Psalm 103:12

 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us ~ Psalm 103:12

 

The amazing thing about the east and the west is that you never reach either one. You may reach your starting point by heading around this earth in whichever direction you choose if you continue far enough, but still you can keep going east or west. When we talk about the east from the west, it is an infinite distance which is never reached. Just head out into our solar system and see if you come to the end of it. The thought is the same for our sins. Once we are made new in Christ, whatever our past was, is out of reach. We move forward continually, but never can our sin reach back into our life to condemn us, for God has removed them from us as far as they can be removed. We are forgiven completely. Some people have a hard time with this. Complete forgiveness is hard to grasp for them. When we lived in sin, our sentence was death, but now that death has been turned, for we are dead to sin. Sin no longer has a power over us, and because of this we are no longer alienated from God. We are one with him, heaven is opened to us, and we now have the fellowship we were meant to have before the fall of humanity. Praise God! Through the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, we are made free! A. Maclaren, D.D. wrote: “Like some black rock that heaves itself above the surface of a sun-lit sea, and the wave runs dashing over it; and the spray, as it falls down its sides, is all rainbowed and lightened; and there comes beauty into the mighty grimness of the black thing; so a man’s transgressions rear themselves up, and God’s great love, coming sweeping itself against them and over them, makes out of the sin an occasion for the flashing more brightly of the beauty of His mercy, and turns the life of the pardoned penitent into a life of which even the sin is not pain to remember.” This is what it is to have our sins removed…God sweeping over our darkness with grace, love, and healing. In addition, none of our experiences are wasted, but used for his glory in our new life.

Pastor Julia

image: Gemma Evans

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