When we repent and put our faith in Christ, all our sins, past, present and future are fully and finally pardoned, because Christ paid the penalty on the cross. Forgiveness means that the guilt of our wrongdoing is removed and the threat of divine judgement is forever banished.

By nature sinful human beings are enemies of God and in this state we earned for ourselves death, hell and eternal separation from God’s love and a relationship with Him. With sin dealt with, we become friends of God, rather than enemies. In fact the Bible goes further and says that we become children of God, not just friends but family.

Through salvation our hearts are supernaturally changed so that instead of being driven by love of sin and self interest, we are driven by love for God. We are not immediately made sinless, but we are progressively transformed into less sinful people as the Holy Spirit, by maturing our faith and repentance, conform us over time to the pattern of self-sacrificial holiness that we see in Jesus Himself.