Outrageous Forgiveness
“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things He does for me. He forgives my sins…He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies…”
Psalm 103-4
To my way of thinking, some of the most outrageous words in all the world are these:
God forgives your sins.
You may have heard those words years ago and rested in them for a long time. Or perhaps such an amazing reality is new to you and you’re still staggered by the possibility of a clean slate and fresh start. Either way, the words, God forgives your sins, are as refreshing as cool water on a hot day.
When King David came to grips with this amazing truth (On the backside of both adultery and murder!), he put his joy into inspired song as seen in the words above. As the immensity of this hits him, David continues on…
“His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.”
Psalm 103: 11-12
He’s ready, willing, and able to forgive
That last line is impressive: “He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.” It’s as if David runs out of analogies as it relates to the breadth of God’s forgiveness. After all, you can’t get much more separation than east from west.
And how willing is God to do this? What is His attitude toward His wayward children? David captures this in another of his psalms.
“For Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon Thee.”
Psalm 86:5 (NASB)
I love that phrase, “ready to forgive.”
He forgives again…and again
One of the best visual aids for this is seen in the cross. Think of the vertical beam as your relationship with God. Jesus came down from heaven to earth and gave His life to span the gap for any who would embrace Him by faith.
This was made possible because, quite literally, He bore the weight of our sin. And because He did, we don’t have to.
Yet throughout our lives, we have occasions when once again we feel the weight of our sin. All of us do…because none of us is perfect.
We find ourselves once again at the foot of the cross and crying out, “Lord, I’ve gotten myself into this mess and I confess that to you. I was wrong and I’m so sorry. Once again I failed and bring my guilt before You.”
And the Lord never responds, “What?!?! Are you here again?!? Shame on you! Get out of my sight!”
He never says that. Instead, He offers forgiveness and cleansing, removing our sins yet again as far as the east is from the west.
When we fail and find ourselves once again at the foot of the cross, God never responds, “What?! You again?!” Instead He offers forgiveness and cleansing, removing our sins once again as far as east is from west.
As we get older in the faith and learn our lessons better, we should find ourselves sinning less, but we’ll never reach the point where we won’t have to come to God for forgiveness.
Fortunately, His forgiveness never runs out. And neither does His willingness to extend it.
PRAYER
Lord, I marvel at the extent of your forgiveness and the attitude You have when it comes to offering it. May my gratitude for that cause me to sin less frequently. But when my sin overtakes me, help me to not shy away from doing so, knowing that you’re ready, willing, and able to once again cleanse me.
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