Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins. That article in the Creed, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins," is too little thought of. Men flippantly declare that they believe in it when they are not conscious of any great sin of their own; but when his transgression is made apparent to a man, and his iniquity comes home to him, it is quite another matter. No stocks can hold a man so fast as his own guilty fears. With the desponding, I shall try to deal. I. THERE IS FORGIVENESS. 1. This appears in the treatment of sinners by God, inasmuch as He spares their forfeited lives. 2. Why did God institute the ceremonial law, if there were no ways of pardoning transgression? The evident design of the whole Mosaic economy was to reveal to man the existence of mercy in the heart of God, and the effectual operation of that mercy in washing away sin. 3. If there is no forgiveness of sin, why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent? 4. There must be pardons in the hand of God, or why the institution of religious worship among us to this day? 5. Why did Christ institute the Christian ministry, and send forth His servants to proclaim His Gospel? 6. Why are we taught in that blessed model of prayer which our Saviour has left us to say, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us"? It is evident that God means us to give a true absolution to all who have offended us. But then, He has linked with that forgiveness our prayer for mercy, teaching us to ask that He would forgive us as we forgive them. If, then, our forgiveness is real, so is His. 7. God has actually forgiven multitudes of sinners. II. THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that it amounts to an absolute oblivion, a total forgetting of all the wrong-doing of the pardoned ones. 1. To speak popularly, a man lays up a thing in his mind; but when sin is forgiven it is not laid up in God's mind. 2. In remembering, men also consider and meditate on things; but the Lord will not think over the sins of His people. 3. Sometimes you have almost forgotten a thing, but an event happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned. 4. This not remembering means that God will never seek any further atonement. Under the old law there was remembrance of sins made every year on the day of atonement; but now the blessed One hath entered once for all within the veil, and hath put away sin for ever by the sacrifice of Himself, so that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. 5. When it is said that God forgets our sins, it signifies that He will never punish us for them; next, that He will never upbraid us with them. 6. What does it mean but this — that He will not treat us any the less generously on account of our having been great sinners? Look how the Lord takes some of the biggest sinners, and uses them for His glory. III. FORGIVENESS IS TO BE HAD. How? Through the atoning blood. Come for it in God's appointed way. "Repent." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. |
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