Who’s Counting?

CalculatorBlessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity.
-Psalm 32:2

    I am amazed at the God who forgets. My old friend Randall Slack just did a post on that very subject – “The God Who Forgets” – which is well worth a read and can be found on his blogsite here. http://yourtendermercies.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/the-god-who-forgets/

As Randy pointed out, the Lord made an astounding promise to His own: “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Two things stand out to me as I read this: How far I am from having God’s merciful mind and heart, and how slow I am to fully accept His promise to
forgive and forget.

First, how far my ways are from His when it comes to imputing sin. I’m thankful for His eagerness to pardon me. (God the Eager One – what a thought!)  But He is, after all, the One whose mercy rejoices against judgment (James 2:13), who invites us to reason with Him and be cleansed (Isaiah 1:18), who would have all to be saved. (I Timothy 2:4)  So hooray for His merciful heart; boo for my hardened one.  Examine it, compare it to my Father’s, and you’ll conclude this apple’s fallen very far from the Tree. Because I do count, and I do remember.

Not that I don’t try to show grace. Sometimes I even succeed. But sadly, if you ask who’s hurt me over the years, when, how, and how many times, I could give you a detailed and quite accurate account.

Well, OK, I know we don’t have the capacity to literally erase things from our memory banks, but surely we can refuse to replay them. That’s where I need the most work these days, because I’m too inclined to pull out old painful episodes like classic movies, frequently watched and analyzed, reviewing and reliving them. And yes, I have my limits and I’m not at all sure they’re God-given ones. Cross me too many times and I’ll blow a trumpet when you’ve passed the seventy-times-seven mark. I have no right to impute, much less remember old transgressions, having been forgiven so much, so often, and for so long. But that doesn’t stop me.

Yet if I’m slow to forgive as I ought, I’m downright snail-paced when it comes to accepting His willingness to, as David said, remove my transgressions from me “as far as the East is from the West.” (Psalm 103:12) I’ve heard and believed this doctrine for 43 years, but its enormity is something I’m just now coming
to terms with.

He remembers my sins no more. Tomorrow, the ones I committed today and confessed tonight will be blotted out; the ones I’m unaware of will be likewise expunged, as David said, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” (Psalm 19:12) And all because He stubbornly offers new mercies every morning (Lamentations 3: 22-23) and precious thoughts every day. (Psalm 139:17)

I’m dealing with a Creator who was never satisfied being just that, but who insisted on becoming Father, Redeemer, Lover and Helper as well. Unlike me, He draws no false sense of power from remembering wrongs done to Him. He takes no pleasure counting the mess-ups on my end so numerous that only His Omniscience could keep track of them. How beautifully ironic, then, that the only One whose calculus is big enough to tally my sins is also the One who refuses to do so!

I don’t get it, but I’ll revel in it just the same. And as I do I’ll remember to ask Him to transform my heart and mind to become more like His. Maybe here my dreams and prayers can converge, because I dream of becoming the man who, when angered or hurt, is downright anxious to forgive and move on. The man who treats his offenders and non-offenders with the same graciousness. The man who, like big-hearted Fred leaping to his feet to receive the repentant Scrooge who’d belittled him for years, just can’t wait to forget the wrongs done to him and treat those who trespass against him as though they never had.

Blessed indeed is the woman or man whose transgressions are forgiven, to whom the Lord does not impute sin. And doubly blessed is that saint who then, as Jesus commanded, goes and does likewise.

Comments

randallslack | Mar 26, 2014

Excellent chapter 2, Joe.

Add Comment