The Power of Mercy and Forgiveness in Marriage

A couple great quotes from Dave Harvey's book, When Sinners Say 'I Do'.

"Mercy sweetens marriage. Where it is absent, two people flog one another over everything from failure to fix the faucet to phone bills. But where it is present, marriage grows sweeter and more delightful, even in the face of challenges, setbacks and persistent effects of our remaining sin." 

"Mercy takes people who are capable of open warfare over toothpaste tubes and toilet seats, and enlarges their vision to include a Savior. Mercy confronts a sinner wrapped in self pity and protected pride and shows him the way out of the darkness into the light. Mercy inspires us to move beyond the power and government of self love back to the nobler and benevolent principles of our new nature" 

"Forgiveness and repentance is the powerful tool that repairs the damage done to sin-torn marriage relationships. And where forgiveness is employed, and repentance is lived out, it transforms. Forgiveness humbly sought, and humbly given, profoundly expresses the glory of God. Why? Because forgiveness is at the heart of the gospel-the true demonstration of God's love for those who deserved his wrath....We have all been forgiven the greatest debt. Let's learn how to forgive the debtor we married." 

Dave Harvey, When Sinners Say 'I Do' (Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, 2007) 80, 82, 113,  

Thinking Lightly of Sin

A great quote from Charles Spurgeon:

"Too many think lightly of sin, and therefore think lightly of the Savior. He who has stood before his God, convicted and condemned, with the rope about his neck, is the man to weep for joy when he is pardoned, to hate the evil which has been forgiven, and to live to the honor of the Redeemer by whose blood he has been cleansed."

Arnold Dallimore, Spurgeon, A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987), 14. 

Once You Know That God Loves You

"If I speak in the tongues of mean and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritating or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends..."

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

"Once you know that God loves you as you are, you are free to make the choice that love makes: not to rejoice at wrongdoing but to rejoice with the truth that God has grace for other sinners. You are also ready to do what love does: you are ready to forgive, ready to serve, and ready to pour our the treasure of your heart for Jesus."

Phil Ryken, President of Wheaton College, commenting on 1 Corinthians 13.

Checking Yourself In

Then David confessed to Nathan, 

"I have sinned against the LORD."
2 Samuel 12:13

These are David's words following his horrendous actions in committing adultery with Bathsheba and then essentially killing her husband. To top it off, David lied and tried to cover the whole thing up before coming clean. 

This verse is also a bite-size preview of Psalm 51, wherein David confesses and repents to the LORD. The reason I love this story is because I think it gives a good snapshot of what Christianity is really about. This story shows one of the Bible's most Godly characters (David) fall into complete and utter sin and despair. It shows a hero of the faith fall.

But herein lies the beauty of the gospel. Where the seeming "hero" falls (David), the true Hero of the story is brought to center stage. The gospel is not about cleaning yourself up, hiding your sin, covering up your brokenness, or your own personal spiritual strength. Quite the opposite actually. It is about how we are all like David; ruined, broken, weak sinners who are in need of a divine act of grace on our behalf. The gospel is about us being honest with our sickness, sin, evil, and brokenness, and then turning and clinging to the only one who can actually save us. It is about looking to the true Hero for forgiveness and new life.

Think about it terms of a drug addict. It would simply be stupid for a drug addict,who is obviously addicted to keep living their lives as if they don't have a problem. It would be futile for them to attempt to clean themselves up on the outside, so they appear to be 'clean', but on the inside, they are still sick and addicted. The only solution is for them to ditch their delusion, be honest with themselves and realize they are jacked up and desperately need help. The solution is to check themselves in to rehab. Likewise, we are addicted to sin. We might not have killed anyone of committed adultery as David had, but I have absolutely no doubt, that if you look at your life honestly, and compare it to God's standard of love, truthfulness, compassion, and justice, you will cringe at your sickness. Like a delusional drug addict, our tendency is to live our lives as one big cover up. We try so hard to hide the inner sickness of sin that is ruining our lives. We try to cover up our inner brokenness with big houses, fashionable clothes, successful careers, relationships, alcohol, sports, the latest gadgets, and the list goes on and on. Our tendency is to cover ourselves up and save face, rather than be real with the situation.

