+DEV+ Promise to Blot Out Our Sins

Date: February 15, 2011 12:58 AM
Topic: +DEV+ Promise to Blot Out Our Sins

Promise to Blot Out Our Sins

"...Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross" (Colossians 2:14, KJV).
Scripture Focus: Isaiah 43:16-25

I am no computer whiz, but apparently experts have ways of retrieving old memory which has been canceled on the computer. Some trace is always left behind.

It is not like that for us. The Lord says in Isaiah 1:18, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." We might suspect that these days forensics might be able to reveal some staining! Not so, however, because the Lord removes all possible suspicion of that. The Greek word for "blotting out" means wiping a slate, totally obliterating what was there before. Our sins do not belong to us anymore. Our slate is clean. God took them on Himself, nailing them to the cross.

Always ready to beat ourselves up, we then say what about our on-going sinfulness? Martin Luther said, "The remnant of sin is not laid to our charge but freely pardoned. Sometimes we fall into sin, yet we are not discouraged and must not think that our state of life displeases God lest we despair, but we raise ourselves up through faith!"

Insight: Luther does not excuse flying in the face of the known will of God. He is addressing our weaknesses as Christians trying to obey God.