“As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us…”
Believe this? Act on it? We do tend to hold on to previous bad behavior/sin and apologize to the Lord over and over again… why? Though this will sound incredibly stupid… sometimes it’s because that’s who we were and this gives us a sense, albeit negative, an understanding of ourselves. It’s a ‘known’. And we may be in the midst of change and rediscovering or redefining who we are. Another, perhaps more devastating, is that we haven’t fully accepted that when we turn to the Lord and confess our sin – He DOES forgive. (1John 1:9)
The Lord’s forgiveness has absolutely nothing to do with us being ‘worthy’ to receive pardon. There is NO WAY you can earn forgiveness. Just as our salvation was a free gift so is His forgiveness. And He does ‘remove our transgressions’ from us. When we keep bringing up who we were and what we did… we deny His power to do this. Ever think about it that way? YOU cannot say that He will forgive (another person) but not me. Nor say that He can forgive (whatever you think is forgive-able) but not (whatever you believe is beyond Him). Sounds kinda silly when you see it in print… yes?
There is a price for this forgiveness though. You must truly regret what you did or said and purpose to not repeat that behavior. Then all you do is come to the Lord with your repentance and your vow to not repeat and accept His forgiveness.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9)
So His forgiveness include cleansing us. His clean means Clean. Because of His gift of forgiveness we can walk in righteousness. Our problem seems to stem from the wrong focus. We put our eyes on ourselves and our failings rather than on the Lord and His giftings. He said He would, then He will. We do have our part, but we also have the ‘moving on’ responsibility. Once we’ve turned to the Lord, we must receive and act on His forgiveness and move on. Make amends, if possible. But prove yourself with changed behavior and words.
He has removed our sins from us – as far as the east from the west – so now we can respond by becoming our best us. Yes, we will slip again, BUT we now know what we need to do when we do sin.
