the account entirely, discharged, released, departed.
One system hid the sin. The other removes it.
“Shed for Many for the Remission of Sins”
“For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” — Matthew 26:28 (KJV)
These words were spoken at the Last Supper — the night before the cross. Jesus is holding the cup, looking at His disciples, and making a declaration about exactly what His blood would accomplish the following day.
He does not say His blood would be shed for the covering of sins. He says it would be shed for the remission — the aphesis, the sending away — of sins.
This is the New Covenant in a sentence. The old covenant, ratified at Sinai with the blood of animals, accomplished covering. The new covenant, ratified at Calvary with the blood of the Son of God, accomplishes remission. The old deferred the debt; the new dissolves it. The old placed a cover over the sin; the new sends the sin away.
And the reason the new can do what the old could not is precisely what we examined in previous articles: the blood of the new covenant is not the blood of bulls and goats — it is the blood of the only sinless Person who ever lived, the Son of God Himself, whose infinite worth could match the infinite weight of human sin.
The Proof That the Old System Could Not Give Remission — Hebrews 10
The book of Hebrews makes the case for the superiority of Christ’s offering with extraordinary precision — and in doing so, it states directly why the old system was structurally incapable of providing remission.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” — Hebrews 10:1 (KJV)
A shadow. Not the substance. Not the reality. A shadow — the outline, the silhouette, the preview of something whose full form had not yet arrived.
“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” — Hebrews 10:4 (KJV)
Not possible. The language is absolute. Animal blood cannot accomplish remission. It is not a matter of degree — as if the right animal in sufficient quantity might eventually do it. It is a matter of category. The blood of animals and the sin-debt of human beings are not in the same category. No amount of the former can permanently settle the latter.
This is why the repetition of the Old Testament system was inevitable:
“And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” — Hebrews 10:11 (KJV)
The priest kept standing. The sacrifice kept being offered. The year kept turning. And every year, the debt was deferred again — covered again — because it had never been sent away.
Then the contrast:
“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” — Hebrews 10:12 (KJV)
One offering. For sins. For ever. And He sat down — because the work of remission, unlike the work of covering, is finished and does not need to be repeated.
Four Dimensions of What “Sent Away” Means
The word aphesis — remission, the sending away of sin — has four distinct dimensions, each significant for understanding what the New Covenant has accomplished for the believer.
1. Released from the record
When sin is sent away through remission, it is released from the record — God’s account of your debt before Him. The handwriting of ordinances — the certificate of debt — is not merely covered. It is blotted out. The record that contained your sin no longer contains it. It has been sent away from the account entirely.
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” — Colossians 2:14 (KJV)
2. Separated from the sinner
When sin is sent away, it is not merely placed elsewhere — it is separated from the person who committed it. The distance between you and your remitted sin is as absolute as east from west.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” — Psalm 103:12 (KJV)
East and west never meet. The distance is infinite. That is the distance between you and the sin that has been remitted.
3. Discharged from the account
A discharged debt is not a deferred debt. A deferred debt can come due again — its terms can be called in, its balance demanded, its payment required. A discharged debt is gone. It cannot come due again because it no longer legally exists.
Under the old system, sin was deferred — held in account, suspended by the covering of blood, but never discharged. Under the new system, through the blood of Christ, sin is discharged. The account is closed. The debt cannot be called in again — not by God’s justice, not by the enemy’s accusation, not by the believer’s own conscience.
4. Cannot be re-presented
Under the old system, even after a sin was covered by sacrifice, the weight of it could be brought back — in memory, in conscience, in the annual repetition of atonement that reminded every Israelite that last year’s sins were back in view. The covering had to be renewed because the sin was never truly gone.
Under the new system, a sin that has been remitted through the blood of Christ cannot be legitimately re-presented — not before God, not in the conscience, not by the enemy. It has been sent away. What is gone cannot be brought back.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” — Hebrews 10:16–18 (KJV)
Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. God is not saying He has lost His ability to recall — He is saying He will never bring them up again, never re-present them, never allow them back into the reckoning. And then the most conclusive sentence in the argument: where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. When remission has been accomplished, the entire sacrificial system is obsolete. There is nothing more to offer, because there is no remaining debt to cover.
Why Remission Required the Blood — Not Just the Word
Why could God not simply issue a declaration of remission from heaven, without the incarnation and the cross? Why did remission require blood?
The answer is the same one we gave for the cross itself: God is just.
Remission is not amnesty — it is not a decision to overlook the debt. Remission is a discharge — and a discharge requires that the debt has been paid. You cannot discharge a debt that has not been settled. A creditor who simply declares a debt discharged, without receiving payment, is not just — he has simply absorbed the loss himself.
This is exactly what God did. He did not declare the debt discharged without payment. He paid it Himself — in the blood of His own Son — and then discharged the debt on the basis of that payment. Remission is possible because the full weight of every sin was borne by the sinless Son of God, paid in His blood, and accepted by the Father’s resurrection of Him from the dead.
The blood is not incidental to remission. It is the mechanism of remission. Remove the blood and you have no legal ground for discharge. Introduce the blood of the Son of God and you have the only payment in the history of the universe sufficient to permanently discharge the sin-debt of the entire human race.
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” — Hebrews 9:22 (KJV)
No remission without blood. But with the right blood — the blood of the Son of God — complete, permanent, irrevocable remission for everyone who believes.
The Practical Difference Remission Makes for the Believer
Understanding the distinction between covering and remission is not merely academic — it has direct, daily, practical consequences for how the believer lives.
A believer whose sins are only covered lives under a system of ongoing debt management. Every new sin adds to the balance. The account is always open. The debt is always present — just currently covered. This produces a particular kind of spiritual anxiety: the sense that the standing before God is conditional, that the next sin might tip the balance, that the covering might prove insufficient.
A believer whose sins are remitted lives in a state of permanent discharge. The account is closed. The debt does not accumulate because it has been permanently discharged in Christ. New failures are not additions to an open account — they are addressed within the context of a relationship with a Father whose forgiveness has already been established at the cross, and who disciplines His children not to punish them but to restore them.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” — Romans 8:1 (KJV)
No condemnation. Not reduced condemnation. Not condemnation held in abeyance. No condemnation — because the ground of condemnation, the sin-debt, has been remitted. Sent away. Discharged. Gone.
This is the ground on which the new creation man stands. Not the ground of his own performance — which fluctuates daily. Not the ground of the Old Testament covering — which required annual renewal. The permanent, immovable, blood-sealed ground of complete remission in Christ Jesus.
What Comes Next
Sin has been remitted — sent away, discharged, removed from the account. But the work of the cross went one step further than simply removing what was wrong. It also established something actively right.
In the next article, we examine justification — God’s legal declaration that the believing sinner is not merely forgiven but righteous. Not merely pardoned but declared to be in right standing. Not merely relieved of debt but positively credited with the righteousness of Christ Himself.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Romans 5:1 (KJV)
Peace with God. Not an absence of condemnation only — but the active, positive peace of a person who has been declared righteous in God’s own court, through the blood of His Son.
Bible Verses Cited: Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:22; Hebrews 10:1, 10:4, 10:11–12, 10:16–18; Colossians 2:14; Psalm 103:12; Romans 8:1; Romans 5:1 (KJV)
Series: New Creation in Christ Jesus — Article 10 of 35
Author: Joseph Olarewaju | FaithBibleStudy.org