The beauty of the gospel is that we no longer have to save face. You no longer have to cover up all the crap in your life. There is healing. There is redemption from this addiction and enslavement of sin. There is a solution. The solution is Jesus. Christ's death and resurrection on our behalf is the only solution.  All it takes is being honest with yourself, and checking yourself into rehab (yes that's a Lecrae reference :). All it takes is knowing your absolute need for him. Like David, when he was finally honest with himself, and turned and confessed to God, it was there he experienced what Christianity is really about.

Like One of the King's Own Son's

"And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David's table,

like one of the king's own sons."

2 Samuel 9:11

Who is this Mephibosheth guy? A little background on this verse. Mephibosheth was the grandson of Saul. Yes, this is the same Saul who tried to kill King David. Because Mephibosheth was from the household of Saul, David, by law, legally had the right to kill him. So, first of all, Mephibosheth was a man who deserved death. Some more background; Mephibosheth was crippled in both feet. In other words, he was completely helpless and useless. He was an outcast. So here is Mephibosheth, who by law deserves a traitors death, and who by his own recognition in 2 Samuel 9:8, describes himself as a "dead dog". 

As the story goes, David, rather than killing Mephibosheth, rather than bypassing him as a social outcast, actively seeks to show him mercy and kindness. 2 Samuel 9 begins, "One day David asked, 'Is anyone in Saul's family still alive-anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?'" (2 Samuel 9:1). Where nothing but judgement was deserved, David delighted in, and sought to show mercy and kindness. 

The reason I love this passage (and am doing a Bible study on it tomorrow night, Wednesday) is not that it shows how great of a guy David is. It is because what David did for Mephibosheth is strikingly similar to what God does for us. David takes a dead dog, and brings him to the King's table, and adopts him as a beloved son. God takes us, sinners, who rightfully deserve death,  who are crippled and unable to help ourselves, who are outcasts, and offers us mercy and kindness. He takes dead dogs and makes us into true sons and daughters of the King. That is too good to be true! But the good news is that, yes, it is true. We are Mephibosheth. We are poor, crippled, broken, sinful people. But God's love and mercy are greater. Only the power of the gospel can take us from dead dogs to those who are "like one of the King's own sons." (2 Samuel 9:11)

The Gospel Drama in Worship

"In worship, we are invited into God’s holy presence as adopted sons and daughters of whom he is not ashamed because of Christ’s work on our behalf. We come adoring and praising him for his goodness, greatness, and grace. We come confessing our sins and looking to him for forgiveness and strength. We come making requests on behalf of ourselves and others in prayer. We praise and admonish and pray through song. We rejoice in the work of God’s grace in one another as we hear the gospel story expressed through the lives of fellow believers. We profess enthusiastically together what we believe. We listen to God’s Word read, proclaimed, and applied. We offer our lives and our substance to him. We baptize new converts and children of believers as he adds to our number. We gather in table fellowship remembering what Christ has done in his atoning, sacrificial death in our place. We receive his good word in the benediction as he sends us forth to live as salt and light for his glory in every area of life. We are captured and transformed into greater Christ-likeness by the gospel drama represented in a carefully planned worship service that proclaims that gospel story afresh each week."

Mark Dalbey, "Gospel-Centered Worship." 171-172. 

Prayer

HT: Ray Ortlund

“See the man at midnight [described in Luke 11:5-8]. Imitate that man. Act it all alone at midnight. Hear his loud cry, and cry it after him. He needed three loaves. What is your need? Name it. Name it out loud. Let your own ears hear it. . . . The shameful things you have to ask for. The disgraceful, the incredible things you have to admit and confess. The life you have lived. The way you have spent your days and nights. And what all that has brought you to. It kills you to have to say such things even with your door shut. Yes, but better say all these things in closets than have them all proclaimed from the housetops of the day of judgment. Knock, man! Knock for the love of God! Knock as they knock to get into heaven after the door is shut! Knock, as they knock to get out of hell!”

Alexander Whyte, “The Man Who Knocked At Midnight,” in Lord, Teach Us To Pray (New York, n.d.), pages 174-176.

....

This is awesome. Lord, give us hearts of humility, confession and belief in your willingness to forgive, for the sake of Christ.

"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he [Jesus] departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."
(Mark 1:35 ESV)

The New Reality

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of of your flesh, 

God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. 

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."

