THE BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS
Psalm 25:6,7 Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good. O Lord.
Have you ever said something or done something to someone and knew that sooner or later you would have to see them again and how you dreaded it? Of course you have, because everyone has as one time or another in their lifetime. We are all human, and it is only natural that it seems we put our big foot in our mouth at times. The thing is it is never right, nor is it easy to undo. Sticks and stones break our bones, but words can sometimes do greater damage to relationships and even worse they can be lasting. Years of fighting between the Hatfields and McCoys started with words and over years brought great sin, sorrow and even death.
David certainly did his share of sin in his life. And it just wasn’t just with Bathsheba either. To save his reputation he had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah and the other soldiers with him killed. He led his men many times in raids on villages killing every person including children just to take their belongings. There was nothing righteous about that. There were many more that are listed in the Bible, as well as much more known only by David and God. But I am not wanting to point fingers at David or anyone else, because I have sinned many more times than I care to remember, and there were times I sinned and didn’t even realize it. You see we can sin by not doing what God has asked us to do, as well as doing what he said not to do. We can even sin as it points out in Leviticus 4 unintentionally.
Romans 3:23-26 tells us that everyone has sinned and fallen short the glory of God. All we have to do is sin one time, and we become a sinner in need of a savior. This is why it says in II Samuel 14:14, “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.” God never wanted us to sin, because he knew the consequences it would have on our life, and our relationship with him and others. And God couldn’t just take away our free will to sin, because that would mean we could not love him or anyone else, let alone experience the blessing of being loved as well. God needed to come up with a way of forgiveness and reconciliation. Thus we have I Peter 1:18-21 that says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believed in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
This forgiveness and reconciliation was meant for everyone as we see in John 3:16-18 where it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal lie. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” All we have to do is ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and to come into our heart and he will do both. It is not a matter of us being good enough to be forgiven, but trusting in the one who was good enough to provide forgiveness. It is not even what we can do for him, but rather what he did for us! I John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” It is a promise and a guarantee all wrapped up in one great blessing. And not only does God do this, but he also will never bring up our sins to us again or hold us accountable because of them. Like it says in Micah 7:5 God will have compassion on us and tread our sins underfoot, and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Hebrews 8:12 even says that he will remember our sins no more.
How wonderful is our God and Savior Jesus Christ! God certainly answered David’s prayer and ours too! No longer do we need to carry the burden of guilt and regret that sin brought into our lives. But God did not stop there regarding the forgiveness of sin. God knew that it was not good for us to carry unforgiveness in our heart either! This is why God gave us the wonderful gift to be Christ-like in being able to forgive others. In fact he even goes so far as to say if we do not forgive, we shouldn’t expect God to forgive us either. John 20:23 says, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Jesus has given us the honor and blessing to stand with him at the Great White Throne Judgment, and know that because we have forgiven people that sinned against us they will never experience eternal punishment because of us. Some will say but they deserve to be punished for what they did to them. Well, we deserve to be punished too! They will still go to hell if they have not received forgiveness of their sins as we have, but we will have the joy knowing that we have chosen to be like our Savior. Think how happy this will make Jesus too! Now I do need to note that our forgiveness applies to only sins against us and not sin in general.
I believe that Jesus wants us to also tell them that we forgive them as well. Not only for their sake of feeling guilty, but that we might be reconciled with them just as we are with God because of Jesus. Sad to say some people are so hard hearted they could care less if we forgive them or not. I had a sister in Christ that had carried unforgiveness of not only being rapped by her own brother, but her father beat her with a rose bush limb to keep her from telling anyone that it happened. After she had called her father to tell him that she forgave him after all the years of hatred, he said he didn’t care if she forgave him or not. With a broken voice to told me that even though he didn’t receive her forgiveness, or ask for forgiveness in return, she had peace in her heart and spirit that she hadn’t had since she was a little girl. Her forgiveness for a terrible sin as bad as it was set her free. After that even the appearance of her face changed. Every time I would see her she would smile at me, and her face would almost glow. Jesus had done a wonderful miracle for her and through her.
Prayer: We thank you Lord Jesus for providing our forgiveness and reconciliation. We would hate to think of looking you in the eyes on judgment day knowing you knew every one of our sins. Thank you for not remembering our sins as David said, “according to great love and mercy.”
We love you Jesus! Thank you for taking our guilty stains of sin from our heart.
