Cleansed-Forgiven-Erased? A Word from THE WORD!!! #480

There is an anomaly that I have run across this week, and I want to offer some food for thought; while it’s not new or strange, I did something this weekend that caused me to want to share this situation with you.  So, let’s look at each of the title words first.  When we are saved, we are cleansed, we are forgiven, but does God erase our sin in the way we often think about erasure.

Erasure:  the act of erasing, deleting or the removing of something.  Erasure can be a difficult thing sometimes, as when you use an old-school typewriter instead of a computer; the erasure is seldom gone or completely invisible as on a computer. 

So how would we use that term from a biblical perspective relating to our sin.  Good question; for I have heard some say that forgiveness means things are completely erased.  Maybe, maybe not.  Let’s consider the Psalms first.

“For as the heaven is high above the earth,

so great is his mercy

toward them that fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,

so far hath he removed

our transgressions from us.”   Psalm 103:11-12

Micah has a unique message:

“Who is a God like unto thee,

that pardoneth iniquity,

and passeth by the transgression

of the remnant of his heritage?

he retaineth not his anger for ever,

because he delighteth in mercy.

19 He will turn again,

he will have compassion upon us;

he will subdue our iniquities;

and thou wilt cast all their sins

into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18-19

The angel sent from God, gave Joseph a profound message in regard to why Jesus was coming.

“And she shall bring forth a son,

and thou shalt call his name JESUS:

for he shall save his people

from their sins.”  Matthew 1:21

Jesus would save people “from their sins”!  How far from their sins?  The author of Hebrews gives a bit of insight into this question.

“For I will be merciful

to their unrighteousness,

and their sins and their iniquities

will I remember no more.”  Hebrews 8:12

“This is the covenant that I will make with them

after those days, saith the Lord,

I will put my laws

into their hearts,

and in their minds

will I write them;

17 And their sins and iniquities

will I remember no more.”  Hebrews 10:16-17

When we put all these together, we find that Jesus came to forgive and save people from their sin.  The Apostle John expands this picture in his first epistle (letter), giving us an expanded picture of what God does for those who come to Jesus in repentance and faith in His substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for sin! While God says He will remember our sin no more, He doesn’t give us a blanket erasure of the past?  Have you been to Calvary?  Have you found His forgiveness and cleansing from sin.  Paul deals with this in his letter to the believers at Colossae.

“Giving thanks unto the Father,

which hath made us meet to be partakers

of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who hath delivered us

from the power of darkness,

and hath translated us

into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14 In whom we have redemption

through his blood,

even the forgiveness of sins:”   Colossians 1:12-14

And John’s message to us who claim to know Jesus.

“If we say that we have fellowship with him,

and walk in darkness,

we lie,

and do not the truth:

7 But if we walk in the light,

as he is in the light,

we have fellowship one with another,

and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son

cleanseth us from all sin.

8 If we say that we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves,

and the truth is not in us.

9 If we

confess our sins,

he is faithful

and just

to forgive us our sins,

and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

10 If we

say that we have not sinned,

we make him a liar,

and his word is not in us.”  1 John 1:6-10

What an amazing salvation we find in Jesus!  So what’s the question; good question (pun intended)!  What we find in living out a life transformed by the power of the blood of Jesus at Calvary, makes an easy answer not the answer!  I came to Jesus in the middle of my second marriage; Jesus forgave and cleansed me from the sin that brought me there; but while God forgives and cleanses, and He puts our past sins behind us, as it says above, He also cleanses us from our sins going forward, when we confess it as sin (to confess means to agree with God about my sin) and to turn from it.  What I’m saying is erasure doesn’t mean what we often try to make it mean, our sins are forgiven but God doesn’t always (while sometimes He does) expunge us from the consequences of our choices.   Two things I want us to consider from scripture.

“Be not deceived;

God is not mocked:

for whatsoever a man soweth,

that shall he also reap.”  Galatians 6:7

“And I will restore to you

the years that the locust hath eaten,

the cankerworm,

and the caterpiller,

and the palmerworm,

my great army

which I sent among you.”  Joel 2:25

What we need to understand is that YES, there is forgiveness, restoration and cleansing in Jesus’ salvation; yet there is the principle of sowing and reaping that will often follow us.  YES, I am absolutely forgiven, and by God’s grace cleansed from the past!  Yet there is almost always a part of those past decisions that will cling to our lives.  I have four children that have reaped the consequences of my past choices, as I have—my salvation saved me from sin, but it couldn’t erase the pain and harm that my choices brought into their lives and the lives of others!  We have lived with some of those choices for over 40 years!  But, praise God, the verse from Joel has been a constant reminder that God will help us to recover many of those years of painful consequences—HE has diminished the crop, but they can never be erased, in the fullest sense of “erasure”!  I remember when I made one of my worst mistakes, my dad came to talk to me and tried to keep me from making a bad choice; while I didn’t heed his warning, I remember to this day what he told me: just before he left me where I was, he said ever so gently,

“I’ll be praying for crop failure!”

And to this day, I know that God heard and answered his prayer, for he did help many of my crops of sin to fail.  And by God’s grace He has restored to me many of “the years that the locust hath eaten”!

I simply want to close with a couple of my favorite scriptural pictures of God’s grace and His call upon our lives!

“I beseech you therefore, brethren,

by the mercies of God,

that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,

holy, acceptable unto God,

which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world:

but be ye transformed

by the renewing of your mind,

that ye may prove

what is that good,

and acceptable,

and perfect,

will of God.”  Romans 12:1-2

And one of the Psalmists greatest pictures of the contrast between those who love God and those who don’t!  Which description fits you and me?  It’s your call, but choose wisely, there is a test.

“Blessed is the man

that walketh not

in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor standeth

in the way of sinners

nor sitteth

in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight

is in the law of the LORD;

and in his law

doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree

planted by the rivers of water,

that bringeth forth his fruit

in his season;

his leaf also

shall not wither;

and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so:

but are like the chaff

which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand

in the judgment,

nor sinners

in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous:

but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”  Psalm 1:1-6

May God bless your heart to seek His face, His way and find His cleansing, forgiveness and the erasure that He grants to His own.

Amen and Amen!!!