My Sins Are Gone

September 3, 2008

By William E. Richardson

You’ve likely heard someone say only two things in life are certain: death and taxes. There’s a third thing. It’s true for all of us even if we never pay taxes and live longer than everyone else. Everyone sins.

We’re born sinners. We inherit the tendency to break God’s laws from our physical and spiritual ancestors, Adam and Eve (Romans 5:12). Until that future time when God brings in a new order of creation, everyone will continue to sin in this fallen world.

However, God forgives the sins of all who repent (ask His forgiveness with heart-felt sorrow). Yet, so many who have experienced His forgiveness struggle with the memory of their sins and wonder if that forgiveness is truly complete.

The Old Testament presents numerous word pictures that help us understand what God’s forgiveness means.

King David wrote, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12, NIV). To fully appreciate that verse, think of a globe. You can locate the highest point north and the lowest point south, but you’ll never find where east and west meet.

David understood. When he repented of the large, black blotch on his spiritual record (Psalm 51), God’s forgiveness turned his record the whitest white. He removed David’s sin from him as far as east is from west.

Hezekiah’s prayer in the Book of Isaiah paints another picture. He says to God, “You have put all my sins behind your back” (Isaiah 38:17). God forgives, but He is all-knowing, always aware of all past, present and future. Yet, when He forgives our sin, He removes it to where He chooses not look at it and dwell on it.

The prophet Micah gives us a third visual comparison: “You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Treading something underfoot shows complete victory. God gains total victory over every evil influence on your life when you repent of your sin. And when something drops into the sea, you shouldn’t expect to see it again. The same is true of repented sin. When God forgives it, it’s gone.

When we repent of sin, God forgives, casts it from our record and chooses to never again think about it. That’s a truth to praise God for. It’s a truth more certain than taxes and death.

— William E. Richardson is senior pastor of Afton (Iowa) Assembly of God.