by Ronnie Hewitt

 

The Apostle Paul draws a gracious contrast between our ruin and God’s remedy. The contrast could not be more bold and complete. Our foolishness, disobedience, and enslavement to all kinds of sinful passions are met by God’s kindness, mercy, and love. Paul declares that the utterly unrighteous are declared righteous (justified) by God’s grace (Titus 3:7). As we said in last week’s article: God’s grace really is amazing.

 

We need to understand that God’s grace does not supplement our good works. Rather, His grace overcomes our bad works, which are our sins. God did this by placing our sins upon Christ and by letting the wrath we so fully deserve fall on Him. Because Jesus completely paid the awfully penalty of our sins, God could extend His grace to us through complete and total forgiveness of our sins. The extent of His forgiveness is vividly portrayed for us in the Old Testament.

Psalm 103:11-12 reads, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (NIV) How far is the east from the west? I was taught in school if you started due north at any point on earth, you would eventually cross the North Pole and start going south, but that is not true when you go east or west. If you start west and continue in that direction you will always be going west. In a sense, they are an infinite distance apart. So, when God says He removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west, He is saying they have been removed an infinite distance from us. But how can we get a handle on this rather abstract truth in such a way that it becomes meaningful in our lives?

 

When God uses this metaphorical expression describing the extent of His forgiveness of our sins, He is saying His forgiveness is total, complete, and unconditional. He is saying He is not keeping score with regard to our sins. The psalmist clarifies this idea in Psalm 103:10, He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (NIV) Yes, God actually says that! I know it seems too good to be true.

 

Those words are so gracious and true, for they are God’s words. How can God possibly do this? How can so completely disregard our transgressions as to say He removes them an infinite distance from us? The answer is by His grace through Jesus Christ. As we have already mentioned, God laid our sins on Christ and He bore the penalty we should have borne. Because of Christ’s death in our place, God’s justice is now completely satisfied. God can now, without violating His justice or moral law, forgive us freely, completely and absolutely. He can now extend His grace to us; He can show favor to those who, in themselves, deserve only wrath.