Poignant statement: God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offence into everlasting forgiveness” Henry Becheer Ward.
Subject: The forgiveness of God
Scripture: Psalm 130
One of the most amazing things that happen to us when we become a believer of the Lord Jesus Christ is that our sins are forgiven. Once for all, forever, never ever to be remembered He has forgiven our sin and then we become a child of God. When this happened to me on 26 of April 1966 I was euphoric with joy and ran to my house to tell my mother that now I am believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and He has forgiven my sins. For days I was in cloud nine and felt that not only I was forgiven but have lost the capacity to sin. I was rudely awakened to know that even though the Lord has forgiven my sins yet I needed to seek His forgiveness of my sins because I was prone to sin and even sin at times.
John Newton was a slave trader from England who found the Lord and his life was changed. He is the one who wrote the famous hymn called Amazing Grace and let me quote the first verse.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I am found
Was blind but now I see
When he died, on his tombstone was this epitaph “John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.” He knew the grace of the Lord Jesus because his sins were forgiven by God and that always was fresh in his life and ministry.
It is wonderful to know that we are forgiven yet we know that we are sinners still in the making. We are thankful to God that he does not keep record of our sins and that is why the Psalmist in 130 Psalm says : If you, O Lord kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand” In fact it is impossible for God to remember those sins which He has already forgiven. He has sent our sins as far as the east is from the west, he has cast it in the depth of the sea, He has thrown it behind Him, He has erased all the sins of the past and He has washed all our sin. Yea, they are gone and gone for ever never to be resurrected now or in eternity.
It is equally true that just because the Lord is kind it does not mean that we take His kindness lightly. His grace abounds and this should give us more reason to live for him. The Book of Roman says “Should we sin At the same time we must acknowledge that we are called to be saints and not called because we are saints. The letter of John says “ If we “ It simply means that we as children of God should not sin and need not sin but if we sin we must seek His forgiveness.
As a Pastor I see that despite the fact the sins are confessed and forgiven by God, some saints keep carrying guilt in their lives. This makes them insecure and cause innumerable problems in their lives. I want to encourage such saint that you be assured that you are not only forgiven by God but He will never hold you accountable to sins already forgiven. At times you may have to bear the consequences of your sins yet the burden of guilt should not longer debilitate you in anyway. So because He has forgiven you then learn to forgive yourself too. Why again carry the load which you have already laid at the foot of the cross.
Poignant statement: God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offence into everlasting forgiveness” Henry Becheer Ward
Prayer:
Thank you for your wonderful forgiveness. Just like you taught me continue to forgive me and give me strength to forgive others just as you have forgiven me.
Republished in new layout on 8/20/2013
Discussion about this post