Answers · Baptism & Salvation
Can God forgive me — after everything I've done?
Yes — and the Bible's promise is made to exactly the person asking that question, in exactly those terms. Isaiah's invitation is addressed to people whose sins are not minor: scarlet, crimson — the deepest dye there is, the kind that does not wash out. God's word to them is not "clean yourself up first," but "come now, and let us reason together": the cleansing is His work, offered before it is deserved.
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
— Isaiah 1:18 (KJV)
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
— 1 John 1:9 (KJV)
The Doctrine page states the terms as the Articles of Faith carry them: pardon and cleansing from sin come by genuine repentance and confession — "godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of" (2 Corinthians 7:10) — and Peter's first sermon makes the offer in one sentence: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ "for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38). Notice what none of these texts contains: a list of sins too heavy for the promise. The call of God, as the teaching on this site frames it, is universal — extended to whoever will answer it. The question is never whether the offer reaches far enough. It is whether we will come.