Day 21: All Of Our Sins Can Be Forgiven

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

»  What is harder: accepting that God forgives you or being able to forgive yourself? Why?

»  If God forgives you, but you won’t forgive yourself, who has more power, God or you?

»  How does being completely forgiven affect your ongoing battle with sin?

»  Practice the memory verse.

QUOTE

“The voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.”

- Dwight L. Moody SCRIPTURE

“For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
- Jeremiah 31:34

DEVOTIONAL

The Bible uses three words to define the brokenness and depravity of man. There is the word, “sin,” which is an archery term for “missing the mark.” This describes the reality that, no matter how hard we try, we fail to be perfect. A man may love his wife, but he does not love her perfectly. His love for her is thrown off course by his dominating love of himself.

The second word used in the Scriptures is “transgression,” which describes a willful violation of the Law. A driver transgresses the law when he drives his car 80 miles per hour on a road with a 70 miles per hour speed limit. Whether we look at the Law of the 10 Commandments, or Jesus’ reduction of the Law to the two commands to 1) love the Lord your God with everything you’ve got and 2) love all people the way you love yourself, we find that we are habitual transgressors of God’s Law.

The third term God uses is “iniquity,” which means “perversity,” or “bentness.” Iniquity describes the perversion or depravity that exists in our souls, which flows in the blood of our veins because of the sin of our fathers. Depravity, or iniquity, is in us. We are born bent. All of our sin and transgression flows from who we are - so depraved that we cannot even fully grasp the depth of our depravity. We join Paul in his declaration, “Wretched man that I am! Who can save me from this body of sin and death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) God promises, “For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more,” hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. God declares not only His decision to forgive my failures, but also His decision to forgive my core self: a bent, perverted failure. Because of Jesus, your core nature of sin is forgiven and your sins are remembered no more. Your acts of sin are wiped away and your whole self is forgiven and adopted into God’s family forever. He chose us to be redeemed in Him before the creation of the world! (Ephesians 1:4)