Colossians 2:13-15

In verse 13, Paul identifies two problems for the unsaved person. They are spiritually dead and they are spiritually unclean. In other words, since birth,  our hearts are spiritually dead, and we are stained by our own sin. This is a hard pill that most people will not swallow. In fact, most of people spend their entire lives trying to cover the fact that their hearts are dead to the things of God, and to ignore the stain which sin has left upon their lives. As people, we go to great lengths to bury these realities. We want to believe that we are spiritually good, and that our sin is not that bad. But the Bible's testimony against man cannot be ignored. The Bible is forthright in its assessment of man. The reality is that since birth, we are spiritually dead, sinful people deserving nothing but God's wrath. 

Yet, Paul goes on to describe the glorious remedy which God has provided for those who are dying. God gives us new life and he forgives our sin. He gives us a new reality. He does this through his substitutionary work on the cross. This is something received, not earned. Being made alive, or having our sin forgiven is not something we can earn, or something we do, but rather it is something God did. God made us alive. God cancelled the record of debt that stood against us. He disarmed and defeated the power of evil in our lives. We are the recipients of God's marvelous work on the cross. 

God calls each one of us to live in this wonderful new reality; from dead, guilty, enslaved, hopeless sinners to born again, forgiven, redeemed saints. Today, I am thankful as I am reminded of this amazing new reality. I am thankful that some 6.5 years ago God called me out of the dark reality and made me spiritually alive, awakening me to the forgiveness that's in Christ. 

What Abortion?

A great article written by Tullian Tchividjian. I needed this.

HT: Tullian Tchividjian

What Abortion?

Back in June I preached a series of six sermons entitled Pictures of Grace. Of all the sermons series’ I’ve preached, I probably enjoyed this one the most. I took our church through the Gospels and looked at various events in the life and ministry of Jesus where the shocking, counter-intuitive nature of amazing grace is on display. Each week we looked intently at how Jesus wrecked people afresh with his grace, turning everything that makes sense in our conditional world upside-down and setting sinners free.

Well, I went back to the first of those six sermons yesterday as I was doing some research and was struck again at how crazy God’s grace really is.

I began that series by by preaching from Luke 7:36-50. This is the famous account of the sinful woman (most likely a prostitute) barging into a party of religious leaders and washing the feet of Jesus with her tears of repentance. I pointed out that two rescues are happening in this passage: the obvious rescue of the immoral person but also the rescue of the moral person.

Normally when we think of people in need of God’s rescuing grace, we think of the unrighteous and the immoral. But what’s fascinating to me is that throughout the Bible, it’s the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person; it’s the prostitute who gets grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. What we see in this story is that God’s grace wrecks and then rescues, not only the promiscuous but the pious. The Pharisee in this story can’t understand what Jesus is doing by allowing this woman to touch him because he assumes that God is for the clean and competent. But Jesus here shows him that God is for the unclean and incompetent and that when measured against God’s perfect holiness we’re all unclean and incompetent. Jesus shows him that the gospel isn’t for winners, but losers: it’s for the weak and messed up person, not the strong and mighty person. It’s not for the well-behaved, but the dead.

I was reminded once again that Jesus came not to effect a moral reformation but a mortal resurrection (moral reformations can, and have, taken place throughout history without Jesus. But only Jesus can raise the dead, over and over and over again). As Gerhard Forde put it, “Christianity is not the move from vice to virtue, but rather the move from virtue to grace.”

Wrecking every religious category he had, Jesus tells the Pharisee that he has a lot to learn from the prostitute, not the other way around.

The prostitute on the other hand walks into a party of religious people and falls at the feet of Jesus without any care as to what others are thinking and saying. She’s at the end of herself. More than wanting to avoid an uncomfortable situation, she wanted to be clean-she needed to be forgiven. She was acutely aware of her guilt and shame. She knew she needed help. She understood at a profound level that God’s grace doesn’t demand that you get clean before you come to Jesus. Rather, our only hope for getting clean is to come to Jesus. Only in the Gospel does love precede loveliness. Everywhere else loveliness precedes love.

I closed the sermon by recalling a story that Rod Rosenbladt told me when we were together at the Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago. It’s a story about a middle-aged woman who needed help from her pastor.

She went to her pastor and said, “Pastor, you know that I had an abortion a number of years ago?”  “Yes,” the Pastor replied.  “Well, I need to talk to you about the man I’ve since met.”  “Alright,” replied the Pastor.

“Well, we met a while back, and started dating and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. Then things got more serious between us and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. A while later we got engaged and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. Then we got married and I thought, I really need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. So I needed to talk to someone, Pastor, and you’re it.”

