How Blessed We Are

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” (Ps 32:1 AV)

How often do we dwell on the simple truth of divine forgiveness?  Forgiveness is so common, we often take it for granted.  We have offended a holy God who created us for His pleasure.  He had given us a will that may be exercised contrary to His.  He commands righteousness.  That is His will for us.  He has created us to exist to walk in His perfect will by the gift of faith.  He gave Adam and Eve instructions to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The sentence was death if they failed.  They had never seen death.  Therefore, it must be taken by faith that God is a God of His word.  They were to walk in obedience to His instruction trusting if they failed, there would be consequences of which they had never seen.  Because of their choice, we all suffer the same temptations.  We all fail.  This is not God’s wish.  He does not wish mankind to suffer in sin.  So, in His great love and foreknowledge, He provided the way of forgiveness and restoration through the sacrifice of His Son.  Of this, words fail to express how blessed the saved saint truly is.  By his exercise of faith in what God has promised in His Word, the sinner becomes a saint and his sins are forgiven.  That forgiveness continues through practical living.  All our sins are forgiven as it applies to our eternal soul.  However, there must still be confession, forsaking, and forgiveness for a closer walk with God in this present life.  Of this, we want to entertain how common forgiveness has become.

I’ve had to stand before a judge a couple of times.  Both times, it was for traffic violations.  Nothing serious, mind you.  But for someone who is easily impressed by authority figures, anxiety was a big part of the experience.  In one of these experiences, it was almost intolerable.  However, when it was all over, it was exhilarating.  I was involved in a minor fender-bender that was totally my fault.  Living in Illinois at the time, I tried to get through a yellow light when the person in front of me bailed, a third of the way through the intersection.  A little context might help.  This was back in the day when traffic cameras were going up.  The natural reaction of some would be to overreact to a situation for fear of getting their picture taken.  This is what happened.  I was in the church van and this driver in front of me began to enter the intersection when the light changed to yellow.  I sped up a bit to make it through.  Then, all of a sudden, she slams on her brakes and stops!  She had already crossed the solid white line.  Legally, she was in the intersection and was required to finish her progress.  Not able to stop, I hit her.  Because of this, the police gave me a ticket for failure to drive safely in adverse weather conditions.  The most minor of all tickets.  He understood my plea.  In Illinois, they confiscate your physical driver’s license until your court date.  You drive on the ticket.  The citation is your license until a verdict is reacted.

My court date came and I checked in with the clerk.  A got there slightly before the 9:00 am date and sat in the back.  You sit there until your name is called.  I sat there from nine until noon.  My name was not called.  The court required I return at one o’clock in the afternoon.  So I did.  I sat there until four.  I was the last case called.  I sat there all day thinking my life was over.  What made this worse was I was struggling with sin and I knew this was the LORD’s way of chastening me out of it.  So, I thought the hammer was coming down.  Then I realized something.  I have a brother or two in the police force.  They have had to go to court and testify against a citation they issued.  As four o-clock came, there was no one else in the courtroom but me, the clerk, the prosecutor, and the judge.  No one else.  No witnesses.  No officer.  No victim.  No one.  It dawned on me I may just escape this thing.  Sure enough, my name was called and I stood before the judge.  He stated since there were no witnesses present, he could not decide a case.  Therefore, I was free to go!  No points.  No fines.  Nothing.  I was forgiven.  I cannot even begin to tell you the load that was lifted off my shoulders. 

I wonder how many times we have felt that way after we confess our faults to a forgiving God.  I wonder how much we live in the truth of divine forgiveness.  How much do we stop and think that God has forgiven us for everything?  How grateful are we at the remembrance of God’s mercy and grace?  Are we grateful enough to honestly strive against sin?  When we look at the above verse we see sin forgiven and covered.  It is no longer there.  Praise be to God for His wonderful mercy towards the children of men!