There’s No Substitute For Forgiveness

The apostle Paul, by the will of God, tells us the state and fate of everyone, saying, “we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). However many people act like we don’t really want, or even need, forgiveness. 

We substitute pride for faith and humility, so we deny our sins. We try to forget our sins by keeping ourselves too busy for thinking and soul-searching contemplation. We try to avoid thoughts of our sins by drowning them in drink or trying to smoke them away. We attempt to self-atone for our sins by good works. We console ourselves with all the sins we haven’t done, and thinking about the “worse” wrongs of others. Or, to the great annoyance of those around us) we go into holier-than-thou mode pretending that our sins aren’t as numerous or as bad as others.  

But all of these human devised and often tried strategies fail, and leave us in our sins. 

The great gift of God in Christ Jesus is to fully forgive us; to cleanse us of sins and to no deal with us as sinners, but to give us a new start, a rebirth, in Jesus and adopt us into His family as His own children. 

Long ago, King David sang of the blessing of forgiveness in the 103rd Psalm. 

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,

who forgives all your iniquity,

    who heals all your diseases,

He does not deal with us according to our sins,                                                                

    nor repay us according to our iniquities

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. (ESV)