God Is AbleSample

God Is Able to Forgive Fully

“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:10–14)

One of the greatest blessings we have as believers is the knowledge that our sins are not only paid for but completely removed from our account forever. In the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would take two goats. One was sacrificed, and its blood was placed on the mercy seat, pointing forward to the perfect sacrifice that Christ would one day offer. The other goat had the sins of the nation symbolically transferred onto it and was driven away into the wilderness. The scapegoat never returned, showing that sin had been removed for the year. Yet the sacrifice itself had to be repeated, because it could never fully take sin away. In the sacrifice of Jesus, we have an offering for sin that never needs to be repeated, because it was perfectly and completely sufficient.

Through Christ, we not only have eternal forgiveness, but we also have complete forgiveness. God does not keep a record of our forgiven sins or bring them back against us once they have been dealt with through Christ. He is able to forgive fully because He has dealt fully with our sin.

Christian author and holocaust survivor, Corrie ten Boom, captured this beautifully when she wrote, “God buries our sins in the depths of the sea and then puts up a sign that reads, ‘No fishing.’” No sin is too great for God to forgive, because His saving power is greater still. In place of our sin, He now sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who died in our place. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Today’s Takeaway: Rejoice today that your sins have been removed from your account forever through Jesus Christ.