If we cannot forgive or forget our own sins then how can God?
Can anything take our sin away, will good deeds, a great sacrifice, or heroic efforts? The Bible makes it clear there is one person who is able to blot our sin out of memory forever.
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." Isaiah 43:25.
I EVEN I AM HE
This repeat of I is an unmistakable emphasis that it is God who blots out our transgressions, not our own goodness or our efforts no matter how noble and righteous they may be.
WHO BLOTS OUT
If a scribe made an ink spot on a page, he would use another piece of paper to lift out the ink. Then the page is usable and purposeful. If a garment had a stain then blotting would lift the stain out without fraying the fibers. Blotting does not damage the thing being cleansed.
Imagine that God has written your sins in some heavenly logbook. Christ is the blotter, Christ takes on the black marks from the page and leaves it clean. He did this when he died as our substitute for our sin.
For a blotter to work, it must be clean first; if the blotter is full of ink already it will not lift the ink off of the page, but Christ had no sin so he was able to become our substitute in the judgment of God on our behalf.
YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS
Transgressions and sins are wrongs done against God; they include rebellion, disobedience, sins of omission, and sins done in ignorance. The Bible sums it up, "All wrongdoing is sin." John 5:17.
FOR MY OWN SAKE
This surprises us. We think salvation is all about us being rescued from hell and going to heaven, but it is secondary because our salvation is primarily for God's glory.
AND REMEMBERS YOUR SINS NO MORE
Our sins are forgotten forever and will never come back.
This is a promise and God always keeps His promises. We have problems forgetting the wrongs done against us but God is able to forget because all wrongs have been made right in Christ and paid for in his death on our behalf.
God does not differentiate between big and little sins. When He says," and remembers your sins no more," it is saying He counts all our sins big and little to be wiped away. Every sin, no matter how small, is worthy of eternal hell so for Christ's death to be sufficient for one sin it must be sufficient for all sins- big and little.
None of our efforts can take away our sin or its judgment, so we need someone else to do it, and here God is telling us that He is the one who promises to take away our sin which he did in the death and resurrection of Christ, (therefore this verse foreshadows the doctrine that Christ must be God).
When we are in Christ God the Father promises that He will forget our sins, it is like they never happened.
To learn more about how to find salvation see the tab above titled The Gospel.
To learn about my books of poems visit my website, A.E. Dozat.com.
(c) Adron 7/4/17
