GRACE-FORGIVENESS (part 9)
God’s forgiveness is ‘connective’. When we get right with God, we discover
that we are suddenly getting right with others. When we have fellowship
with God, we have fellowship one with another. Have you ever had the
feeling that others seem to be fellowshipping with each other, and with
God, but you are not? Someone has said,
“Two violins that are tuned to the same
piano will be in tune with each other”
When we’re out of tune with God, we are going to be out of tune with God’s
people. If a husband is out of tune with God, and his wife is walking with the
Lord in a spiritual way, then he is out of tune with her. When we confess our
sin and get right with God, it not only gets us in tune with God, but it also
connects us with the people who know God.
Satan is a formidable adversary who gives us many challenges to
overcome. Jesus responded to Satan’s temptations by reciting to
him some of God’s Words. His example should serve as a guideline
that encourages and prepares us to respond to Satan with something
like,
“Here is what my Bible says about forgiveness”
God has such a great desire for us to understand what it means to be forgiven
by Him, that He gives us some images to keep in mind. Why would He do that?
Because He knows that when the enemy comes, he’s going to tempt us to start
having thoughts that we are not, and cannot be, forgiven.
Image 1:
God’s forgiveness is like putting our sin as far away as the east is from
the west. If we get in a car and start driving north, at some point we will
reach the north pole and suddenly begin driving south without changing
the direction we are headed. But, if we start driving east, we will always
be heading east; we will never start driving west. That emphasizes the
magnitude of how far away God removes our sins!
“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is
His mercy toward those who fear him; as far as the east
is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us”
(Psalm 103:11-12)
Image 2:
God’s forgiveness is like burying something in the deepest sea.
“You will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea”
(Micah 7:19)
Go to the deepest sea on planet earth, and imagine that God has
taken all your sins, and He buried them in the lowest part, of the
deepest part, of the deepest sea, where they cannot be retrieved.
Image 3:
God’s forgiveness is like casting something behind our back.
You have cast all my sins behind your back
(Isaiah 38:17)
What does that mean to us? It means that we can’t see them. It also
means that God doesn’t see our sin. He’s cast all our sins away from
His ability to see them. He doesn’t just take “it”, but he takes “all”
our sins away.
Image 4:
God’s forgiveness is like erasing something from existence.
“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your
transgression, and like a cloud, I have blotted
out your sins”
(Isaiah 44:22)
It’s as if God has taken a cloud and covered all our sins;
He has blotted them out so they cannot be seen.
Image 5:
God’s forgiveness is like God forgetting our sins have ever happened.
Can you wrap your mind around that? It shows us the magnitude of
God’s grace.
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions,
for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
(Isaiah 43:24)
Whether we are an unbeliever and for the first time are becoming a
Christian, or if we are a Christian who has sinned since we believed,
when we confess our sins to Almighty God, He forgives and forgets
them! The challenge for us is to accept His forgiveness and forget
them too. They can be a reminder to us of our vulnerability, but if
we don’t accept God’s forgiveness, then they can become a burden
to us.
(watch for part-10 of the series tomorrow….)
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