"For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great."
Psalm 25:11
Part 4
Yesterday:
“O LORD.”
“All glory, laud, and honor,” belong to Him!
“Pardon mine iniquity.”
It is the LORD who forgives sin. Praise Him for salvation, His perfect plan to forgive us, cleanse us, and save us!
Today:
“For it [mine iniquity] is great.”
Why do we see some sins as heinous evil, but others aren’t so bad and allow them? Somehow we have the idea that some sins are tiny and others enormous. We need to understand that even the smallest sin is a sin that sent Jesus, our Savior, to the cross! Sin is sin, and we want to argue size and value? How absurd!
“O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee” (Jeremiah 14:7).
Jeremiah understood the point. Large or small, evil, or not so bad, politically correct or not, our sins, each of them, is our rebellion aimed at our Holy God! Jesus paid for each of them.
If we are far from God, we will care less about our sins! My sins do not seem so bad when I am a long way off from God. The closer we draw ourselves to God, the more visible our sin becomes. his happens because the closer we get to Him, the greater His Light, the more our sin, error, and unbiblical ideas show up. Next to the Holy God, our “not so bad, acceptable sins” are seen as they are, massive mountains!
David stayed as close to God as humanly possible. Now we begin to understand how David saw his sins as “great iniquity.” Sin is inexcusable, and yet we humans cannot take care of our sins by ourselves. Thankfully, God, the Father has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to handle our sin!
“Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so, might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21).
Believers, in our “inner man” we desire to have a zero-sin policy. And yet, until our “old man” is irradicated, when we see Christ, we are called upon to deal with our sin daily, God’s way. We confess our sin each day, and as needed (1 John 1:9), He has given us forgiveness. We always remember, His grace is greater than our sin!
Daily, as we “confess our sin,” let’s humbly pray with David,
“For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”
Quote:
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought—
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul![1] (H.G., Spafford).
[1] “It Is Well,” the third verse, lyrics by Horatio Gates Spafford (1828-1888). Music by Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876). Copywrite Status: Public Domain.