Accepting His Forgiveness
by Nita Adams
In “My Answer,” one of Billy Graham’s daily columns, he published this letter: “I keep asking God to forgive me for something I did many years ago that I know was very wrong, but I don’t think He has. I still feel guilty over what I did, so I know He hasn’t forgiven me yet.” Mrs. D.U.
In Psalm 130:3 the Psalmist asked, “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins; O Lord, who could stand?”
So if God doesn’t keep a record of our sins, then what happens to them?
He nails them to the cross.
Frank Laubach, the well-known literacy teacher, has translated Colossians 2:14 as, “You crossed out the whole debt against me in Your account books. You nailed the account books to the cross and closed the account.”
He puts them out of His sight. Isaiah 38:17 says, “You have put all my sins behind Your back.”
He puts them out of reach.
Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Micah 7:19: “You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”
According to Science Today, the deepest part of the sea is the Challenger Deep of the Marianna’s Trench near the Island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. It is 35,810 feet deep, and there are 16,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. Enough, don’t you think, to bury all our sins and crush them? And remember Corrie ten Boom’s admonition: “Don’t take your fishing pole and try to bring them up again.”
He puts them out of His mind: Jeremiah 31:34b, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
And best of all, He puts them out of existence.
Isaiah 43:25, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
Isaiah 44:22, “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.”
Psalm 51:1,2,9, “Have mercy on me, O, God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.”
Jeremiah 50:20, “In those days, at that time, declares the Lord, search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none.”
Acts 3:19, “Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”
He has even bleached out the stains:
Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
This forgiving and forgetting of our wickedness is the basis, the glorious basis, of the New Covenant to which the Holy Spirit testifies: Hebrews 10:17, “Their sinful acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.”
I love this song by N.B. Vandall that we used to sing in Vacation Bible School:
You ask me why I’m happy and why I sing this song, I say, my sins are gone.
They’re underneath the blood of the cross of Calvary
As far removed as darkness is from dawn.
In the sea of God’s forgetfulness that’s good enough for me.
Praise God, my sins are gone.
When Satan comes to tempt me and tries to make me doubt,
I say, “My sins are gone.
You got me into trouble but Jesus got me out.
I’m glad my sins are gone!”
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
Author Bio
Nita Adams was born in Hazard, KY, 87 years ago. She married her Oklahoma husband, Laddie Adams, in 1954 and never looked back. She has been a member of CRBC for over 40 years. She has three adult children: Gerald, who lives in Shawnee with his wife, Leesa (their children Zack and Katherine); Jimmy lives in Heaven with his dad; and Jana teaches 6th graders and lives in Frisco, TX, with her husband, David Kuehler, and two cats, Cosmo and Cosby. Nita lives at Southern Plaza, an independent living community in Bethany. Laddie passed on February 10, 2019; Jim died in 1982.