FORGIVENESS

A LESSON FROM COMPUTERS

After we arrived in Camden County, upon hooking up our computer, we found a problem. An error message appeared on the screen whenever we turned it on, “You must reinstall Windows.” We could not use the computer as intended because of this problem. We had to take it in to the repairman. He informed me that it would have to be formatted and Windows reinstalled. We got the computer repaired and it is working fine, but there was a problem. In fixing the computer, programs were erased. Included in this was a picture program on which I had stored a few hundred pictures from our digital camera (Stephen’s graduation and other high school pictures, college band pictures, pictures of Caidyn’s birth and others, family pictures, etc.). They are gone; it is as if they were never there. As I thought about this, it occurred to me that this is much like God’s forgiveness. When God forgives it is as if our sins were never there.

“But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live” (Ezekiel 18:21-22). God says that when a wicked man turns and does what is right his sins will not be remembered. How wicked? I have had people tell me God cannot forgive them because they are too wicked. As long as a person is willing to turn and obey, there is no such thing as too wicked in God’s eyes.

“Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:23, 36). It seems likely from Peter’s words that at least some of those listening on the Day of Pentecost were involved in Christ’s crucifixion. If God was willing to forgive those who, literally, were responsible for the death of His Son, then He will forgive us.

“As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). East and west never meet. When we turn to God in obedience, we will never meet our sins again. “He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).

God’s forgiveness is complete. You have heard the cliché, “Forgive and forget.” That is what God does. When He forgives us, it is a complete cleansing, a “formatting” of the soul. “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:34).

Has your soul been formatted? Has it been wiped clean by the blood of Jesus Christ?

--Lamar Russell