The Pastor replied, “You know, we have a service for this. Let’s go through that together.” So they did – a service of confession and absolution.

When they were finished, she said to him, “Now I think I have the courage to tell my new husband about my abortion.  Thanks, Pastor.”

And the Pastor replied to her, “What abortion?”

What the Pharisee, the prostitute, and everyone in between, need to remember every day is that Christ offers forgiveness full and free from both our self-righteous goodness and our unrighteous badness. This is the hardest thing for us to believe as Christians. We think it’s a mark of spiritual maturity to hang onto our guilt and shame. We’ve sickly concluded that the worse we feel, the better we actually are. The declaration of Psalm 103:12 is the most difficult for us to grasp and embrace: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” To be convinced in our hearts, said Martin Luther, “that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.” Or, as Corrie ten Boom once said, “God takes our sins—the past, present, and future—and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says ‘No Fishing allowed.’” This seems too good to be true…it can’t be that simple, that easy, that real!

It is true! No strings attached. No but’s. No conditions. No need for balance. If you are a Christian, you are right now under the completely sufficient imputed righteousness of Christ. Your pardon is full and final. In Christ, you’re forgiven. You’re clean. It is finished.

What abortion?

Grace

An amazing scene from Les Miserables which displays the type of grace God shows his children.

Positioning

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:9-14

....

This passage gets me every time. I am so similar to the Pharisee Jesus describes. I often find myself too concerned with the spiritual resume I'm building in my heart. If I only really grasped my appropriate position before my Almighty and Holy Lord, like the tax collector. He had nothing of his own to claim. He knew he was scum. He was ashamed to enter fully into the temple, as he stood far off, and he knew he was far from worthy to even raise his eyes to heaven. His only words in prayer were a simple plea, claiming God's mercy! The text is clear. Jesus welcomes this plea. In fact, that is exactly what He desires for us. Period.

My prayer for renewal in this comes from an excerpt from Whiter than Snow by Paul Tripp:

"So I am hoping for wise eyes that are able to see through the cloud of self-righteousness and see myself as I actually am. I am praying for wise ears that are able to hear through the background noise of well-used platitudes and hear myself with clarity. And I am longing for a humble spirit that is willing to accept and confess what you reveal as You break through my defenses and show me to me. I am hoping for a broken heart."

Psalm 51:17 "A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

Praise the Lord for His love for prodigal love for sinners!

Observation #8: Justification Has Both a Negative and a Positive Side

From Anthony Hoekem's 'Saved By Grace'.

"On the negative side, it means the forgiveness of our sins. On the positive side, it includes our adoption as children of God and our reception of the right to eternal life. "

In other words, justification includes both the cleansing of our sin, and the full rights of adoption. As we've discussed previously, the full rights of adoption as sons of God includes the imputation of Christ's righteousness. 

How Men Change

The following is by Ray Ortlund, Pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, from a recent small group setting a few weeks ago. Attending Immanuel this summer has been so transforming in my understanding of "how we change in light of the gospel". Thanks, Ray.

....

"What steps do we men often walk through to get out of the shadows and into the light?

1. Keeping up appearances successfully, even unconsciously.
2. Failure, followed by brokenness. 'Brokenness' is not dysfunction, but a willingness to be real at the foot of the cross. Unbroken men MUST look good. Broken men need a Savior too urgently to care any more about appearances. The walls fall down. The need comes out.
3. Confession. The proof that our confession before God is sincere is that we are candor about our own sins with one another. Real confession is not general and vague, but detailed and up-to-date.
4. Prayer, forgiveness and cleansing. The biblical response to one another's confession is not therapy, but prayer for healing. All the promises of the gospel converge on the sinner who repents and confesses before God and others.
5. Refreshment, joy, and witness. Whenever people hear fresh stories of God's real mercy to real sinners, they marvel, they are drawn in, and the light spreads."

....

1 John 1: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

....

Jesus is in the light. Jesus is the light. We can have forgiveness, healing and life by running to the light (openness and confession with God and others), as we fix our eyes, and throw our lives onto Jesus.

Redemption in Disgrace

"At the cross, Jesus took everything that was ugly and broken about each of us, and covered us in His love. My healing started when I finally saw the extent of Jesus' grace for me. Jesus poured out His forgiveness for my sin"

What a beautiful Gospel!

