Yesterday I was reading Psalms 17 and 18. In Psalm 17, verse 3 stuck out to me, which says:
“You have scrutinized my inner motives;
you have examined me during the night.
You have carefully evaluated me, but you find no sin.
I am determined I will say nothing sinful”
My gut reaction was “Wow. That’s a lofty statement”. We are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God, so to claim that God finds NO sin in us seemed prideful. While we are living in the flesh, we will fall victim to sins of the world, even if we know we shouldn’t.
However, I read Psalm 18:21-23, which says:
“For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands;
I have not rebelled against my God.
For I am aware of all His regulations,
And I do not reject His rules.
I was innocent before Him,
And kept myself from sinning”
I remembered that at this time, the “regulations” David is referring to is the Jewish law, which clearly states how to deal with sin in Leviticus 4:27-35:
“‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands… they must bring [an] offering for the sin they committed… and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the food offerings presented to the Lord. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.”
David understood forgiveness and atonement of sins as a very concrete procedure. For any sin he had committed, once he sacrificed and was atoned for his sin, he did not hold onto it. His sin did not define him.
He was free from sin the the atoning power of forgiveness from the Lord.
Nowadays, the procedures for forgiveness of sins are much less complicated. In the story of the paralytic in Mark 2, they simply “came to that altar” seeking Jesus’s healing power, and their faith brought healing and forgiveness. Jesus also says in Matthew 6:14 “If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you”.
In the Old Testament, forgiveness required:
1) An animal sacrifice
2) Atonement on the altar
But in the New Testament under Jesus’s new covenant, forgiveness requires:
1) Forgiveness of others
2) Coming to the altar in faith
If we come to Jesus expectantly and willing to give the forgiveness He give to us to others, He will wash us clean of all of our sins, and like David, we can be seen as blameless before God because Jesus was the sacrifice that atones for all of humanity’s sins, which is not prideful; it’s the truth.
Colossians 1:22:
“Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”
This is our identity in Christ. We have been reconciled and redeemed through His forgiveness, and we can walk freely as the redeemed because of this.