Jeremiah 31:31-34 Fulfilled in Jesus

 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 

   “when I will make a new covenant  with the people of Israel 

   and with the people of Judah. 

It will not be like the covenant  I made with their ancestors 

when I took them by the hand  to lead them out of Egypt, 

because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them declares the LORD. 

 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 

   after that time,” declares the LORD. 

“I will put my law in their minds  and write it on their hearts. 

I will be their God,  and they will be my people. 

No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ 

because they will all know me, 

   from the least of them to the greatest,” 

            declares the LORD. 

“For I will forgive their wickedness 

   and will remember their sins no more.”

God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah of a New Covenant that He would make with His people. It would be a new and better covenant. Whereas with the Old Covenant, God gave His people the law. Yet, they were never able to obey. They're hearts were sinful. They needed a heart transplant. With the Old Covenant, sin caused a separation of intimacy between God and His people. Though God was their husband, though He brought them out of Egypt, and gave them a King (David), and the prophets, Israel repeatedly turned from knowing God in an intimate way, as we were all created to know him. With the Old Covenant, God's people had to constantly atone for their sins through repeated sacrifices. They needed animal sacrifices and the work of the high priests for forgiveness.

However, the in the New Covenant, God fulfilled these things in Jesus. Through the New Covenant, we have a new experience of obedience, a new experience of intimacy with God, and a new experience of forgiveness. The Son came from heaven to earth, taking on human flesh, died on the cross, and resurrected in order to give us this new experience; in order that He would be our God, and we would be His people. 

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ, and are therefore indwelled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us a new heart and new life. In our old life, we loved sin. We lived according to the flesh, according to the world. Our taste buds were for sin. Our delight was in sin. Yet, through Jesus, the Spirit dwells in us. The Spirit gives us new hearts; hearts that desire and long to obey God. The Spirit gives us new taste buds. Whereas in the past, sin tasted so good to our souls, it now is disgusting. Our taste buds long to feast on the things of God. We live according to the Spirit. God's law is no longer a burden, but it is a delight. It has been written on our hearts. (Romans 8)

In the New Covenant, we are united to Christ and therefore have an deep intimacy with God. Whereas before, sin and death inhibited us from having fellowship with God. Now, Jesus is our covenant representative. We have access to God through Christ. We were once enemies, but have been made friends. We were once fatherless, but are now called Sons/Daughters! The natural intimacy that Adam and Eve had with God before they rebelled can now be experienced. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me" (John 10:14), and "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (John 14:7)

Lastly, in the New Covenant, we have a new experience of forgiveness. This forgiveness is different from the Old Covenant in that it is COMPLETE. It is complete in that this sacrifice was once for all. It was for ALL the sins of His people. No longer would God's people have to look to repeated sacrifices of atonement for forgiveness. Rather, with the New Covenant, they would look to their New Covenant representative for forgiveness. The Son came to earth, and died as the all time sacrifice for sins. Our sin greatly angers God. Our sin deserves wrath. It deserves punishment. That is why in the Old Testament, people had to constantly atone for their sins. Something had to pay the price. God is just. Sin can't go unnoticed. But the gospel tells us that God has made a new Covenant, where He would do the most radical thing. His Son would come to earth, and take the once for all punishment for our sins. Even though we have been unfaithful from the beginning. God so loved the world that He (the Son) sacrificed himself on the Cross for His people's sins, once and for all. Let's look at a few verses from Hebrews and Romans...

"he (Jesus) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats or calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."  Hebrews 9:12

"But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:27

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" Romans 3:23-25

"having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:13-14

Does God Get Upset When We Disobey?

A great video from David Powlison per Justin Taylor's blog.


Dr. David Powlison - Does God get upset when we disobey? Part 2 from CCEF on Vimeo.

Outline:
00:45 – Summary of what was said in part one.
02:08 – How is God different from earthly fathers?
05:15 – How can God be disappointed in us if He has complete foreknowledge?
07:46 – The importance of understanding our union with Christ.
09:45 – The comfort of forgiveness and redemption for those who are fearful.

Till He Has Mercy On Us

^"1To you I lift up my eyes,
   O you who are enthroned in the heavens!²Behold, as the eyes of servants
   look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
   to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
   till he has mercy upon us.

 ³ Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,

   for we have had more than enough of contempt.⁴Our soul has had more than enough

   of the scorn of those who are at ease,

   of the contempt of the proud."

Psalm 123

Receiving restoration or forgiveness requires two things. First, it requires that we acknowledge our need for mercy, our brokenness, our spiritual sickness. Second, it requires knowing who alone can grant this mercy, and turning to them. We do not receive mercy by trying hard to make up for  mistakes. Rather, it is simply coming to God, knowing that we have nothing to offer, that we are poor sinners who are in desperate need of God's restoration, and laying ourselves before him in repentant helplessness. Take an example from the faith of the Canaanite woman in the gospel according to Matthew, and the repentant tax collector in Luke 18. Notice both their recognition of their need for mercy/healing, and their recognition that God alone could provide this. Not their own effort, not their own goodness, not what they deserve. Only grace.

"And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." ²³But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." ²⁴He answered,  "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."²⁵But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." ²⁶And he answered, "It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs." ²⁷She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table." ²⁸Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly." Matthew 15:22-28

^"9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: ¹⁰"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' ¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other." Luke 18:9-14

The Degree of God's Forgiveness

All taken from Psalm 103.

"who forgives ALL your iniquity,

who heals ALL your diseases,

who redeems YOUR LIFE from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

who SATISFIES you with good"

The forgiveness we have in Christ is complete. It is not partial. In the Gospel, ALL our sins are forgiven, not just some. ALL our diseases are healed, we are not partially restored. OUR WHOLE LIFE is redeemed from the pit, and God truly satisfies us. He does not do 99% of the work then leave it up to us to earn forgiveness. He does not merely give us the remedy for our diseases in hope that we use it correctly. He does not reach his hand down into the pit in hopes that we grab it. Rather, He did what we could have never done. He accomplished our forgiveness at the Cross. He restores our wounds by His touch. He saw our helpless souls, dead to sin, lying in the pit, and in His infinite mercy reached down and pulled us up. He doesn't give us fake satisfaction as the pleasures of the world do, but He is the bread of life, who can truly satisfy the souls of men. More so, he laid down His life so that we could receive him.

And to what degree is this forgiveness?

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him." --Psalm 103:11-13

"But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him"

Psalm 103:17

David gives 4 examples to measure God's love and forgiveness to His people. As with the first verses we read, none of them are partial. They aren't quantitative. They are infinite, eternal, and unconditional. His steadfast love reaches as high as the heavens. Our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west. His compassion is compared to a Father's love for a child. Lastly, his steadfast love is said to be from everlasting to everlasting. So, how far are the heavens above the earth, or far is the east from the west. Immeasurable. Infinite. If our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, they are NO MORE. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, "If this be the distance of its removal, there is no shade of fear of its ever being brought back again."

The LORDS love to His covenant people is forever. It is complete. It is eternal. He is faithful. My only response is to echo David in saying

"Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless His holy name!

Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and forget not all His benefits"

Psalm 103:1-2

That a People May Praise the LORD

"Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: 'The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death'"

Psalm 102:19-20

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins"

Ephesians 1: 3-7

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death"

Romans 8: 1-2

Permanently Withdrawn

"You forgave the iniquity of your people;

you covered all their sin.

You withdrew all your wrath;

you turned away your hot anger.

Restore us again, O God of our salvation,

and put away your indignation toward us!"

Psalm 85: 2-4

As Christmas season approaches, what a great reminder of the work Christ came into the world to accomplish. Christ came so that all those who turn to Him may be forgiven once and for all. In His death, filthy sinners are cleansed by the blood of Christ. More so, Jesus lived the perfect law fulfilling life, and through union with Him, we are covered in His perfect righteousness. At the cross, God withdrew His just wrath from His people. He permanently turned away His hot anger. Most amazingly, the only way to turn this just wrath away from His people, was to place it on His Son. Jesus bore the wrath of God. Through the finished work of Christ, there is no longer any indignation towards us. We have been restored. Praise be to Jesus who took a quantum leap from His throne in heaven in order to dwell among a perverse, lowly, and weak people. Praise be to Christ, for coming to earth and dying the death that we should have died, in order that we could be forgiven once and for all. Praise be to Jesus who lived the law fulfilling life that we should have lived, and covers us in His righteousness. Thank you Jesus for absorbing Your own Father's wrath at the Cross, so that degenerate rebels may be restored!

Christ's finished work is permanent and sufficient. In Christ, we are forgiven once and for all. Through the cross, God's wrath is permanently withdrawn. Mission accomplished.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"

Romans 8:1